Stiff Steering Pivot

[DutchCs]

The steering pivot on one of the twin 40 Mercs on our 22' cruiser is difficult to turn. With the steering cable disconnected, the motor is stiff and pretty difficult to rotate by hand. The other engine easily rotates smooth as silk!

I've pumped LOTS of grease into the zerk and pushed clean new grease out the top, but it's still really stiff.

I'm thinking maybe the steering pivot or bushings are corroded and I may need to pull the engine and steering pivot. Looking for suggestions for simpler things to try first?

[ssobol]

Need to make sure the grease is getting all the way around the bearing. Most Zerk fittings are only on one point of a bearing. In another situation some equipment I worked on had problems with the bearings. You could pump grease in it till the grease ran out, but it didn't solve the problem. Only after taking the thing apart did we find that the grease in the bearings had dried out and was preventing the new grease from flowing all through the bearing.

Once the the bearings were removed, cleaned, and repacked the problem was solved.

Not saying that this is your problem, but it is something you might check.

[srbaum]

Randy,
I too have had this issue with a few outboards in the past. The offenders were Yamaha's but they, like the issues that SoBelle talks about, were a pain to resolve. The installed zerk fitting on these outboards was near one of the bearings, but not hear the other.
Heat around the offending bearing can resolve this and allow fresh grease to flow, as it should (this would be the one well above or below the zerk fitting). There is a plastic bearing surface at the top and bottom of the engine's mid section swivel and a bit of heat from a heat gun may soften the hardened grease to allow new grease to take care of business.
I have had to use a propane torch to resolve several of these issues in the past, but if you take this action (or even a heat gun), be sure that gas, gas fumes or other flammable matter will not be anywhere near your work area.
One of the 90 hp Yamaha's would not free up, even after the heat, so I carefully drilled a hole in the mid section, in-line with the bearing and installed a zerk fitting. Problem solved, without disassembling the engine at get to the offending bearing.
You can view the details of your engine's mid section bearings, by looking up the parts details of your outboard engine at boats.net

[DutchCs]

Thanks! I'm checking out engine drawings.