Hydraulic Steering Question

[Cain Roberts]

My old boat has a Sea Star hydraulic system that was installed about 6 years ago. I noticed today that when I’m turning right, it takes about an entire 1/2 turn of the steering wheel before the motor starts to turn... when I’m turning left, it begins turning right away, but it feels like the steering wheel “grabs” and “skips” as I turn... in other words, it doesn’t feel like the resistance of the wheel is smooth.

Is this likely a fluid issue? Helm issue? Anyone have experience with this exact problem who can gimme an idea what I’m looking at?

[NJGAMBLER]

http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread....eering+problem, use the search feature, discussed many times

[secdawgs]

Add fluid and bleed

[1bluemcm]

And inspect for leaks because if it's low on fluid, the fluid went somewhere.

[phishirman]

just went through this - super easy to fix. guessing you'll need new end caps for your hydraulic cylinder and to bleed the system of all air. There are some good tutorials on youtube to show you how to bleed the system. I got the end cap kit with tool for around 100 bucks.