Power steering moves in wrong direction?
 

Hi,

I've been struggling now for two days to sort out my power steering. It behaves very strange and pulls away in either direction ending up at the stop but continues to push.

The set up is the standard Mercruiser with a steering cable and the old style power steering (black with outside pipes). The parts have not been in this boat before.

The last test I did was to disconect the steering cable completely. Now the power steering stays still. If I manually push the actuater valve to e.g. port side the power steering also push to port side, which seems to be wrong to me. Shouldn't it be the opposite direction?

Could I've connected anything in the wrong way?

Is the pump spinner the wrong direction?

Thanks
M

One more thing, can anyone confirm which hose connection on the servo unit that should be the pressure side. The one I got gets the pressure on the right hand larger connection with the return hose on the smaller one. The hoses has been replaced with custom made, could there have been a mix up?

//M

Sounds like you have a bad brazil valve(the black steering thing you mention), we had one go bad once, and you couldnt hold the wheel, it would just move all the way to one side anytime the pump was running.

That is correct. The balancing valve has gone bad. At one time you could get a kit and repair it, I would not recommend you do this , but purchase the complete assembly already set-up.

I had this happen when I rebuilt my transom. I put the lines back onto the valve in reverse from the valve to the steering ram.

It appears now as if the custom made hoses I recieved with the power steering stuff have the fittings mixed up (i.e. the pressure hose can only be attached to the return fitting on the cylinder).

I have arranged another set of hoses that I will try next weekend. I'll keep you posted...

The problem was solved completely with the new set of hoses.

Cool!