So I was fighting my steering cable issue for 2 months now. Had an old mercruiser type of setup on my t deck which was a rack type. After taking it all apart and posting pics on here most people told me just to go buy a teleflex rack setup bolt it up and call it a day...i did that matter of fact I bought 2 different setups from 2 members on here. After dumping 200 bucks into the setups I realized my hole in the dash was way too big to bolt the teleflex system up.
I had 2 choices, machine a adapter plate that would have bolted onto the dash and the teleflex system would've bolted right up to that or glass the hole and cut a new one. Glassing and cutting the right way at a shop would've cost about 600 bucks and adapter plate to work properly about 400...no bueno in my mind cause I didn't even know if the vessel will float. Never got her wet. So I kind of gave up on the float and let her sit around for about a month.
Today I decided to say f it and take the old and new setup in to a local good friend of mine. He's retired, 75 years old, fabricator. Thought he would do it for about 200 bucks...He looked at the old setup and said "why don't you just replace the cable". I figured old man doesn't know much about boats so I explained to him that I called all boat shops gave them the original setup part number and brand and they told me I'd have to switch to a newer style steering because that one came in the boat originally and the company went out of business in 92.
I told the old man that the boat is a 76 and if that steering setup lasted till last year that's almost a 40 year run. I'd love to get that much out of a rack system. Old Man agreed with me and told me "they don't make sh×t like they used to anymore" but he explained to me that he has a guy in lake elsinore and he'll swing by and call me. I just thought to myself "alright old man good luck" i said good bye to him and drove away.
Sure enough 2 hrs later my phone rings, it's the old man. He gives me an address to a private property in lake elsinore and tells me he'll meet me there in 15 min. I drove over there immediately and met him. When I got there he explained to me that this house is his buddies from high school and his buddy doesn't like strangers there so he had to come with me.
When I met his friend and he took me into the back yard onto the property I couldn't believe my eyes...3-4 acres of nothing but containers filled with boat parts. Anything you can possibly think of...A whole container with nothing but outboard engines brand new in crates. Old man's friend was sitting on a gold mine.
After he looked at my old setup he read the brand and part number on the side of the rack and just said "this is a good one, got something for ya, follow me". He knew exactly which container it was, opened it up and voila nothing but new steering cables, any length brand etc you could possibly ever need or look for. It was the exact replacement cable I needed. Needless to say I bought 2. Old Man didn't give a Sh×t about the money told me to enjoy. Needless to say I still slipped him 100 bucks and thanked him very much.
The reason for the story is, if you guys have been looking for a part that most of these stores don't have can't get etc. Lmk and I'll talk to old man river.
Just trying to help out fellow members.
I asked my buddy al where his friend got all those containers from and he explained to me that in the late 90s early 2000 his buddy won an auction at a shipping company which were sealed never opened containers. Nobody else bid on it because they didn't have the space for all those containers and if he remembers correctly he bought the whole lot for 1000 bucks lol.
