Seafarer 228 heavy steering

[wrxhoon]

The seastar hydraulic steering on my 1998 228 is very heavy when you turn to port, turning to starboard is fine .
When I got the boat a few weeks ago the system had air in it, you turn the steering 1/4 of a turn before the engine would move. Fluid was a little low so I bled it and filled up no more free play just heavy when turning to port.

Any Ideas on what the problem is? She has the tilt helm .

I took her for a run with the old 250 EFI Yammie and I thought the problem could be the engine.

I had a mew 250 Merc Opti fitted and took her out today, the steering is the same.

 

[seasick]

The seastar hydraulic steering on my 1998 228 is very heavy when you turn to port, turning to starboard is fine .
When I got the boat a few weeks ago the system had air in it, you turn the steering 1/4 of a turn before the engine would move. Fluid was a little low so I bled it and filled up no more free play just heavy when turning to port.

Any Ideas on what the problem is? She has the tilt helm .


I took her for a run with the old 250 EFI Yammie and I thought the problem could be the engine.

I had a mew 250 Merc Opti fitted and took her out today, the steering is the same.

If the motor is harder to steer to port when underway,I would look at the trim tab anode above the prop. It may not be adjusted correctly. Adjusting is a bit hit and miss but a good starting point is set it so that the trailing edge faces starboard a bit. When looking from underneath, the edge of that tab would face approx 1:30 on a clock. If the underside of the cavitation plate has tick marks around the anode, that works out to about 1 to 2 ticks clockwise looking from the bottom.

On the other hand, if the steering is tough to turn to port when just sitting, the problem is something else.

 

[BobrUSMC]

Hi,
Had a similar problem with my 98 Sailfish, except the steering was stiff in both directions. Same as you I had the tilt steering, etc. Disconnected everything to check the mechanical links, bled the system, etc. Finally just decided to drain the whole system, that fixed the problem for me. Draining the system at the engines wasn't that hard, messy yes. Make sure you have a couple of rolls of paper towels handy and a plastic bag or two to hold the hold the trash. I used some old baking pans to catch the fluid and a gallon plastic jug to hold the old fluid. The only thing I would do differently would be to have a source of compressed air to blow the system out. Hope this helps...
Keep Smilng,
Bob R

 

[wrxhoon]

Thanks for the replies guys.
Bob R, I don't think my problem is the same as yours . My steering works fine when the boat is not moving and its only heavy turning to port side.
I bled the system when I got the boat but I may blow all the fluid out just in case she has dirt inside somewhere.
I will do more tests Saturday to run the new optimax in. She only has 1.5 hours so I don't want to run at high RPM yet , I'll run another 2 hours then open her up and test with different trim angles.

Does anyone know if the larger 2.4 F.O helm will make any difference, mine has the 1.7 now.