Steering assembly on a Sweetwater

[Jordeli]

Hello Everyone, This is one of the reasons I joined the gathering of Pontoon boat owners. I am up to my elbows trying to replace the floor covering in my Godfrey Sweetwater. I have to replace the all of the flooring since the old stuff is pretty much rotted. I'm trying to disconnect the steering assembly and am not sure exactly how to do it. Is there an easy way to disconnect the steering cable from the steering wheel assembly? The only thing I can see is to disassemble the whole unit, and not sure if that's a good idea. Would appreciate any assistance that you could provide. Hoping to have it ready to go next weekend. Randy Jordan

[Bamaman]

Disconnect it at the engine. Remove the steering console, snake the cable out and you'll be rid of the whole steering system.

Then, upon reinstallation, you'll just have the one hookup at the engine.

[HandymanHerb]

You can remove it easy at the steering as it loops around the wheel, remove locking bolt or clip, turn the wheel and the cable will come out

[Darin]

If yours is like mine, you will just have to remove the whole steering system. Mine was the original steering system installed on an '88 Harris. It don't have a pin or bolt to be able to remove the cable. The new one that I put back on has a pin that, once you lock it in place, you can remove the pin and the cable comes out. Its not a big deal to take out the whole system.

[Jordeli]

Well, first of all, thank you for the responses, we got the steering cable pulled and proceeded to redeck and put down the new vinyl flooring. Of course, seems like whenever you start a project it usually takes on a mind of its own. So instead of just replacing the floor covering, we had to replace the deck, which turned into rebuilding the worn out seating bases, and replacing, pretty much, everything we could rebuild. I have some pictures but, alas, I'm too dumb to figure out how to attach them to my posts. We finished enough to take it to the lake on the Memorial Day weekend. We had as great a time as you could with 30mph winds. OK, fast forward to the week after the holiday weekend, the motor would not raise. So we had to bring it home with the motor in the down position, I have a Johnson 48hp special with tilt assist. Well, I thought maybe it just needed a little help to get it to raise it to the transport position, so I put a jack under the motor and raised it hoping to get the motor to evacuate the hydraulic fluid. Well, it worked, that is until I tried to lower the motor back to the run position. And guess what, it wouldn't release and lower the motor. So now I can't get it to work at all, so, did I really screw it up bad? Or is there some way to bleed the fluid back to the proper place so that it will once again be operational. I know I screwed up bad, I'm just hoping there is an easy fix, although I expect not. Any help is greatly appreciated. Randy Jordan.

[Darin]

I had a similar issue several years ago with a 175 Johnson. Couldn't get it to raise because of a o ring that had blown. I took it in and the mechanic told me that if I ever had that happen again that there is a release screw on the side of the hydraulic cylinder. Just slowly give it a slight turn and it will let the fluid run either way. Don't take it out, just turn it slowly like releasing a hydraulic floor jack. Not sure if yours has it or where it is but its worth a check. Good luck.