Hi,
I have a 2003, 28' velocity with a 496 HO. The boat has Performance Marine Zeiger single ram external steering. I just purchased the boat and took it out for the first run, The boat was flawless mechanically except for the steering, At 50 + MPH the boat would hook right out of control, I took the boat back to the dock and put it on the trailer and inspected the drive. Yikes 2 inches of play in the hydraulic ram, that answers the question why the boat hooks right at speed. My question is do I need to buy a new ram or can it be rebuilt. I've looked for repair parts online but with no luck. There is no serial numbers on the hydraulic ram either. I recently moved to the Daytona Beach Florida area and know no one in the area handles this kind of stuff. I can do the work myself but don't know what direction to go in. The boat only has 106 original hours on the boat.

Thanks in advance.

First you should fill the pump and bleed the system to find out where the leak is. may not even be the ram.

Oil is oozing out of the seal at the shaft end of the cylinder, at minimum I would think I would need to change that seal.

You probably have a lot of air in the system. I had this same problem, I could move the drives side to side. Get the thing up on the trailer or a stand, hook up a water line, run the engine with the pump, and SLOWLY turn the wheel lock to lock letting the air bubble out. You then add fluid as the cylinder fills up.

Nevermind, looks like you found the problem.

Thanks for the advise, I will bleed the system first and see if it tightens up the ram, The leakage is very minimal. Maybe it will solve the problem until I can get the parts in and repaired

Turning the wheel lock to lock only bleeds the primary circuit.
you will have to crack the lines on the secondary circuit as it is a closed circuit and cannot vent itself.

i had both rams rebuilt for 150 bucks at our local hydraulic cylinder shop

I sent one of my rams to Zeiger and they rebuilt it very reasonably and quickly. My local hydraulic shop was backed up with work.

Good point Vintage. I did do both, but seemed running the pump (via engine), and turning the wheel slowly helped the most. I took awhile.

Thank you all for the great information, I'm going to try to bleed the lines and cylinder first. If that gets me going I'll find a hydraulic shop local and see if they can do the repair if needed. I would love to do the job myself but I'm afraid I would buy the wrong parts and then i'm out $110.00 Plus from the looks of the cylinder you need a special wrench to get the end cap off. I'll update next week when I get to the Boat.

https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/velocity/337590-rebuilt-my-zieger-hydraulic-steering-jack.html