X-2: first ride and steering question - PWC Forum: The best hang-out for Personal WaterCraft enthusiasts

jonesy54 · 05-27-2010, 06:41 PM

I bought a 1990 X-2 over the winter and today was my maiden voyage. Other than a couple of dunks figuring out how to get on it in deep water, it was great. (I cut my foot at the boat ramp but that's another story)

The steering was not as responsive as I had expected, especially when turning to the left. From my research it looks like the X-2 had a direct cable setup in 1989 and the first part of 1990; all other years had a "squirrel cage" setup. After several google attempts, I couldnt find a picture of the squirrel cage type steering.

Anybody out there have a good picture?

SAKiMOTO · 07-20-2010, 10:23 AM

why are people not answering ya?? Have the same ? we want to replace our 89 steering with accu steer but i havent found that yet either.

jonesy54 · 07-20-2010, 04:56 PM

I've been pretty disappointed too, Saki.

Stay tuned, I've got a possible fix I'm working on. I'll post it up here if it works.

Also, here's a pic of the lousy stock setup I have now:

SAKiMOTO · 07-20-2010, 06:14 PM

Thats the same set up i have. Looking for a UMI steering set up or would settle for a accusteer set up. Anyone that has one of these i will take it. Keep me posted on your fix. Searching x-H2o too for one of those steering setups.

no fear here · 07-21-2010, 01:19 AM

Try canadian pwc. there is a guy over there called X2guy. He has made some custom parts for them.

SAKiMOTO · 07-21-2010, 06:37 AM

thanks soo much man. I will search him out. I buy and sell alot of vw parts from there. Might just fix it myself but like that UMI setup.

jonesy54 · 07-27-2010, 05:07 PM

I fixed my stock steering head setup myself to eliminate the sloppy tilt joint.
Cost about $6 and took about an hour. I'll try to get some pics of that soon.

jonesy54 · 07-28-2010, 04:33 PM

I still haven't fixed the actual steering response problem but i did fix the wobbly tilt joint.
At least the handle bars feel solid now.

Drill a hole in the tilting piece

Here's the hardware you need, be sure to get stainless steel.

take the tilt release mechanism out and replace it with the bolt.

jonesy54 · 08-17-2010, 05:36 PM

Got my steering fixed. I don't have any pictures (I can post later if necessary) but I can just tell you what I did.

Remove the arm at the base of the steering column that the cable attaches to and grind the stops back some....problem solved.

And if you do the non-UMI steering head mod that I did, use nylocks instead of regular nuts. I have had to re-tighten mine several times. Gonna get some SS nylocks next trip to Lowes.