Re: [OMC-Boats] Tru-course Steering

Bill,

In my opinion this is an upgrade worthy of serious consideration for
all OMC boat owners. AFter I did mine, I found it makes for much safer
operation with a much greater degree of reliability. Steering effort
is reduced and tracking is improved.

First a little history as a lot of people confuse the (3) steering
systems that OMC Electric Stringers could be equipped with:

1) Rope-Pulley (Aircraft cable) used on ALL OMC built boats ( a carry
over the days of outboards)

2) Mechanical (rack/pinion) with single cable and transom-penetrating
tiller arm (popularized by Kiekhafer's Mercury Ride Guide system, now
offered by several vendors).

3) OMC's unique Tru-Course (sealed proprietary cable system) (Perhaps
they didn't like Mercury's system?)

Tru-Course Steering was introduced by OMC just after our OMC boats
ceased production. It is referred to a Pull-Pull steering system
(sometimes mistakenly called a Push-Pull system).
It's a well-designed system and if it had been available when our OMC
boats were in production, I'm pretty certain it would have been their
system of choice. But our boats were designed in the early sixties,
almost a decade before TruCourse came along.)

You can convert your boat over to it as I have with I replaced my V6
Buick with the V8 Chevy.

The conversion requires changing out the follow items:

1) Steering shaft and gear assembly in upper gear case (Tru-Couse and
Rope-Cable are different!)

2) Measuring AND Finding the correct length Cable assembly for your
specific application (OMC originally offered them in 8, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17,18, 19, 20 on up to 46 to 50 ft !!)

3) Removing the rope pulley from the helm steering shaft and mounting
the TruCourse adapter.

The downsides to doing this conversion are finding the correct parts
which could take awhile. My donor V8 came out of a TruCourse-equipped
boat so I didn't have to replace item 1).
Item 2) the correct length cable was more of a challenge. You must
carefully measure the helm-to-stern drive shaft to shaft distance to
+/- 2 inches. Because there's very little margin of error.
The finding either a used or NOS TruCourse cable will be a challenge.
I found one after months of searching in a NOS dealer inventory, using
the OMC part number (I keep reaching how important OMC Service part
numbers are!!)
The 3) step at the helm is relatively simple once you've covered steps
1) and 2). You'll be able to retain you stock steering wheel but might
have some difficultly getting the existing rope pulley off if there's
corrosion.

Good Luck..

Lee

Below is a picture where the TruCourse helm connection and cable is
not yet hooked up:

On Jul 19, 2009, at 12:59 PM, BLDFW wrote:

> I'm curious if anyone converted their cable steering system over to
> a Tru-course setup. When I had mine out the other day, the steering
> locked up on mine. I was able to get it unstuck but don't want to
> have to deal with that if I don't have to.
>
> I see them on eBay running from 175.00 (I think used) to $580 new.
>
> -Bill
> Dallas, TX
> 1970 Evinrude Explorer - 155 Buick V6 - OMC Sterndrive
> http://www.photobucket.com/evinrude_explorer
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Received on Sunday, 19 July 2009