KAD assisted cable steering- Current and past owners please comment

[BruceK]

I have just completed converting my hydraulic assisted cable steering to fully hydraulic using a hydraulic RAM in place of cable. i.e. The original hydraulic assisting ram is still in place but is now actuated by a secondary ram that replaces the cable.



Sure makes light work of everything but here's the punch. With the original cable it had 3 turns lock to lock but it was an unbalanced system and centre to full starboard was 0.8 turns and port 2.2 turns. This was bloody annoying and has been replicated exactly with the hydraulic system (which I would have thought would have had more turns lock to lock anyway, not so in my case).
Because the tiller arm to steering helmet is via a square shaft one cannot alter the tiller arm to match the centre point of the ram total throw and thus have equal movement side to side.
The obvious thing to do would be to mount the original ram in closer so at it's throw half way point the rudder arm is at centre line rather than having the rudder arm centred at 3/4 throw out as it is now.

Is there a mounting hole adjustment for that that I am unable to see at the back of the engines? I mean I cant be the only one with this issue. KAD42a but I've seen later KADs with the exact same cylinder setup without this issue
What else would cause this imbalance? (no it's not fouling on anything)

 

[jon and michie]

Bruce - Earlier on this season I posted about my steering wheel being x amount of degrees off centre - there was 2 holes where the ram could go I just took the pin out and relocated to the closer hole which got the wheel closer to centre if this makes sense

 

[Mr Googler]

Only thing I can think of is to move to the inner most hole on the steering arm so the range is smaller.

is your new ram defo reaching end of its range? Not being held up by anything else?

are the drives aligned OK? Not toed in crazy or anything?

I got 2 turns one way and 1 1/2 the other from memory

 

[BruceK]

The main / original ram only has one hole it is the cable driven segment that has two holes, but that does not connect to the rudder. So one hole only. But as the cable was never limited in reach as the new hydraulic ram would be I cant see it making a difference if the symptoms are identical. I could look at the possibility of changing the original ram locating pin from the end of the rudder arm to the centre in a swap with the balance bar and then moving the balance bar to the outer hole. But in my mind that would shorten the lock to lock steering wheel throw even more. Bit of a conundrum tbh

 

[Mr Googler]

The question is do the outdrives go to their full lock each way in the current setup?

I’m guessing not. Moving to the inner hole on the arm at the top outdrive would then help as it might bring the full range of the outdrive into the range of your steering. Going to starboard is a pushing force so you’re getting to end of the cylinder but I doubt the outdrive is getting to its limit

 

[BruceK]

Correct. Limit one way half the other. Exactly as if the ram was mounted too far away. Centre point of the ram is not centre point of rudder.

 

[Mr Googler]

On mine…the ram was in the hole closest to the transom shield and the tied bar the other hole

 

[BruceK]

Bingo. I'll give it a go