Realigning Wheel & Rudder

[nickfox45]

I've noticed recently that we have to turn our wheel 10-15 degrees to port if we want to go in a straight line, regardless of whether we are sailing or motoring. It's the equivalent of 2-3 tick marks on the ST60.

I'm not sure what caused this. We used to go straight with the wheel pretty much spot on the centerline. We haven't add a ton of weight to the boat or anything.

Any suggestions on what's going on here, and how I can assess/fix it? Thanks!

[model 10]

You may need to adjust the turnbuckles/ends, but why?

[Suijin]

I would start by inspecting your quadrant as Ecos suggested and checking that everything is tight and that the cables are properly adjusted. Is the steering loose at all, in that you need to turn the wheel a bit before the rudder turns?

[chris95040]

Originally Posted by nickfox45

I've noticed recently that we have to turn our wheel 10-15 degrees to port if we want to go in a straight line, regardless of whether we are sailing or motoring. It's the equivalent of 2-3 tick marks on the ST60.

I'm not sure what caused this. We used to go straight with the wheel pretty much spot on the centerline. We haven't add a ton of weight to the boat or anything.

Any suggestions on what's going on here, and how I can assess/fix it? Thanks!

Pretty impossible to answer without a description of your steering mechanism.

On my boat, it's cable steering from the pedestal. When I replaced the cable, I should have made it longer to get more wraps around the pedestal's drive pulley. The way it is now, the whole cable can slip ever so slowly under big loads and so the rudder's position with respect to the wheel wanders a bit over the course of a season.

[thunderhoof]

Assuming you have a reference mark on the wheel at straight ahead, any sudden shift of that is cause for concern. Something has loosened, stretched or broken. There are tremendous forces on the steering system, specially at the rudder post or pintles/ gudgeons and the connections at that point are subject to overloading.

Inspect the steering cable/ linkage. There should be little or no play in the unloaded side, i.,e. if the rudder itself is on the port side, it is being pulled there by the stbd line /linkage. The port line /link should be relatively tight (depends on the design).
On my boat there is a plate with a bolt through the steering line to prevent slippage on the steering drum. If there is no provision for this make a mark on the drum and line and check the alignment if anything shifts.

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

Any chance it is a matter of the ST60 getting out of sync? Mine seems to have drifted a bit in terms of how it displays wheel is hard over. When to starboard it is a couple of ticks off in terms of indicating the rudder is hard over. I haven't noticed any steering issues at all.

[Uncle Bob]

Hi, could the steering be hydraulic by any chance? Same thing happens to my hydraulic steering, no problem.

[inspectr]

Had something similar happen to my boat shortly after buying her. The wheel could be turned about half a turn before the rudder reacted.
The boat had a Whitlock pedestal steering system and after investigation I found that the through bolt that secured the quadrant on the rudder post had lost its nut, and the bolt had sheared. The end of the sheared bolt was proud enough of the hole to jam the collar of the quadrant so I had some, but very unreliable steering.
I had to make a new bolt, but substituted a castellated nut and secured it with stainless wire. Problem solved.
Check your quadrants urgently, you could lose all steering.

[spaman]

recalibrate your ST60?

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by chris95040

Pretty impossible to answer without a description of your steering mechanism.

On my boat, it's cable steering from the pedestal. When I replaced the cable, I should have made it longer to get more wraps around the pedestal's drive pulley. The way it is now, the whole cable can slip ever so slowly under big loads and so the rudder's position with respect to the wheel wanders a bit over the course of a season.

Sounds like something is wrong with your cable steering arrangement. Normally there is a chain sprocket at the wheel end with a piece of roller chain about 20-24 inches long. the cables are attached to each end of the chain at this end. This allows the wheel to have positive engagement with the cables (no slippage) . Tension is taken up at the quadrant end with small turnbuckles.

I had problems with the tension being too loose at first (PO) and the cables jumping off the idler pulleys at the bottom of the pedestal. Check that your cable tension is correct (doesn;t have to be super tight just not loose.

[evm1024]

Having just recently replaced the cable on my steering system this is what I did.

1) Visually align the rudder to be straight. I can see the rudder from outside of the boat and was able to align it to centerline visually. N.B. this is a physical alignment which may or may not cause the boat to go straight.

2) adjust the rudder position sender to indicate straight. This lets the AP know where the center of the rudders travel is. Assumes that the travel is equal both sides of center.

3) With the steering wheel in the "straight" position I placed the center of the steering cable drive chain on the top center tooth of the steering shaft sprocket. This centers the steering cable

4) tightened the steering cables on the quadrant equally (port and stb cable) until I got the tension I wanted in the steering cable.

Poof - statically aligned steering.

I did end up tightening the steering cables a bit more because the (backup for below deck AP) wheel pilot dithered a bunch due to the play in the steering cables.

Also, when motoring or sailing the various side forces (prop torque, differences in port to stb hull shapes as heeled etc) will cause the boat to need a bit of helm to go straight. No surprise there.

Regards

[chris95040]

Originally Posted by pcmm

Sounds like something is wrong with your cable steering arrangement. Normally there is a chain sprocket at the wheel end with a piece of roller chain about 20-24 inches long. the cables are attached to each end of the chain at this end. This allows the wheel to have positive engagement with the cables (no slippage) . Tension is taken up at the quadrant end with small turnbuckles.

I had problems with the tension being too loose at first (PO) and the cables jumping off the idler pulleys at the bottom of the pedestal. Check that your cable tension is correct (doesn;t have to be super tight just not loose.

What you are describing is chain and cable steering, not cable steering. Mine is cable steering.

But there is something wrong with mine (it needs another wrap to have more friction) and maybe someday I'll rectify it.