steering hydro-locking?

[gdbassbuggy]

Hi, i have a 88 bassbuggy pontoon with mercury 45hp outboard. The steering goes from easy steering to taking two hands to steer then after a few turns all of a sudden easy again. I noticed when we trailered it and i manually turned the motor water came out of end of steering shaft nut on the left side when facing the back of motor. is too much water getting inside of steering tube causing it to hydra lock? as I'm typeing this it sounds like a stupid question. thought id ask here before i start throwing parts at it

 

[Chris1956]

It shouldn't do that. Remove the large nut on the steering cable-to-tilt tube and move the steering wheel. See what comes out or if there is rust, dirt etc. If is never a bad idea to clean and grease the steering cable end in the tilt tube.

Steering cable ends are made with 2 layers of metal over the wire core to keep water out. Maybe you need some grease to seal it up?

I have see steering cables do that when they are greased at the nut, with them extended. They can get "grease locked". Older cables had a grease fitting there. Newer cables do not, likely for that reason.