Steering adjustment

[SeaDooTim]

My previous post "2007 230 Challenger SE shop manual" was due to my steering. When I first got the boat (my first), I noticed the RPMs were off ~500 between the 2 engines and would steer to the left. The service manager told me it was because the wear ring was damaged. Fine, paid to have it replaced, but the steering is still off. If I trun the steering wheel until the jet nozzles are straight (or what I think would make the boat steer straight), the wheel (top center) would be at 2 o'clock. When I turn the wheel back to top center, the nozzles are pointing to the left.
I asked the service manager about this and was told to bring it back in so the mechanic can go float the boat and adjust it. What is he going to adjust? The steering wheel? I can not imagine the mechanic getting in the water to adjust the nozzles. Is this something I can do myself?

 

[seadoosnipe]

Yes.....

Yes Tim, you can adjust this yourself. We could have even given you the simple test to measure your wearing ring to see if it needed replacing. But that's water under the bridge.
Let me go look at your configuration and I'll re-post later. But don't take it back to the guy who wants to by a Lamburgini at your expense........

NEW INFO:...O.k. Tim, I went into look at your steering system on your twin engine Challenger. The steering can be adjusted by loosening the jam nuts on the crossover bar and screwed out one way or the other which will allow you to make, a little at a time, until the boat no longer pulls to the left. What you really need to do in making an adjustment is to find the center between the two nozzles by the fixed body of the pumps, then make your adjustments to each nozzle as needed. I'm going to look at a twin engine configuration set-up in a different manual and see what kind of procedures they have in adjusting these........
Also, where your steering passes through the console, there is another jam nut for adjusting the cable. So there are three ways of adjusting your steering system.
....more....Tim, I just looked at the procedures and you are suppose to take a straight edge and lay it flat on the tip of the nozzle, then measure the straight edge from each side of the edge to the hull.
While we don't carry your specific model manual, the steering set-up is the same for most of the Sea-Doo twin engine configurations..........so, a premium membership will allow you to go in and download a manual to the twin engine 1800 Challenger and read and print the section on steering alignment. The specific procedure is to lengthy to type in a post but is quite easy to do. You can also look at a expanded view of your steering system by going to www.seadoo.com and clicking on the tab for parts........there, you will find your boat listed with expanded views of everything.
Good luck.....

 

[kustomkarl]

You could do it yourself, but if it's under warranty and not too inconvenient I'd have the dealer do it .

 

[SeaDooTim]

Everything on the boat is factory...for now.

 

[seadoosnipe]

Warranty?....

Karl brings up a good point!....being a 2007, why isn't the dealer fixing this for free?..........This should be a warranty item.

 

[ScubaDoo]

Definitely a warranty issue!

Karl brings up a good point!....being a 2007, why isn't the dealer fixing this for free?..........This should be a warranty item.

:agree: This is a warranty item issue...especially after a repair of the wear ring.

 

[seadoosnipe]

Alignment?....

Tim, if the dealer did the wearing ring, they may have offset the steering rod.
In my opinion, if you brought the ski in and told the dealer what your problem was, he should have inspected the ring, not replaced it. There is an inspection in the manual that tells you what your clearance should be, once it reaches that outer limit, then you replace it.
If you paid for this work, I think he may have taken you for a ride. Myself, with this new information, I'd go back and ask him why he replaced the wearing ring? If he said it was bad, I'd ask him what the clearance was when they inspected it. Of course, with him realizing you have a better understanding of the jet pump, he's liable to look it up in the manual and give you an out of spec answer.
Your problem is obviously in the arm the connects the two nozzles together. As for your steering wheel, you can adjust that and make it point anywhere you want it to. That adjustment is in the compartment just behind the wheel. It just bites my butt to see people get taken advantage of at these shops!.......................:rant:

 

[kustomkarl]

If I got a nickle from everyone on this forum that got riped off from a dealer I'd ...have a lot of nickels! :ack::rofl:

Karl

 

[seadoosnipe]

.......uh, don't think so.

Uh, I don't think so. I'd charge you for all that wonderful advise I've given you. You know I"m your hero!..............:rofl: