TOPIC: Steering cable

We have a 30 year old pontoon boat with single cable steering. The 30 year old grease is getting like paste and is very hard to turn the wheel. What type of oil or cleaner are people using to pour in the housing to free up the cable and lube it? W D 40, P B Blaster, 3 in 1 oil?
Thanks, Bill

disconnect the steering from the motor and make sure it is the cable and not the thru tube. had hard steering on a boat and found it was totally in the thru tube at the motor. pulled that, cleaned it and it was like new.

Hey Bill, ditto. Check that tube at the motor end first. Just might be the culprit. Otherwise it's a PIA. I did one once and had to remove the entire steering cable and then tried to force/drain lacquer thinner from one end. Took a few days of the cable hanging from a tree branch. Gradually freed up but was never totally smooth moving.
If it is the tube you might get away with spraying some carb cleaner on the rod and around the entrance and just exercising it back and forth while cleaning it with an old rag or paper towel. Had that problem with this one and wound up pulling the motor to remove the rod to clean it.

The first thing we checked was the tilt tube. That end was just a little gummed up and we got that cleaned up, but it didn't help much. I think we will start with the carb cleaner. Thanks for the help. See you in Marinette in a couple weeks Cal.
Bill