Outboard Motor Steering Lock

[Peter T]

Hi All. This especially applies to those of us who use a Tahatsu Sail Pro outboard, but could possibly apply to other motors as well.
On the Tohatsu motors, the little thumb screw that adjusts the steering tension is weak and often will not actually work as a steering stop. It's only designed as a dampener.
Here is my solution to that problem. You will see that I still need to cut the bolts that hold the bracket to the motor to their correct length.
The beauty of this bracket is that you can raise and lower the motor without having to mess with the bracket.
See Below. The bracket goes from under the handle of the motor to two of the bolts that hold the motor board in place. It also acts as a means of stopping the motor going to the bottom if the motor mount screws come undone.

Cheers

[Watto]

Won’t that become a problem when you tilt the motor?

[Peter T]

Hi Luke. When I mounted the motor mount to the transom, I raised it up a bit which means that I won't have to tilt the motor at all.
With the motor in its upper most position, only the bottom tip of the motor is in the water and with it out of gear there is virtually no resistance from that part of the motor yet in the fully down position, it is plenty deep enough to never ride up out of a wave.

[Watto]

I wonder if it will be high enough when fully heeled over.. throw in some swell to the mix.

[Ozzie]

Good solution Peter, and handy as your not needing needing to tilt the motor.

The steering lock on my old mariner is crook too and I asked my mechanic to see what he could do. He showed me how they work which is like a type of internal worm drive clamp from memory. Anyhoo, he did fix it with a new non standard worm drive clamp but he used hex bolt instead of a thumb bolt which is somewhat inconvenient in my case as I often pivot the donk when coming or going from the mooring. Also dropping a spanner overboard was an obvious by product of this. So...I put a piece of PVC pipe over the tiller arm and bungee that to the taffrail. I have been meaning to make a PVC clamp permanently attached to the taffrail so I can just clip the pipe into it but haven’t got around to it yet.

Dicky steering clamps seems to be a common problem on most of the outboards I’ve had. I don’t know why they don’t just have an additional thumb bolt going directly into a hole in the shaft at 90° to the circumference, okay that wouldn’t work as a damper but would absolutely lock the motor in at the straight ahead.

[Peter T]

Hi Ozzie. Spot on mate. Mine would be more of a problem if I was mooring the boat as the very bottom of the motor would be in the water but seeing that I trailer all the time, there is no need to tilt.
It might even be worth seeing if mine can be modified to do exactly as you say. That would be best of both worlds.

Time will tell Luke but I can't see a problem
Cheers

[Peter T]

Hi all. I have the answer to being able to lock the steering on a 6 Hp 4 stroke Tohatsu Sail Pro.
There is now a simple bracket available that bolts on to the front handle of the motor and goes down and fits between the cheeks of the tilting mechanism. It has rubber fitted to it to stop vibration noise. I believe that with this fitted, the motor can still be tilted. It's red in colour to warn the steering is locked and comes with two warning stickers that mount on the sides of the cowl.
See photos below

This looks like a great solution to this problem and I have one on order.
The only thing with it is that once fitted, it must be removed to be able to use steering by motor.
Cheers

[Peter T]

Hi all. I finally got my steering lock, but if you want one of these, get a price before you buy. I saw them advertised for $26.95 but when mine arrived at my local Tohatsu dealer, I was charged $160 for it.
TRUE !