matthewr

Hi Guys. Friend of mine bought a 99 29 Outlaw and is having a heck of a time steering this rig at speed but not at idle. Stock steering. This is what confuses me. He has a imco tie bar connecting the drives, power steering pump on both engines. Only one has a belt (serpentine setup). The other engine just has a belt a little smaller to compensate for not being hooked up. There is fluid and lines ran in the PS pump that's not hooked up. Should this PS pump be hooked up also? I just have never seen a tie bar without full hydro. steering. Then again, I haven't messed with twin engine boats before. He is really having to crank down to get it to turn. Thanks guys!

rumrunner29

Sounds like to me that the power steering pump is shot, had the same thing happen in my scarab years ago. It doesn't take as much pressure from the pump to turn the drives at idle speed is why you can steer it going slow. No, the other pump is not supposed to be hooked up. I was told years ago that all motors came from mercruiser built with all pumps etc and that they didn't take them off if you had twins, just dropped them in there. While I don't know if this is true, my 98 has two pumps and only one is hooked up. Pretty easy to swap out the pump and unless the steering ram is bad, that should fix it. All twin engine boats should have a tie bar that connects the two drives, doesn't matter if it has external steering or not....my 98 has an IMCO tie bar as well.
hope this helps ya!

HOSSMAN

What motors? I assume it does not have hydro steering from what you are saying so I will assume base 7.4's which would explain the tie bar only on the back. I'd check the pumps as well.