Any tips on a steering cable replacement?

[Freedom rec]

I have a 05 22v and the steering cable has tightened up. So I called around to get this fixed and taylors boats in Utah said 150 for the cable, and 3.5 hrs for mx @ 109per hour!!!! Gmafb 109 per hour really, what a joke, I don’t make close to that flying a 30 million dollar aircraft! Not that I think I’m so worthy of a great hourly rate, but how do they justify this? It’s not like it’s that technical and requires any real training... So they pay the mechanic 20 dollars per hour and pocket 90!?? and that’s great customer service? I asked them how they justified the high rate and they said because of there great customer service rating. Taylors boats just lost my business I will never buy a boat from them again. I guess I will do it myself because I’m not going to pay that rate.

Sorry for the rant, so from all you who do it yourself, what should I know to make this as quick as possible. I read a few posts on this, any one have a good write up on it. Thanks

[dogbert]

You can do it yourself, but it's a PITA. You'll need to lift up your fuel tank to get the steering cable fed underneath it. It would definitely help to have 2 people doing it.

[chpthril]

I've got 17 yrs in the auto biz, that $90 that you say they "pocket" goes toward the cost of doing business. I bet the local dealership that services your truck is close to $100 p/hr. When I left the GMC dealership 4 yrs ago. our warranty labor rate was $78, and customer pay was $86 and we were only a medium shop in a not so ritzy area.

Boating is a kind "pay to play" luxury, not to mention it's seasonal. A dealer will have fixed costs like rent, insurance, employee expenses, floorplan, etc, that run 12 months a year, but the majority of the income is during the warm months, and a great deal of expense is in the winter with boat shows.

Last time I flew, Jet Blue got me for about $190 an hour

[Jason B]

If you are handy you can do it yourself. Search on here there is lots of threads about it. It's "do-able" BUT, I won't do it after quiting 4/5 the way through mine and having the dealer finish it for me (Co**suckers charged me full install price too!!). You could pull the old one out yourself and just pay them to get the new one back to the rudder. That should take them no more than 30 minutes--TOPS! Once it's run under the tank it's just simple connections and aligning the wheel with the rudder straight. Just bring the boat to them torn apart and ready to work on and tell them to stop once they get it threaded under the tank. See what they say.

Or you could bring it to a different marina and see what they want to do it.

ps...buy some alchohal before you start--You're gonna need it!!!

[Freedom rec]

I've got 17 yrs in the auto biz, that $90 that you say they "pocket" goes toward the cost of doing business. I bet the local dealership that services your truck is close to $100 p/hr. When I left the GMC dealership 4 yrs ago. our warranty labor rate was $78, and customer pay was $86 and we were only a medium shop in a not so ritzy area.

Boating is a kind "pay to play" luxury, not to mention it's seasonal. A dealer will have fixed costs like rent, insurance, employee expenses, floorplan, etc, that run 12 months a year, but the majority of the income is during the warm months, and a great deal of expense is in the winter with boat shows.

Last time I flew, Jet Blue got me for about $190 an hour

Not trying to start a pissing match here but your 190 an hour jblu ride is also a luxury. To fly on a 30 million dollar aircraft pressurized to 8.7 psi and traveling at 80% the speed of sound accost the country also requires insurance, fuel, maintenance, etc. Airfare has not increased for the last 10-15 years (adjusted for inflation), so to keep jblu profitable, your 190 ticket should have cost 400 dollars or more, I understand the cost of doing business. If you would like a more detailed breakdown cpsm etc and how your ticket does not break even for jblu, I would be happy to do that for ya when Im stuck in a hotel on a trip, for now I will spend my days off replacing a steering cable, because it is not cost effective for me to sub it out, (i.e. I cannot make that much with additional flying on my days off so I will do the work myself)!

Still 86 dollars for warranted labor is 23 dollars less than unwarranted boat labor. How much does a certified boat mechanic make per hour? More than 20? I’m not buying that taylors boats needs even close to 89 dollars per hour in overhead. Great customer service, rrrrigh

[kko]

I have a 05 22v and the steering cable has tightened up. So I called around to get this fixed and taylors boats in Utah said 150 for the cable, and 3.5 hrs for mx @ 109per hour!!!! Gmafb 109 per hour really, what a joke, I don’t make close to that flying a 30 million dollar aircraft! Not that I think I’m so worthy of a great hourly rate, but how do they justify this? It’s not like it’s that technical and requires any real training... So they pay the mechanic 20 dollars per hour and pocket 90!?? and that’s great customer service? I asked them how they justified the high rate and they said because of there great customer service rating. Taylors boats just lost my business I will never buy a boat from them again. I guess I will do it myself because I’m not going to pay that rate.

Sorry for the rant, so from all you who do it yourself, what should I know to make this as quick as possible. I read a few posts on this, any one have a good write up on it. Thanks

sorry you feal that way. doing it on a v drive aint fun if you have ballast its harder and you might wish you spent the $381.50 at the end of the day. good luck! so im just curious as to what you think is a fair rate?

[lee]

If you have a Merc engine it is even harder.

[xpjim1]

Not to add to the pissing match, I do not know how you came up with $190 for chpthril ticket. He said it was $190 /hour. We do not know the number of hours he flew, therefore cannot do any other meaningful analysis. When I was in Europe a few weeks ago I flew on a brand new jet 2 1/2 hours for $24/hr. That was $60 for the flight. Just adding a lighter side here.

My 2 cents shop around and see what labor is. No one is forcing you to go to Taylors. Easier for me to have someone do it as my big oversized body does not do so well in boat repairs. Glad my cable went out while it was under warranty

Not trying to start a pissing match here but your 190 an hour jblu ride is also a luxury. To fly on a 30 million dollar aircraft pressurized to 8.7 psi and traveling at 80% the speed of sound accost the country also requires insurance, fuel, maintenance, etc. Airfare has not increased for the last 10-15 years (adjusted for inflation), so to keep jblu profitable, your 190 ticket should have cost 400 dollars or more, I understand the cost of doing business. If you would like a more detailed breakdown cpsm etc and how your ticket does not break even for jblu, I would be happy to do that for ya when Im stuck in a hotel on a trip, for now I will spend my days off replacing a steering cable, because it is not cost effective for me to sub it out, (i.e. I cannot make that much with additional flying on my days off so I will do the work myself)!

Still 86 dollars for warranted labor is 23 dollars less than unwarranted boat labor. How much does a certified boat mechanic make per hour? More than 20? I’m not buying that taylors boats needs even close to 89 dollars per hour in overhead. Great customer service, rrrrigh

[Freedom rec]

sorry you feal that way. doing it on a v drive aint fun if you have ballast its harder and you might wish you spent the $381.50 at the end of the day. good luck! so im just curious as to what you think is a fair rate?

I think 45 per hour would be fair. Look boat mx is not all that technical; we have amp's (FAA aircraft certified mechanics) making less than 20 dollars per hour with years of schooling, so a merc certified mx should not be any higher than that in my opinion. If a boat DEALER cannot make a profit on 25 dollars per hour, then they should rethink their business model. Sorry for all the griping, I just about blew a gasket when I heard taylors labor rate...

So I’m just about finished with the swap, I just have to drain the tank, I ran out of daylight, and will have to finish it when I get back. Thanks for all the great posts, those really helped. Looks like I will have to pull the tank backwards and up to get the rod portion of the cable around the gas tank. I think that will be the toughest part.

[xpjim1]

Wish i could find labor at $45/hr

[Freedom rec]

Not to add to the pissing match, I do not know how you came up with $190 for chpthril ticket. He said it was $190 /hour. We do not know the number of hours he flew, therefore cannot do any other meaningful analysis. When I was in Europe a few weeks ago I flew on a brand new jet 2 1/2 hours for $24/hr. That was $60 for the flight. Just adding a lighter side here.

My 2 cents shop around and see what labor is. No one is forcing you to go to Taylors. Easier for me to have someone do it as my big oversized body does not do so well in boat repairs. Glad my cable went out while it was under warranty

Your right, I just get a little tired of hearing pax complaining about the price of tickets when each airline is posting a quarter billion in loss for the quarter.

Also Europe is heavily subsided by their government. And if you were on Ryan air then you probably paid a lot of additional charges for your 60 dollar flight on the brand new aircraft.

[xpjim1]

Your right, I just get a little tired of hearing pax complaining about the price of tickets when each airline is posting a quarter billion in loss for the quarter.

Also Europe is heavily subsided by their government. And if you were on Ryan air then you probably paid a lot of additional charges for your 60 dollar flight on the brand new aircraft.

Actually that was including all the bogus charges, $14 to check a bag, $7 to check in at the counter, $4.5 to pay by credit card and $34.50 for the ticket.
I had another flight on Ryan to Paris that the flight was like 16 cents and the other fees were $26. Do not know how they stay in business

[xpjim1]

People complain abput anything that costs money. Gas, Food, drinks at a sporting event. Its the nature of the beast.

[kko]

if that shop charged 45/hr they would be out of buss. in a month. im sorry you are not being realistic w/ that number. i am a auto/boat mech. been in cars for 20 yrs. boats for 6 or so. i understand your frustration i just had to spend $600 on havinfg my sparkplugs changed in my 05 F-150. i should have been able to do it myself for about $75 and a few hrs. but due to a piss poor design by ford and a $650 tool kit required to due the job i had to bite the bullet.(and yes i bitched to anyone that would listen like jim said) so you to have choices pay the 381.50 or get in there and do it yourself. noone is trying to take advantage of you at all IMPO. as others have said shop around and see what other shops are charging. that rate is higher than the shop i work at but not by much and there are shops in my area that are higher. so i think their rate is inline.
Be glad its a tige i just got done doing one on a 05 centurion avy with the merc. black scorpian what a fuggin pain in the azz that was.

GOOD JOB i just noticed you went the D.I.Y route how did it turn out ? how long did it take? why did you drain the tank? you didnt take it out did you? So would you do it again? Do you have ballast? You might want to do a search on adding ground staps to your steering while your in there. wew have posted on this and have found it to increase steering cable life and now is the best time for you to do it!

[Freedom rec]

if that shop charged 45/hr they would be out of buss. in a month. im sorry you are not being realistic w/ that number. i am a auto/boat mech. been in cars for 20 yrs. boats for 6 or so. i understand your frustration i just had to spend $600 on havinfg my sparkplugs changed in my 05 F-150. i should have been able to do it myself for about $75 and a few hrs. but due to a piss poor design by ford and a $650 tool kit required to due the job i had to bite the bullet.(and yes i bitched to anyone that would listen like jim said) so you to have choices pay the 381.50 or get in there and do it yourself. noone is trying to take advantage of you at all IMPO. as others have said shop around and see what other shops are charging. that rate is higher than the shop i work at but not by much and there are shops in my area that are higher. so i think their rate is inline.
Be glad its a tige i just got done doing one on a 05 centurion avy with the merc. black scorpian what a fuggin pain in the azz that was.

GOOD JOB i just noticed you went the D.I.Y route how did it turn out ? how long did it take? why did you drain the tank? you didnt take it out did you? So would you do it again? Do you have ballast? You might want to do a search on adding ground staps to your steering while your in there. wew have posted on this and have found it to increase steering cable life and now is the best time for you to do it!

I started at about five on Tuesday night, so I ran out of daylight. I had to work all week, so I will resume this on Monday. I have about two hours into it right now; I got to the point where I have to drain my tank, and ran out time. So far it has not been that bad, but I think the hardest part is still ahead. I was going to try to do it with out moving the tank, but due to the rod on the end of the cable (it not flexible), and the bend that I will have to thread my new cable through, it looks impossible with out adjusting the gas tank position. I will have to drain the tank to be able to move it easily since it’s full. Also the tank looks like it can only be raised about 4 inches, due to the shelves that you sit the floor on and it looks like the tank can be moved aft about 16 inches. So lifting the tank and moving it aft should make threading the new cable easier. Originally I thought the wide collar used to attach the cable in the aft of the boat would be too wide to slide under the tank, its not, the problem is the non flexible shaft end of the cable turning the corner after it drops under the floor.

I don’t have ballast. Thanks Ill check out those straps, and give you an update when I finish.