Re: [omc-boats] Trucourse steering and safer controls

Hi Scott,

I replaced my Evinrude Sportsman's rope & cable with TruCourse when I
re-powered the v6 Buick with the small-block Chevy V8.

It made for a great improvement in safety and smoothness, especially with
the added torque-steer of the V8. I was lucky and found all New Old Stock
parts at a local dealer.
I love TruCourse and anyone who's driven my boat comments on it's smooth,
linear operation and ability to "hold a line."

The OMC TruCourse cables interface in the same intermediate gear housing
location as the rope pulley drum. The factory OMC shop manuals after 71-72
show setup this as well as the third-party Clymer and Seloc. The TruCourse
setup is sensitive to proper tensioning adjustment, so lubrication might not
help. If it were mine, I'd disonnect it from the sterndrive and troubleshoot
each half. You want to know the the sterndrive steering gear mechanics are
working smoothly before you troubleshoot/adjust the TruCourse half. If it's
more than you want to undertake yourself, then find an older, experienced
OMC/Volvo shop that had TruCouse-Stringer experience.

Since TruCourse was introduced after the demise of OMC boat production
(1970) none of the Johnson or Evinrude production boats came with it, but it
is a worthy upgrade if you can find all the bits and pieces to do it. One
sees them show up on eBay sometimes.

Speaking of safety and upgrades: Besides TruCourse, the other OMC "control"
upgrade I found highly desireable (and recommended for all Evinrude owners):
Replace the goofy "space-age" push-button shifter with the more "turn-key"
and sensible single-lever control that was used on OMC and Johnson boats.
Also, the last 1969-70 models incorporated a reliable "neutral-only" safety
start switch which prevents embarassing, dock-busting, unintended, in-gear
engine starts. The later shifter units are identified by a five-wire plug,
as opposed to a three-wire plug. If anyone needs wiring help on the
retrofit, just let me know.

Lee Shuster
Salt Lake City

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott E. Veazie" <scottveazie@...>
To: <omc-boats@...>
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 1:36 AM
Subject: [omc-boats] Trucourse steering

> Does anyone have the trucourse steering setup on their boats? I know it's
> a later accessory never offered on our boats, but on my boat (Glastron) I
> have trucourse. I'm trying to find the inner grease fitting inside the
> boat on the intermediate housing for the steering shaft. Anyone know
> where it's at? My steering is really stiff, I can't believe the cables
> would be bad.
>
> ~Scott
> -----
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Received on Saturday, 31 March 2007