Play in Edson wheel

[robrill]

I have a '86 Ericson 30+ with an Edson wheel. Lately, I've notice a good 4 inches or more of play in the wheel. Any ideas as to what would cause this looseness in the steering? Thanks. - Rob

 

[Tom Smith]

Rob -

Assuming you have the cable type system, it sounds like your cables have stretched.

If so, get down underneath the steering pedastal and see if the cables have a lot of play. If they do, you have to follow them to the quadrant that is bolted to your rudder shaft somewhere under the deck. These are two big screw eyes inside the quadrant that are used to take up slack. Make sure you tighten them equally, and you tighten down the lock nuts when finished.

If all the adjustment is taken up, you have to disassemble the whole thing and shorten the cables themselves. Once you get down there, everything is pretty straight forward, assuming you have room to work.

Four inches is a lot of slack. Be careful. If left too long, the chain over the steering shaft may slip off, leaving you with no steering. I know, it happen to me at a very bad moment. Luckily I had the tiller on board, and was able to hook it up.

Also, Edson has some pretty good customer service, including faxes of the layout for almost any sailboat. Check their website for more details.

Good Luck!

Tom Smith

 

[robrill]

Edson wheel

Edson was quite helpful, though they sent me a spec sheet designated "Ericson 30+" that turned out to have a chain and wire system for an external (behind the transom) rudder, versus the radial drive that I have. It's strange in that the 2002 Edson catalog (which they also sent) describes the radial drive (basically a wire that's attached to a round disk that's at the top of the rudder post) as "new", but my radial drive was original equipment on an '86.

Anyway, when I crawled into the space - that barely fit myself and my sweat - I saw that the cable looked pretty good and didn't have much play, but that a rigid plastic covered engine control cable was resting inside of one of the pulleys. I moved the cable to the side and the steering seems to be okay now. I'll just lube the cable (Edson recommends 30 weight motor oil) next time I feel like climbing into the crypt.

The thing that has me scratching my head is that the disk for the radial drive is near the ceiling of the crawl space, so if I had to tighten the cable or, Heaven forbid, replace it, I'd have about 3-5" of clearance to work in. Moreover, I can't crawl right next to the drive, so I'd be stretching my arms toward the disk. I wouldn't really be able to see the two clamps with bolts that clamp down on either ends of the cable.

My hope (fervent prayer, really) is that the two aft lockers (behind the wheel) have a removable floor. If that's the case, then I think that I'll be able to see right over the drive and any repair to the cable would be, dare I say it, relatively easy. If not, I don't even want to think about it.

Thanks for your reply.

- Rob