HLongcrier
Recruit
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 5
Took the Robalo out in a local river this weekend to check it out before heading to the coast. Glad I did! Boat has standard, front mount seastar helm connected to dual cylinder setup on twin 200hp 99 model Merc Optis. Steering was fine and in a flash it locked to port side. Wheel would turn and stop to left, but free spin to the right and motors would not turn and couldn't be turned by force to starboard. In essence, they were locked to port side. We checked fluid and it was low. We filled and got nothing. We released the port bleeder valve and forced motors to straight position. We used the throttles to limp to the ramp. After adding fluid to capacity and bleeding both valves we still had nothing. Wheel just freespins to right and makes a suttle clicking noise. Someone mentioned a "hung helm" but I have no experince with these systems. I looked at seastar site and still have no ideas. Doesn't appear to be any major leaks and fluid was making it to the cylinders, but still no steering and wheel just spins and spins when turning to the right. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Also forgot to mention that boat also has autopilot and autopilot was being used at time that problem occurred. Perhaps the autopilot gear? Thanks again
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