Hi all,
The steering cables run from the helm down to the inside wall of the port cabin, then turn 90 degrees in the port engine compartment. The pulleys inside the rear port cabin are well engineered and not much could go wrong. But the pulleys in the engine compartment that make the 90 degree turn should be inspected. You might use your phone to get close enough to them to snap a pic to be sure the carter pins are good and the pins are in place.
the issue is the pins that hold the pulleys are kept in place by a small carter pin.? When that carter pin breaks, there is nothing to keep the pin from falling out. In my case, the pin fell out just enough to cock the pulley making the steering more difficuly, but not impossible. I believe in short time the pin would have dropped out and put way too much slack in the steering not to mention it would damage the steering cable.
This seems like a poor design to me. The pin has nothing but gravity to prevent it from wiggling up and a small carter pin to stop it from falling out or down.?
My 380 is a 2008, perhaps they made a change on newer models. The good news is in my case it took 11 years to be an issue, and the pulleys are relatively easy to check from the port engine compartment.?
The photo i am attaching shows the near pulley with the pin dropping out (not visible) or down as the carter pin had broken, and the far pulley pin (silver dowel) defying gravity and working its way up.? There is not even a washer or room for a washer between the carter pin and the pulley housing.?
Hope this helps.? This topic came up in the lagoon yahoo forum years ago, but i missunderstood what carter pin to check and was checking the large one on the rudder.?
Hope this helps someone
Jim
380 s2
Palm coast fl
