Any tips for repairing a badly twisted skeg cable? It looks like the skeg blade was jammed 1/2 deployed and the cable forced. I know this is a discontinued boat.
yep
I’ve done a bunch of 'em.
you gotta replace the wire. It’s a bit of a job but quite do-able.
Take her all apart. allen/hex screw comes outta the slider, then skeg drops down. pull out cable. you gotta get the cable outta the aluminum skeg. I put vice grips on her and twist. the cable will break off and then you ‘carefully’ drill out the remainder of the cable. you will end up with a small hole where the cable was. now JB Weld the new cable (you gotta get one, either standing rigging sailboat wire or the more flexible 1/8" stainless) I get it at a marine store. if you can’t find it hollar. The JB will take an overnight cure. once the new cable is cemented in to the skeg just thread it back thru, re-attach the knob, adjust it and go kayaking.
Either take the cable with you and get the exact length or plan on cutting it. it takes some burley cutters. Bike cable cutters or heavy duty linemens pliars or the like.
good luck and just ask if you have problems.
steve (a Dagger guy too!)
You want 1 x 19 stainless cable…
…not the more flexible 7 x 19 type, which won’t work in compression. If you’re handy with tools, you can drill and tap a hole at an angle in the skeg blade for a stainless set screw, which will eliminate the need for using JB Weld in the future, making cable replacements much faster and easier. If you get a chance, look as a VCP skeg blade and you’ll see how to set it up.
actually…
I have found the more flexible cable ‘actually’ works just fine on the Meridian. It resists tweaking like the 1X19 and is plenty stiff to run the skeg up/down. It’s actually what we use on Wildy boats.
good luck taping the skeg. The tolerances are quite tight. but… sure it CAN be done.
steve
Perhaps so…
…but there are a lot of boats on which 7 x 19 cable will not work. So far, 1 x 19 works on everything I’ve tried it on. As for drilling and tapping the skeg blade, I never said it was easy… 
Meridian Skeg Repair
Thanks for all the great info as usual. A retired mech. engineer should be able to tap and install a set screw. I have the luxury of a spare skeg blade anyway.
Paul
Not being a "skegger"
I read this thread out of curiosity (yes, and as a way of wasting time).
Flatpick, I was quite surprised to hear that 2 part epoxy will sufficiently bond SS cable to aluminum. I always figgered that the attachment was mechanical.
You never know what you are going to learn on P-Net!
Jim
Most skegs use mechanical fasteners
…which makes the cable easier to change. A handful are bonded together, which pretty much ensures that you can’t repair them in the field, unless you buy an entire blade/cable assembly and carry it with you. It seems like a rather short-sighted design to me.
That being the case…
– Last Updated: Jun-24-06 8:36 AM EST –
...the strongest set screw setup I've seen is as follows:
- The end of the cable protrudes into a hole drilled through the the side of the skeg blade. The hole doesn't need to be much bigger than the cable diameter (~1/4" for a 1/8" cable).
- The set screw hole is drilled in the edge of the skeg blade and enters the other hole at an angle to the skeg cable hole.
- When the cable is inserted and the set screw is tightened, the cable end is bent slightly in the hole, which prevents it from being pulled out. This works somewhat better than using just the friction of the set screw against the cable.
yep
Current Designs, Impex, KajakSport and Dagger ALL use cables bonded to skeg systems. maybe others?
I have fixed 'em in the field, it just takes a overnight cure.
steve
Is that new for CD?
– Last Updated: Jun-25-06 9:27 AM EST –
I fixed one on a Slipstream a while back. I just dug up the spare cable I still have and it has a swaged-on fitting that screwed to the skeg. Perhaps it's an older style that's no longer used?
could be
it was an ol’ gulf that comes to mind. can’t comment on new ones.
steve
Meridian Skeg Repair
Brian,
I like the extra hole to allow the set screw when tightened to bend the cable. Unfortunately I already finished the new cable repair using just set screw friction. Adding the set screw was the easy part. Drilling out the old cable in the blade wasn’t so easy. Maybe my problem was cutting the cable flush with the edge of the blade before drilling. Anyway it is fixed.
By the way I just modified my NorthWater Rescue Tow per your web site instructions. Way better than the original.
Thanks & Good Luck W/ your book,
Paul