Steering Wanders
 

I recently removed and reinstalled my drive (replaced gimbal bearing).

Since, my steering seems to wander. I was told to do the following:

"Remove steering cable from steering arm from splined shaft.
Have someone hold the drive on the outside and take the steering arm and move it
back and forth.
If there is play between the splined shaft and the arm you will feel it.
If this is the problem then tighten the bolt and nut that holds the arm to the
shaft. This could tighten everything back up. If not you will need to replace
the splined shaft and the arm."

Any further suggestions would be appreciated. If anyone has any pictures or drawings of this assembly. My drive is a Volvo DP-S.

Thanks,
Miles

Is this wander at idle speed, I thought the drunken sailor swagger was common to all i/o's without hyd. steering

The boat has hydrolic steering. The wander occurs while on plane at about 30mph. Also, it just started.

Is pushing the drive to the left or right bad for the hydrolic steering?

Miles

I think mine only pushed easy one way

It has Hydraulic steering? Then the tiller arm on the inside would have nothing to do with the steering anymore.
Unless you mean regular power steering. Then it would have an assist cylinder on the inside of the boat that helps to move the tiller arm. Full hydraulic steering has one or two cylinders on the outside of the boat and a hydraulic helm.

If it is full hydraulic then it sounds like there is air in the system for some reason.

Hi,

Yes, it is a full hydrolic system and there is a cylinder system on the inside of the transom that attaches to the steering arm.

If it does have air in the system, is there a simple way to bleed the system?

Also, is pushing the drive to the left or right bad for the hydrolic steering? Could this have caused this?

Thanks for your help. This message board has really helped me out :-)

Miles :-)

Let's get this straight..... is there one or two steering cylinders on the OUTSIDE of the boat, running from the transom to the top of the drive? Or is there a single cylinder on the INSIDE of the transom attached to a short arm that goes thru the transom to the top of the drive? I'm not all that familiar with the Volvo drives.... is the DP-S one of their drives with the built in hydraulic steering (two short steering cylinders lower on the drive attached to the gimblal ring at one end, and the drive itself on the other, again, on the outside of the boat)?? I thought only the DPX had this steering??

Hi,

There a single cylinder on the INSIDE of the transom attached to a short arm that goes thru the transom to the top of the drive.

There are NO steering cylinders on the outside of the boat (as you described for the DPX).

THanks,
Miles :-)

Moving the drive left or right will not hurt the hydraulic system.
If it worked properly at one time the the spines on the tiller are are worn, or air was introduced to the system somehow. Did it run low on fluid or remove a line?
To bleed it you will make a mess out of your bilge, if you have to break loose a line to preasure bleed the system. I know the external system will self bleed by turning lock to lock several times. The add on systems ( that is where the stock powersteering system is kept intack and an external ram is added to the system) have to be bleed to get rid of the air.