I saw my SX190 up close for the first time since last October, and switched out the steering enhancements.
Hello!
Objective: switch out Cobra Jet Steering for Lateral Thrusters + Thrust Vectors.
Background: last year was my second season boating, and my first full season. During my short first season I decided I'd like to reduce the low-speed vagueness I was experiencing, so I put the CJS on over the winter and ran them all last season. I like them, but I have a tricky approach to the (offset) pickup point where the marina forklift pulls the boat out of the water (135-degrees to port; full stop; reverse; kick the stern to the dock) and decided to give the lateral thrust vectors a try this season.
Approaching the stern I saw that all wasn't well. During a winter on the third level of the marina dry stack my boat was discovered by birds, who crapped all over the jet assembly.
I lifted the reverse gate to find that the birds didn't just poop on my jet: they had a little love shack in there... This is the most stuff I've pulled out of the jet for sure.
Back to the task at hand, with my trusty brand-new snap ring pliers, I set about removing the CJS and my articulating keel. That's when I found that 5.5" plier handles are a bit short for the job of reaching through the deflector nozzle. In addition one of the tips (the one on the right below) on the pliers snapped off right away (more on that later*).
Having watched each of the Jet Boat Pilot install videos twice the rest of the lateral thruster mounting was pretty smooth (except of course the snap ring re-install, given the broken too-short pliers) and soon I had it in place and "95%" tight. Per the lateral thruster video I did need to chase the starboard-side threads before attaching the mounting strap. I can't remember if the video has you do this, but I also grabbed a 17mm wrench and removed the keel guide plate to simplify the process of removing the keel.
With the lateral thruster unit in place, getting the thrust vectors installed and all bolts to "100%" tight was a piece of cake. Port-side view.
Starboard-side view. If you look closely you can see the thrust vector spring arm routing around the steering arm. I followed the video instructions and routed before tightening things down; I'm pretty sure you don't want to tighten before routing..
"Beauty" shot.
* since I had only the broken snap ring pliers to work with I ended up wrestling the original snap ring back on, since I couldn't get the leverage needed for my puny muscles to open the new snap ring enough to get it into place. I ordered a set of longer-handled snap ring pliers (and some extra snap rings) when I got home, so next time I go to the marina I'll work on properly installing a new snap ring in place (I'd prefer not to have to replace the articulating keep and pivot hardware, as they sum up to a noticeable price!).