Whitlock steering system

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Richard D

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I have a 1968 Plamer boat and whitlock system needs new internals, I have got it stripped down and need a bevel gear at least. One problem is that I dont know for sure whatv system it is, someone has said it is a mamba systyem. It could be as old as the boat but a there are no identification plates on it I cant tell. Can anyone identify it by this description.
Bevel gear drive on steering wheel shaft mating with another below it. The drive at the bottom is the reverse with a splined shaft coming out to fix to a univeral joint to take the motion rearwards. The bottom shaft which is the one i really need is about 6 inches long ( not measured ) with a ball race at the point the casing splits, eg, half the bearing case is in the down casing and half in the rear shaft hosing, also a needle roller nearing at the splined end.
Any help gratefully appreciated.

Regards Richard
 
Have you checked the Lewmar website or sent them some pictures of your set up?

I think the bevel heads for the Mamba system are still available.
 
I could try that but dont think Lewmar will be interested in doing anything for 30 plus year old system, sure they will say scrap it and have you thought about our new DB system.

Richard
 
If there is any possibility that it is Whitlock Cobra I have exploded diagrams with part nos. (I think) somewhere??? They were downloaded from the Sigma 38 Assoc. website and the last time I looked the blog was still there so it might be worth a look. The Cobra is a straightforward worm drive rod and arm system, no chains or cables.
 
Hi all, I have looked on many web sites, incliding Lewmar and specialist whitlock repairers, but none of the drawings are for mine, the boat was built in 1968 so maybe it is of that vintage which no one seems to have any drawings for. The main differances from the ones I have seen diagrams for are in the arrangment for clamping the wheel, most seem to have a shaft you screw in from the side, mine has a wheel behind the main steering wheel which is threaded onto a sleeve over the main steering wheel shaft and it has splits in the tube, so when you tighten the wheel it gradually clamps the split tube onto the main shaft.
At the bottom of the steering post it has a right angled gearbox but I cannot see a way to remove it, even with the box holding nuts taken off, it just comes down maybe an 1/8 of an inch, it appears that there must be fixing that needs removing to allow this box off and to get at the bottom bevel gear.
The top gears and everything are great, just the botton two 20 teeth bevel gears and bearings need renewing. These would have been ok if whitlock had just put a drain hole in the bottom, so that if anywhere up top allowed water it, it could escape rather than filling the bottom gearbox housing and wearing out all the bearings and gears.

Richard
 
Richard - Have you talked to Cliff Mogridge of Whitlock South? He helped me sort out the steering on our Old Southerly.

[Edited by moderator to remove personal details]
 
Hi Richard

Sounds like we have the same set up. I to was looking through all the web pages and as I couldn't find a pedestal with the same wheel lock assumed it wasn't Whitlock. Boat is 79/80 build and I want to have a look at the inside of the head of the pedestal. Our locking wheel is simply four or five spokes and its hard to lock now. If you come across could you let me know what the dickens it is? I too am sick of looking at various manuals on the net!
 
Yes, I do not know it is whitolck 100% but was told it was when I bought the boat and the schematic diagrams for whitlock units, probably newer than mine, have parts that look too similar not to be whitlock and other makes dont seem to have any similarity from the ones I have seen. It seems amazing that a complicated and expensive system like wheel steering did not have a builders plate with model number, date and serial number, looking at old whitlock drawings it appears that all they did was fix a tranfer on showing a snake, really useful.
 
Snake..... you lucky B""""""""D nothing at all on ours. The rest of the gear looks like whitlock hardware I have worked with previously. Definitely not Edson.
 
No, I have nothing, it has been painted a million times by the look, no its just looking at the whitlock disgrams they show new ones with fancy snake transfers
 
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