Steering intermittently hard/pulls to left, and leaky ram.

[scooper77515]

I am assuming these two issues are connected.

2003 Glastron 185 with V/P engine and outdrive.

Been noticing steering fluid in bilge for about a year. Isolated the leak as coming from the power steering "ram", so wrapped a towel around it for the rest of the year to keep oil out of the bilge until I can repair during the off-season.

Most of the time, steering works fine, but every now and then, it gets stiff, tends to pull to the right, and feels like I am steering against the hydraulics. If I adjust the rpms up or down a bit, it seems to go away. Also may go away if I trim up or down a little.

I had a trim hose loosen a while back, so maybe water in the line? I have bled the system several times after refilling a very low reservoir, and it "seems" to help a bit, for a short time.

Will this all go away with a new/repaired ram? Or is there likely something else going wrong that I need to look at simultaneously?

 

[Chris1956]

Since you have not replies, here is my guess. Most boats pull right. Trim can help that. However, power steering eliminates that pull.

The hard steering you are experiencing may be that the PS belt slips, turning off the PS. Or it could be a pocket of air in the ram. I think the fix is to the ram.

 

[scooper77515]

Makes sense. The ram needs to be replaced, period. We just have a short boating season up here, and don't want to start a repair that could keep me out of the water for 2-3 weeks. So I will wait until September and tear it down.