upgrade steering?

[froadin]

Hi everyone! I'm not a poster so forgive me if my etiquette is not spot on.... I bought my 99 21V new and it now has about 1100 hrs on it. Perfect boat. I do all the maintenance myself but I have the original Morse Rotary 290 helm and cable and it is finally getting hard to turn the wheel. Has anyone upgraded to hydraulic? Or a rack system? I know they all have rack from about 2002. Not sure what will fit my boat. I just don't want to spend time and money on something that I should upgrade instead of fix. Thanks for any advise.

David

[freeheel4life]

Hey David! 10 posts in almost 9 years is certainly keeping quiet, lol.
So I've upgraded a couple rotary to a rack. On your particular model I can't recall if I've done one. So you are correct in that you(most likely) won't find a new Morse cable from a distributor. If you look along the cable sheath/insulation you should find some white writing with a part number and length. Sometimes you will get lucky and find one on eBay but they are usually in very short lengths. Yours is probably 18 or 19 ft. If you get your P/N and length and Google it and find one that is not used or reclaimed buy it. If not it's time to talk to Teleflex and go for a rack IMO. I've done a few on various manufacturers (worst was a Mastercraft Maristar). The template for a tilt and fixed helm for rotary and rack has been the same in my expierience, and once you take everything apart you usually don't need to drill any holes to mount the helm/wheel.
The problem will be that the rack takes up a different amount of space under the helm and depending on the boat, location of switches, stereo head units, breakers, etc
IF I remember correctly it shouldn't be a problem on your boat though. Worst case scenario it's nothing an air saw and ingenuity can't solve . Its just a matter of rolling up your sleeves and being brave enough to try it. Just go for it!

---

[froadin]

Thanks for the advice. I t has a ssc5217 which is 17ft long. It crosses over to ssc29017 which I have found (not sure if the internet is correct about fitting). I guess i'll go that route first and the worst that happens is I lose a little money. Thank you again for the reply.
David

[Ruger761]

Mine had the old Morse cable in it as well. I was able to cross it over and it fit up with no issues. I don't have the new number with me, but I remember it came with some type of adapter fitting that I didn't need. If I can remember this weekend I'll try to get into the boat to get you the number. My length was just a touch different but that's the easy part.

[froadin]

Just in case someone out there wants to replace their outdated,obsolete, 5-time xd over part number steering cable for a Morse 290 command helm this worked perfect "SeaStar Solutions SSC29017". about 3 hrs work to replace. (would have been much less but the big black thing called Mercruiser got in the way)

[freeheel4life]

Congrats froadin. Thanks for following up. Have fun steering with ease this summer. Hopefully it's gone from two handed steering to two finger turns.