14. Pedestal steering issues

Pedestal-mounted shifting systems typically have somewhat less cable travel than those which are mounted on the side of the cockpit, which makes them very prone to problems associated with being able to reach both forward and reverse and still have a reasonable neutral zone.

It's very important that the cable assembly is adjusted so that you're able to engage the forward detent near the end of the travel in the forward direction. This adjustment is necessary so that you will have sufficient travel in the rearward direction to accommodate reverse, and still have a reasonable neutral zone between forward and reverse.

In the past, we have seen several pedestal-mounted systems where the range of cable travel had shifted so far in the forward direction that there was barely sufficient travel remaining to reach the forward detent before encountering stops within the cable system. In this configuration, whenever the forward adjusting collar is set to provide a "stiffer" adjustment, the additional force required to get the reversing gear into the forward detent results in the cable system reaching the limits of its travel before the detent is reached.

Universal apparently recognized that the notches on their adjusting collars were too far apart for accurate adjustment, and by the late seventies, they had redesigned the forward adjusting collars on their very latest engines so that they had notches considerably closer together for smaller adjustments. We now have adjusting collars manufactured which are modeled after these late collars from Universal. We offer these collars in our online catalog, and we install them in the reversing gears that we rebuild to sell on the catalog. Unfortunately, it is difficult to install these new collars in engines already installed in boats, due to limited access. - Updated: November 4, 2003