I will be able to tell you all the things not to do. It was going so good, but now it feels like I am starting over. The good thing is all the lines I made do not leak so that's a positive.

Told the ten year old that I am going to rachet strap a 2x4 to the drives and he is going to have to be my steering this weekend. He looked at me and said I am not sure I am going to be able to hold it when we are going fast.

The main reason for taking the Rams off or at least one is to avoid bending or stressing something if they are hooked up backward and fighting each other. I tested mine with one ram hooked up. That way I could see the tiller start to move from inside the boat.

I guess it's possible, but it's a pretty simple system, 2 lines off the helm pump to a T, the T hooks to the 4 ram lines. I thought when the wheel free spins in the opposite direction that means the lines are crossed.

This is exactly why I bleed the system only using the helm pump. Fill reservoir spin steering wheel and repeat until the Rams move. It's simple I can do it 100% by myself. It takes a little longer but it the end of the day power steering pumps don't get burned up.

Seems like a better way in hindsight, or the drill option. I am not 100% sure it is bad but I am guessing it is or it will not be long before it is completely bad. For the couple hundred $ I think I am going to replace it anyway.

I am writing this with my tail between my legs, but the good news is my new steering is fully functional now. Spent two days trying to figure out why I could only turn one way. Well, I was so confident in my own abilities that I hooked up the power steering feed line to one of the ram ports on the helm unit. Traced my lines three times and every time I thought it was in the right spot until I happen to glance at the diagram one more time. I felt so dumb, but I least I figured it out and we can go boating this weekend so everyone is happy at my house again. We also do not have to sell the boat anymore. The bad part is I can't even say something like I am not good at reading plumbing schematics, for years I spent time working on turbines and diesel gen-sets and that's all I did is read plumbing and electrical schematics. Ahhh..........

By the way Ron at IMCO is truly great and very helpful when you talk with him. Very please with his service.

X2 on Ron at Imco. Smart guy when you get into technical stuff aside from the rookie stuff like plumbing schematics....

Most people that never effed up haven't done much of anything!
Glad you figured it out.

Ron was excellent to deal with for me as well! I just finished up an install a couple weeks ago. Long story short, after hours of bleeding and re-tracing hoses, Ron diagnosed my symptoms over a 30 minute phone call as a bad helm. Got the new helm installed in 20 minutes, fired the motors and within 5 minutes it was good to go!

Yes definitely a rookie mistake, I even ran the lines one at a time and marked them so I wouldn't mess them up. No idea what I was thinking, I am going with I was tired late Sunday when I was finishing it up and hooking up the lines. I had looked at the schematic so many times I knew right where lines were to go on ghetto helm unit. Well that didn't work out for me, should have been looking at it while I was hooking them up too.