What is the name of this steerng unit?

[LazyLady]

Hi!
I have 1975 Yorkie. It has a pedestal steerng unit however it does not appear to be "chain and wire".
There is a sprocket with a chain over when I look down in to the unit. Under the deck the chain comes thru and routed around another sprocket.
Just like a bicycle,its one continuous chain closed to form a circle around the upper and lower sprockets.
Is this hydraulic? Because I dont see any sort of reservoirs for fluid. There are 2 sheathed cables that off to the side from where its mounted but I cant tell how they are connect to this chain drive as its all in a channel flush against the underside of the deck.
I can't find anything on net to identify it. I can only seem to find chain and wire.
What am I not seeing about this or where can o fund something remotely related to what I've described?
Thank so much!
LazyLady

[Cheechako]

It's hard to say from the description, but many pedestal steering units use chain for part of it in teh pedestal and then cable after that which is routed around turning blocks etc.
Can you see the quadrant on the rudder shaft? What does it look like?

There are also linear gear drive units that drive cables inside of sleeves (like engine control cables use) but I've not seen those on sailboats.

[Dsanduril]

I've never seen one rigged the way you describe, but both a worm gear and a rack-and-pinion steering gear have a shaft at the rudder end that is generally horizontal and runs fore-aft. Could put a sprocket on that shaft and then run a chain loop up and down the pedestal and around both sprockets. Here's a picture from Edson of the belowdecks parts of the rack-and-pinion, the worm gear is pretty similar at the end where the sprocket would be (and a bit different at the rudder end).

[LazyLady]

Let's see the canles in sheaths like Morse controls are at a 45 ° angle from this drive shaft set up. The drive unit is sitting onto of an aluminum bar and those cables feed into one side of it. It's difficult to wriggle around in here to try to give you more details!
I have to get up out of here and go to the rudder which is about10 feet away.
As I'm trying to get out I think I've spotted a fill hole with a screw in it. It's just on the side of this bar thing and it's all sticky with some sort of black fluid.
Guess that means hydraulic ....
I'm using a cell phone down here with sketchy reception and I m not even sure what to do to post a picture for you!

[LazyLady]

Him. That doesnt look like whays under the pedestal. But let me get over to the rudder here.
Hang on ,sorry!
I have to get back to you ,the access to the rudder is blocked I've got to remove some stuff.
Thank you so far!
Be back in a few.

[LazyLady]

Ok I believe this is definitely hydraulic.
There is a steel rod that is attached to an arm on the rudder post and the other end of the rod is connect to a cable system enclosed in a large sheath that has the 2 cables from the pedestal inside of it.
I m sorry this is so amateur sounding. I do know what a quadrant is and I do understand how the system works. I just dont know what all this that im looking at is called!

[Dsanduril]

Hydraulic steering doesn't have cables, it has hoses. But the two can look very similar. What you describe at the rudder sounds like possibly a hydraulic ram. Here's a picture of a ram, with the two hoses going into each end of the ram.

[LazyLady]

Yup! I do believe that is it!
So the situation on I. Is the sterring frozen. I can turn the wheel about 2 or 3 Inches and I can hear and feel the chain inside thepededtal just piling up on itself or folding if you will.
The problem seems to be that this drive under the deck is rusted to where the lower sprocket cant turn at all. Is this thing salvageable? Can I disconnect bottom from the pedestal and remove the chain to service it if or is it a total rebuild?
Let me please add that I'm a 62 year old who do most anything but I'm not always immediately able to identify stuff I've never handled before. My truck yes . This boat ,whoa!

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by LazyLady

Ok I believe this is definitely hydraulic.
There is a steel rod that is attached to an arm on the rudder post and the other end of the rod is connect to a cable system enclosed in a large sheath that has the 2 cables from the pedestal inside of it.
I m sorry this is so amateur sounding. I do know what a quadrant is and I do understand how the system works. I just dont know what all this that im looking at is called!

That sounds like a push/pull (or pull pull?) morse cable system like used on some powerboats? Can you take a pic with your cell phone?

[Dsanduril]

A picture of the area under the pedestal would be worth a thousand words. When you are posting, at the bottom of the box where you are typing look for a button that says "Go Advanced". If you do that, then near the top of the edit box you'll see a lot more icons. One of them is a paper clip. You can use that to attach a photo from your phone to the post. You click on the paper clip, a new window will pop open and ask you to select your photo file. Find it, click upload. Then close that window.

Now you have to insert it in the text. If you click the paperclip again now it will have a little menu that allows you to insert your photo.

I see you're new here (welcome) so I don't know if there are restrictions that will prevent you as a new member from posting a picture, just can't remember.

[Scorpius]

I'm not sure this is hydraulic. The fitting you spoke of with the sticky "liquid" on it sounds more like a grease nipple than a hydraulic fitting. Hydraulic oil is not sticky. It has the consistency of vegetable oil.


Identifying the components at the rudder post end is going to be key to figuring out what kind of system this is.


And yes, it sounds like the shaft emanating from the below decks chain sprocket has rusted up and seized. Freeing that is going to be key to getting the whole thing working again.

[billgewater]

Every body wants to help but I think as many pictures as possible are needed. One picture paints a thousand words I'm told. Try to place a hand or tape measure near any picture so that relative sizes can be estimated. Close up photos and ones from further back showing more "stuff" and layouts also helps.

Also, the Morse cable types (generally) are used on smaller boats so an indication of the boat size may help.

[Sailormanbigd]

I suggst not taking things apart just yet. It might be as simple as the chain is rusted stiff, or rusted to the bottom gear? The thing you see with the sticky screw could be a bleed screw. Is there one lie going in and 2 coming out. My Morgan OI33 had Hynautic hydraulic steering. It had the chain from top of steering pendant (wheel sprocket) and went to a lower pump sprocket. The fluid reservoir was in the starboard cockpit locker bottom. It used some copper line and some high pressure hydraulic line to the components, a bleeder box, a auto pilot, etc. Had to use an air pump like device to pressurize the line to the pump. Think of it like a bicycle, where the sprocket with peddles (steering wheel) goes to the rear wheel (hydraulic pump). I bet it stuck chain?