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Just bought a 1w985 75 hp Mercury that is going to get installed on a 1967 Eastport. They are doing the install and new control with tilt & trim. They were quoting ~$400-450 to install Teleflex steering on the center console. Seems to me I can get a Teleflex Safe-T-Quik for ~$210 at West Marine. Anybody have any guidance on installing steering? Should I do it and save some $$? How involved is it?

Thanks All
Andy

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I installed steering on my project Rage. It really was quite simple. The helm just bolts in - you run the steering cable (some boats this is harder than others) and hook it up. The motor hook up for me was really easy. The helm required me to pull a pin and feed it in. My space was a bit cramped so this was the more difficult part but still pretty easy. I think that this can be done relatively easily by a weekend do it yourself kind of person. Hardest part sometimes is just finding the time. :) Good luck and have fun!

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Andy,

The Teleflex steering system is very simple to install.

I would however recommend the Teleflex BayStar hydraulic steering system rather than the Safe-T-Quick. You can buy the complete BayStar system from many outfits for around the same price as they are charging you above. Here is one place I like to buy my Teleflex items from.
Surplus Unlimited
Go to there Steering/Hydraulic systems on the left sidebar and then to BayStar.
Their price is $524

The hoses on the hydraulic system are very easy to run through any rigging tunnel. The cables are much harder to run as they are very stiff as compared to the flexible hydraulic hoses.

You will never be sorry you went with Hydraulic steering even though it cost more than the cable system. With cable systems, it seems you need to replace the cables periodically or continue to perform maintenance on them... There isn't much to be done on the Hydraulic system other than maybe O-rings once and awhile.