Hey all! I had chimed in on a steering column vibration issue that we were experiencing on a 17’ Z3 awhile back. I can’t remember who’s thread it was but I figured I’d update the masses on what we found.
We were only experiencing the issue when the boat was heavily loaded when popping out of the hole. We were using an Acme 1235 prop at the time. We decided to give the Acme 2419 a whirl mostly in the interest of fuel economy and better holeshot at high elevation lakes. Since swapping it out we haven’t experienced the steering column shake of death once. I can only surmise (with input from member Freeheel) that the 1235 was cavitating and vibrating the rudder with enough force to transmit that vibration up through the steering cable through the rack into the steering column. Blows me away but I don’t know what else it could be. It sounded and felt horrible so we are pleased to have unintentionally solved that problem while gaining the performance we were after.
Hope this helps others with the same issue.
Cheers!
We were only experiencing the issue when the boat was heavily loaded when popping out of the hole. We were using an Acme 1235 prop at the time. We decided to give the Acme 2419 a whirl mostly in the interest of fuel economy and better holeshot at high elevation lakes. Since swapping it out we haven’t experienced the steering column shake of death once. I can only surmise (with input from member Freeheel) that the 1235 was cavitating and vibrating the rudder with enough force to transmit that vibration up through the steering cable through the rack into the steering column. Blows me away but I don’t know what else it could be. It sounded and felt horrible so we are pleased to have unintentionally solved that problem while gaining the performance we were after.
Hope this helps others with the same issue.
Cheers!