Steering question

[Steven_Haines]

Last summer my steering started to get stiff so I pulled out the steering cable and soaked it in penetrating oil over the winter to see if I could get it to loosen up. I re installed it a while back and finally got to try it. I was successful in freeing up the cable but for some reason I lost all of the pre load in the steering. Prior to removing the cable my boat had great pre load and tracked/drove extremely well. I’m a little puzzled because now I have zero pre load.

Any ideas?

The boat is a ‘95 Response with what I think (not sure) is the rack style of steering helm.

Thanks in advance!

Steve