2013 Outback Rudder Up/Down

I just bought a used 2013 mirage outback. Everything is in great condition except that the rudder up/down controls don't work. The rudder simply needs to be manually put down and back up. The rudder steering works fine though.

I have located the rudder diagrams and traced all the cords for the up/down controls. The control lines seem to be routed and connected fine. From what I can diagnose, I seem to have 2 issues:

(1) the shock cord isn't connected to anything and so there is no tension on the cords. I cannot seem to locate where the cord is supposed to be mounted to in the 2013 outback. Can anyone with this model take a look for me and see if they can tell where the shock cord is connected to the inside of the hull?

(2) Although the cords are connected, I can't seem to get the to apply enough pressure (without me being afraid of breaking something) to actually get the rudder to go up or down. I can get it to go down if I help get it started. I can't get it to go up at all though. It looks like maybe one of the cords has come off the drum on the inside of the rudder assembly. I'm going to try taking it apart and seeing if that is the case (unless tells me that doing so is a bad idea).

Any advice that you can provide on how to re-attach the up/down line shock cord and freeing up the up/down mechanism in the rudder would be helpful. Thanks!

I'll try one more time and see if I can get any takers...

I'm having trouble with my up/down controls on my 2013 Outback. The shock cord inside the hull that tensions the up/down control cables somehow became disconnected (it is still connected to the up/down line, just not attached to anywhere on the hull). I can't locate any information on where it is supposed to be attached to. Anyone with a 2013 Outback that might be able to look inside their hull and let me know where it is connected on their boat?

We'd recommend to visit a dealer so they can check it out - something is obviously binding. Have you tried to loosen the pivot bolt that the rudder goes up, down on? That sometimes can be just too tight causing extra effort (usually to 'raise though - not lower)

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Jacques Bernier
http://www.hobie.com/
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Thanks Jbernier. I did loosen the pivot bolt and that did seem to help it go down easier, but still can't get it to go up. With no tension on the line from the shock cord not being connected, it seems like maybe that may be causing the binding on the upward pull, which is why I was trying to get the shock cord re-attached.

I already visited my local dealer and they were much less helpful than I had hoped. For $50/hr rate, they would look at it for me, but cautioned it would probably take them several hours and I got the impression they were hoping I would just go away so they didn't have to be bothered.

it does take more pressure than you may think to have the rudder deploy...you may try pulling harder, but you decide if its too much

As a follow-up: I was able to partially resolve my problem. Due to the lack of tension on the rudder up/down lines, the "up" line had gotten bound up inside the drum of the rudder. I backed off the nut on the outside and used a flat screwdriver to gently re-position the line. This resolved the issue of getting the rudder to go up.

I still don't have tension on the line (since the shock cords aren't attached). I went to my local hobie dealer and looked at the current outback model. The shock cord used to tension the line was attached to the rudder up and down lines at two points along the line (for some reason I was expecting one end of the shock cord to be attached to somewhere on the hull). Since it is hard to reach into the area where the shock cord is located, it looks like I'm going to have to detach the up/down lines from the rudder first. I'll probably have my hobie dealer do this since it looks like a bigger job than I was originally expecting.