steering became very difficult

[shalpin]

I was turning my 03 steering outback with one finger. Now I have to reeeef on the steering wheel to turn the rudder. I disassembled the steering colunm. No luck. Could the rudder shaft be bent? How can I tell?
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[JesseC]

I replaced my steering cable because of almost the same issue. Here is what we did to test everything.

First check the steering wheel itself. Unbolt the four bolts where the rack attaches to the steering wheel. Does steering wheel turn freely? If yes then continue.

Second, unbolt the rudder from the cable. Does the rudder move freely?
If yes then continue.

Can you work the cable back and forth by hand near the rudder? We could not get mine to budge and replaced the cable. It took about an hour and a half. After we got the cable out, not matter what we did, we could not get the calbe to move by hand!! Even though the steering wheel could, but with a good bit iof effort.
Now with the new cable in, I can steer the boat with one finger no matter how hard the turn of how much power, it is ALWAYS easy to steer.

Isolate the problem first and then let us know what you find.