We run our Dorsett and Scott in salt water and salt loves to have its way with old boat parts. Every year when we put the boat in for the summer something else is inevitably frozen. Two years ago I put the boat in and the steering wheel would not turn. This year the shift cable was frozen.
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| The original control cables have threaded sleeves that use brass nuts to trap a plastic ball at the motor and plastic square (not pictured) at the control end. The motor/control connectors are threaded onto the cable ends and are the same thread as modern Seastar cables. |
The Scott controls and cables have unique fittings at each end and the fittings are held in place with nuts that thread onto the cables. Unfortunately, modern Seastar cables that are readily available from West Marine use a trap and bracket to hold the cable in place. To compensate I fabricated brackets from steel angle brackets I bought at Lowes.
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| Steel angle brackets from Lowes were bent and notched to make custom cable traps. |
At the control end, I needed to space the trap back about an inch so I bolted a couple brackets to the bottom and fed the cables right through the plastic pieces that originally trapped the cable in the housing. In addition to holding the new cables, the bracket allowed me to repair the control housing I broke as I tried to push the frozen control forward. ID10T Error.
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| See the third nut on the lower bracket? That's there to hold the broken piece of the control housing in place. |
At the motor, Scott uses plastic balls. Here I made a custom trap that fits in the cable mount position.
It's all pretty simple but effective, all four brackets were painted with some left over paint from the motor painting project and the end result is nice new control cables on my classic Scott. Cool eh?
