Steering cable and sheave replacement source

[evm1024]

I've been putting off dealing with the steering sheaves on my Yacht Specialties cable steering system.

The cable has become too old for me and this summer I'll replace it.

Inspection of the sheaves shows some mis-alignment with the outer edges of some of the sheaves worn down to a sharp edge.

There are some older threads on YS parts but they are (well) older.

I've been googling for replacement sheaves but not coming up with any leads that give me a warm feeling.

So the starting question is: Where to source replacement sheaves?

The replacement cable and chain should not be too much of a problem (ha! famous last words).

Regards

[Orion Jim]

The chain and cables are generic off-the-shelf items. The sheaves MAY be available from Edson as I would be surprised if they were proprietary. If you cannot find replacements just bring the old sheaves to any competent machine shop and they can easily fabricate replacements. Simple lathe work, if you have a high school in your area the shop teacher may be happy to let his students learn the basics and supply you with a set of replacements for the cost of materials.

[mike d.]

Edson will have most of the parts. Did my radial drive, and cables thru them We have a G.S. 37

[evm1024]

I'm getting further on this rebuild of my YS steering. It looks like I have some of that 1/2" pitch YS chain.... I wonder if anyone had ever replaced the 1/2" pitch sprocket with a 5/8" pitch one?

Looking things over it appears that I have a total of 9 sheaves. All but 2 are 6" diameter. The 2 are 4" diameter and of course the most worn.

A few photos are here:

Steering Rebuild | Morgan le Fay

Regards

[evm1024]

OK, I took a few days off and got the old chain and wire out of the boat. It turns out that it is #50 chain and that a Edson chain/cable kit will work for replacement.

But (ah, of course But) the sprocket has some bent and or broken teeth. So the question becomes who might have a way to get this sprocket replaced?

The specs are #50 chain, 11 teeth, 2" long and 1.125" bore. It appears to be made of brass.

I expect that I will either take a stock sprocket and have it modified (there is even a writeup on how to do this with an Edson sprocket) or just have one machined locally.

Who has experience with this?

Also, getting 11 teeth on a 1.125" bore appears to be unusual. 12 teeth on a 1.125" bore is the limit. Changing to 12 teeth should give a little quicker lock to lock time at the expense of a little power. Thoughts?

[evm1024]

The saga continues....

There are many, many steel sprockets for industrial use that would fit. Sadly, they are not Stainless or brass/bronze. They are however cheap ($12 plus or minus)

The few industrial stainless sprockets are quite expensive and not quit a match to the steering shaft (read that an machining needed).

Edson sells both Stainless and Brass sprockets starting at $200 (Yikes!).

The Edson sprockets are bored to 1".

Interestingly the least expensive Edson sprocket is a 11 tooth, 1" bore, Brass one it C type. That is to say that there is a hub on each side of the sprocket gear. So, you would need to cut off one side of the gear to make it flush and bore it from 1" to 1.125. Plus I would need to take the cutoff hub and braze it back onto the sprocket to get the width that I need (2" in my case).

My sprocket uses the width to hold the steering shaft in. One could use the cutoff and make a collar to hold the shaft in.

Don't worry I'll add photos when I get going on the machining.

[evm1024]

As luck would have I found a NOS brass 12 tooth Merriman/YS sprocket online and bought it for $50. I'll need to bore it and put in a keyway and set screw hole when it gets here.

The make a collor so as to hold the shaft in.

This is real progress and I feel better paying less than $200 for a sprocket.

One other way forward that I considered was to turn the shaft down to 1", install a stock Edson 1" bore sprocket and new UHMW 1" bearings. That is still not a bad option.

[evm1024]

Progress...

Off to Metals Supermarket to pick up a piece of solid brass rod 1.75" in diameter and about the same long.

Then off to a machinist friend who took the gear and milled of the one side (it has a hub on both sides) and bored it out to 1.125". The remaining hub was turned down a bit on a lathe to reduce its diameter.

Next the brass was bored with a 1.125" center hole and then was machined so that the remaining hub from the gear would fit inside of the brass hub.

This way the brass forms a new hub for the gear. The brass was then milled on the end away from the sprocket teeth so as to match the original sprockets overall length. This face of the hub forms a stop that prevents the axle from pulling out of the pedestal.

Too many words so here is a photo.

Total cost to duplicate the steering sprocket: $160

And that was because I found that 12 tooth sprocket on eBay.

[evm1024]

Also I should add that a key way was cut and holes were tapped for the set screws.

The replacement sprocket is 12 tooth rather than the 11 tooth. In all my searching for a replacement sprocket it appears that the standard minimum number of teeth for a 1.125" bore is 12.

In this photo you can see where the sprockets hub and the brass hub overlap each other.

Also, please look at the broken and bear up teeth on the old sprocket. You could get by using the old sprocket but teeth like that are hard on chain. I'll keep it as a spare.

Now to get the replacement chain and cable in so I can reassemble the steering.

[bad.wabbit]

When I rebuilt my Edson steering I sourced my chain and cable through McMasters. I did end up buying my sprocket from them at $$$.

If you need sheaves/idlers, I have these still in my garage http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...er-189035.html. PM me if interested.

[evm1024]

Originally Posted by bad.wabbit

When I rebuilt my Edson steering I sourced my chain and cable through McMasters. I did end up buying my sprocket from them at $$$.

If you need sheaves/idlers, I have these still in my garage http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...er-189035.html. PM me if interested.

Too bad you do not have 4" sheaves. I could use a pair of those. I'll think about your 6". I might be able to use them.

[bad.wabbit]

Sorry about the confusion on my part. At times I see 4" sheaves at the sailboat gear consignment store but since they are not the right size for my 1/4" wire system I have not looked at prices. I never see 6"ers. You need a more rare "double sheave" setup if you want to do a replacement and it may make more sense to find or make new 4" sheaves and use what you have. Fixing the alignment problem would be great, too.

The 6" Edson sheaves I rebuilt with new Oilite bushings and bronze pins. The support cheeks don't wear if the pins don't rotate. I also polished the grooves (there was no bad wear, but I wanted to go to dyneema instead of wire). The cheeks are bronze, the plate is steel. It would be a project to modify it for your application.

[evm1024]

In the process of rebuilding the steering I also was working on the shift and throttle levers.

These levers ride in plastic bearings and as you would expect all but 1 was missing (4 needed).

Doing some measurements and I headed off to the internet to see what I could find. Lo and behold I found a direct match from Zoro.

I ended up ordering 4 pieces but found out (now how did I miss that?) that they come in bags of 5 pieces.

If anybody wants a set of 4, PM me with an address and I'll send them off to you for the cost of postage. At least to the USA.

They are Zoro part number:

G1965354 Flanged Clip Bearing, Inside Dia 7/16 In, Outside Dia 0.500 In

Made by Igus P/N 2RKY2.



Regards