I just bought this boat back. had it 5 years ago. had this rather distressing quirk. cruising along at speed and pull off the throttle. boat turns right HARD. first time it happened was in a skinny little channel. stock Merc alpha ones. with tie-bar between drives. unaltered steering. 23 Mirage props. a little work done to the 350's. anyone experience anything like this? thanks.

I did once. I bled the power steering lines and it went away. It is a royal PITA to do but I dis connected the pressure line from the steering ram and connected the discharge end to a long hose that emptied into a bucket in the bilge. I filled the PS pump then ran the engine at idle until I had expelled any air in the line out. I reconnected the line to the steering ram and all was fine.

The first thing I would try would be to turn the wheel through several cycles with the engine running. Check the PS pump to make sure it is full. You may have to do this several times before you get all of the air out.

I have often wondered if PS fluid goes bad after a period of time.

Good luck with this.

You probably do not have counter rotating Alpha drives or Hydraulic steering. That will at least partially cause the hard pull.
You could also have bad Gimbal Rings with a lot of slop.

steering isn't particularly loose. i guess rigging could be part of problem. nothing special in the way it's built. same cheap mercruiser steering and gimbals found on boats made to go 35. not counter-rotating. but then every Nova and every other 26-8 twin small block boat is built this way...when i had it before it was running junkyard short blocks with 327-375 cams. now it has rebuilts with Dart heads, alum intakes. does 63 gps which i hear is respectable for this boat. probly gonna be even more fun to control!

I have an 86 nova 3, that I am in process of visual update and restore. Exterior is all done, and cockpit is done(less gauges), just need to get into the cuddy. What kind of RPM's and mph are you seeing with the 23p. I am turning 21p and cant seem to get over 4k rpms on either motor, I am thinking I am having some issues with the carbs. Working on a battle plan, just looking for ideas.

I know the factory ran 23p cleavers at 62 or 63 mph at 4600rpm.

I had a similar problem with my 260's in my 255 Lib...found a nearly plugged filter strainer in the tank outlet fitting. That solved it for a while. Problem returned with RPM limit dropping from 4700 to 4400 then 4200. I chased carbs and timing with not much help. The secondaries would open with not much of an increase in speed or RPM. The engines pulled fine up through 3700~3800 and then seemed to top out. I found a GREAT deal on a pair of stout 355 Vortec roller motors that I am swapping in as I write this. My other thought was to buy 2: pair of Vortec heads and slip in a ZZ4 roller cam. If your rotating assemblies are solid this might be a consideration.

I'm an "old school" Chevy Drag Racer and used to get 327's and 350's to respond well to head and cam changes...back when Dart or "186/041 Double humps" were the "head". These new Vortec heads bone stock flow more and are bigger torque producers than the old heads were on their best day.

I can't wait to get mine back in the water so I can get a solid comparison before and after...stay tuned.

oops

i have had the boat for 2 weeks, this time around. one motor is spread all over my garage, so i dunno what it does as it sits for sure. he told me it does 63 on GPS we also have significant current in the delaware river here in philadelphia so he might be quoting a speed when the moon and tides were giving him a couple 3 mph head start. i will ask him about WOT RPM. boat also has GLM alum exhaust on it. i don't know if flow is any better than stock mercs, but it takes a couple hundred pounds off the back of the boat.

I have been giving real serious thought to new edelbrock carbs, aluminum 64cc heads and new RPM intake and 1.6 roller rockers. That should bump up the power a decent amount while shedding major weight off the ass end of the boat. Also I would imagine that should take care of what ever gremlins are causing low WOT. Want to do cams but, have to pull the motors, and not a project I want to get underway right b-4 boating season starts!

Then I figure in a year or two, pull the motors stroke'em and cam'em.

pull the back seat. pull cams and pull forward until they hit wall behind seat. make a mark. whip out ye olde hole saw. only need about a 2 to 3 inch hole. screw a plate over it when done.