Auxiliary steering control for electric trolling motor

Claim 1

In a steering control apparatus for a rack and pinion steering mechanism of an outboard motor in which an elongate shaft is rotatably attached at its upper end to a hollow casing, which is fixedly attached to a boat, and at its lower end is fixedly attached to a motor housing containing an electric motor which drives a propeller transversely of said shaft, said shaft having a hollow first pinion mounted thereon which is continuously in mesh with a sliding rack operatively connected by a control cable to a foot pedal actuator so that operation of the foot pedal causes the elongate shaft to turn, thereby steering the boat, and a second pinion also continuously engaged with the sliding rack and carrying a direction-indicating pointer, the improvement comprising an auxiliary steering apparatus including a coupling means attached to said second pinion in the shape of a cylindrical collar having a flange for attachment of said direction-indicating pointer at its upper end, an axial bore through said flange and said collar ending at its lower end in a socket, opposite said flange, and having a larger diameter than said bore for receiving the shaft of said second pinion and said coupling means having a tapped socket axially transverse of said bore for receiving one end of an auxiliary control rod whereby upon loss of control or failure of said foot pedal actuator or said control cable, said control rod is attached to said tapped socket for receiving one end of said control rod in said coupling means for temporary manual steering control.