This skeg blade fits all Valley kayaks (VCP) and North Shore kayaks that use a steel cable (not a rope) to control the skeg. Comes complete with setscrew for the skeg cable. When replacing skeg blade you will also need to replace the control cable as it gets mashed at the ends by the setscrews. To remove the blade first put the skeg down all the way then loosen the control knob's set screw and rotate the blade past its normal range of motion until the blade unhooks from the pivot pin. Sometimes it's necessary to give the tip of the blade a bump with your fist to get it to unhook. Then pull the cable all the way out of the kayak. To remove the cable from the old blade, clamp the blade in a vise and grab the cable with a ViseGrip tool as close to the blade as possible, and roll the rounded nose of the ViseGrip along the blade edge to act as a cam to pry the cable out of the blade. Before installing the new cable, use it as a pipe cleaner to clean out the skeg cable's poly tube sheath -- feed the new cable in one end and pull it out the other while wiping it off with a paper towel. Repeat until the cable passes through and stays clean. If the cable sticks, turn it in the direction that tightens the twist in the cable so it doesn't fray while pushing on it. Insert the cable into the hole in the skeg blade until it bottoms out about 1/2" past the sighting hole. Tighten the blade's setscrew enough to slightly distort the cable. Feed the cable into the hole in the kayak's skeg box. If the cable sticks, turn it in the direction that tightens the twist in the cable so it doesn't fray while pushing on it. Cable should come out the control box at the cockpit end. Cut the cable to length and reassemble the control knob etc.
