Valley kayaks designed from 2010 on (Etain, Gemini, Sirona) come with this rectangular black plastic skeg control block which is bolted into its recess on the deck outside the cockpit with four stainless steel metric machine screws. The skeg cable and stiffener tube slide in this rectangular block and cantilever out of it. This block also holds the control end of the skeg cable's poly tube sheath in place and allows the cable to slide through it. There are two reasons to replace this part: If you over tighten the set screw at the aft end of this block it is easy to strip the threads for the setscrew, or sometimes this block is warped and creates friction for the cable stiffener tube that slides in and out of the block. Older model Valley Kayaks (Nordkapp, Aquanaut, Skerray, Avocet, Pintail, Anas Acuta) had a different skeg control system and do not use this part. When assembling, be sure the clear poly tube that the skeg cable runs through is inserted far enough into the aft end of this control block that the control block's setscrew will miss the brass compression ring on the end of the poly tube and come down behind the brass compression ring. The setscrew and brass ring are what keep the poly tube from backing out of the control block and disconnecting (especially when the skeg blade is jammed by a rock and you push hard on the control knob to try to free the skeg blade). The setscrew should touch the poly tube but not compress or deform it as that will add friction making it difficult to move the skeg control system. So as soon as you feel a bit of resistance to tightening the setscrew, STOP. Note it is common for the brass compression ring to slip off the end of the poly tube. If you don't see a brass ring on the end of the poly tube it is probably stuck inside the control block. Dig the brass ring out with a dental pick, paperclip, etc. otherwise it will prevent you from properly assembling the poly tube into the control block. It does no good to push the brass ring back onto the poly tube - it will just slip off again unless it is assembled with a compression fitting. If the brass ring has slipped off the end of your poly tube we have a repair slice kit to fix this.
