Yamaha 4-stoke/ steering/ service

[hotshot]

Hi! I've been a member of the club for a while now (ever since buying Alun J's previous boat!) but, due to my wife's serious illness the last year or so I've been unable to get the boat out for over a year (and couldn't leave her to attend the club meetings -sorry - I even had to take voluntary redundancy to care for her). Thankfully, she's now on the road to recovery, so I was able to attend the AGM last week and have just started to give some attention to the boat, and look forward to getting on the water again! (Hopefully, look out for me and "Bobalong" - an Orkney 440 - on the water sometime this season!)

 

I'd had the engine serviced the previous summer (2008) and it only had a couple of hours running time before the boat & engine were left standing on my drive until I was able to start checking it out last week (I'd removed the battery a year ago and kept it connected on an Optimate charger, so that seems ok).

 

The engine is a Yamaha 15hp 4- stroke (circa 2001) with electric start & trim/ tilt. The good news was the engine turns over on the electric start(yay!) although I haven't tried actually starting it yet, and the trim/tilt (which I was worried might have seized up) also seems to work ok. However the (wheel/ cable) steering was locked solid and I was only able to get it to move at all by undoing the cable and moving it back as far as I could and uncoupling the steering arm and gradually working it around (having applied dismantling lubricant) to try and get the "piston" part to slide in the barrel (pivot tube?). As I'm trying to work it to and fro to get free movement there's old grease and rusty gunge coming out of the tube, but I'm not sure if it's ok to try and remove the "piston" altogether to clean the insides properly (I'd think I'd have to unbolt the engine and try to angle it somehow to get clearance to pull the rod right out anyway)? Is it ok to do that (any "gotcha's"?) or should I just get out what I can and then pack it with new grease?

 

Also, will the impeller be ok after this amount of time unused, do you think (it was changed in the lst service) and are there any other checks I should make before trying to start it? (I've got muffs to connect it to a hose and would like to try it out once I'm reasonably sure it's all ok)

 

I realise I'm going to have to check the trailer/ bearings before going back on the road, but that's another story...!

 

Any advice gratefully received (or if anyone has a paper/ CD manual I could borrow that woud be a help?) - thank you.

 

Dave

 

 

[Rob]

 

PM me you email address and I may be able to send you the service manual - though I am not sure whether it will cover steering!

 

Rob

[Freddie]

If it's anything like my steering cable then they do get compacted with salt so will need replacing every 5-10 years depending on use.

 

I clean/lubricate everything v well and it still needs doing again this summer, so just bite the bullet and replace the steering cable. It's quite a common problem.

 

Hope this helps.

[Leicester Fisheagle]

Hi Dave nice to see you are back in circulation and good to talk at the AGM will help with the trailor/hub/bearing/seals when needed. If you do get advice on cables and replace them I would like to pop over and see what is involved. Are you putting on SSteel replacements? There seem to be different qualities of cable which I know little about someone has mentioned TFX extreme to me.Hoping that your venture into this area will help us both and others who will face similar problems in the future.Regards.Allan.

[Jim]

Can someone who understands the Club Website put a link to our Trailer Bearings and brakes Thread from 7th Nov 2008.

 

I can find it, but can't figure out how to place a link to it.

( Or search for " Bearing Saver " ) it should come up on your screen.

 

 

 

Jim

[Paul D]

This one ?

 

Bearings Link

[Jim]

That's the one !

 

Thanks Paul.

[hotshot]

Thank you all for your advice/ encouragement (and to Rob for the manual!) - much appreciated. I'm going to get some marine grease tomorrow (oops -later today!) and have a go at getting the steering going again.

 

Thank you also for the link to the trailer bearings - can marine grease be used here (to resist salt water attack), or shoudl I use the copper grease mentioned in the link, or some other (high temperature?) grease, do you think? Is the bearing saver a tool you can buy, or something that's been made up especially for the particular bearings? (My trailer is unbraked and uses Alko (I think) bearings).

 

Thanks again, Dave

[great white]

Hi

 

The steering problem you discribe in not that uncommon on engines left standing for a long time.

 

Once you have disconnected the connecting rod and soaked with lubricant you sould be able to get a spanner on to the flats and rotate it a bit to get the lubricant in.

 

then you need to ectract it, usually by tapping out with hammer and drift. After undoing the main holding nut from the other end of the pivot tube of course.

 

The good news is that once you have finished cleaning the outside of the rod, of old dried grease and dirt, and the inside of the pivot tube, with a lubricted rag and piece of stick. They usually go back together all greased up and work fine.

 

keep cleaning it untill it slides freely through the pivot tube, it may go part way and jam on the first few attempts and come out really dirty again, but keep going it should clean up ok.

 

Charlie

[hotshot]

Filthy, dirty, horrible job - but now all done! It was really awkward trying to get a good measure of grease into the pivot tube without getting everywhere - I managed to limit the mess to only just about everywhere as opposed to absolutely everywhere! I'm a bit surprised that there's no grease nipple on the tube - I would have thought it might be beneficial? Anyway, the steering now works freely AND the engine started first turn! I was using a hose and "muffs" and checked the cooling water was coming through ok (tell-tale stream from top seemed fine) so I think that's good to go! Yippee! Thanks to all for your advice - hope to see you soon out on the water.

Edited April 22, 2010 by hotshot

[Leicester Fisheagle]

Hi Dave

Glad to see you could soon be on the water. Perhaps meet you round the Head when the bream start to show in numbers. I believe that Mike Browning owner of the best 520 Orkney i've seen in terms of practical modifications has sourced what you need with a grease nipple from the States don't know if it is the same size on yours but will let you know.

[Mikey B]

Hi Dave,

 

I have a Steersman oil seal fitted to my F30.

 

http://www.steersman.com

 

You will need a 7/8

[hotshot]

Thanks for the info, Mike - Allan is ordering one for me (and one for him too!) - should stop me having to do THAT awkward job again! Now all I have to do is sort the trailer (it seems I may need a new beam axle) - there's always something....!

 

Dave.