Anybody ever have a problem with the helm hard to turn at idle ? As soon as rpm brought up steering is no problem. Thinking about changing pulley on pump. Any thoughts?
thanks in advance.

if there was no problem prior or this is not a fresh rig or install, i would check the high pressure filter.

What kind of system??? Full hyd, add on, or cable???

Add on dual ram is often hard to turn at idle.

I am not too sure about changing the pump on the pulley. If you double the speed of the pump at idle, you are going to double it at speed as well. That equals a lot of heat and would probably result in premature failure of the pump. If anything, I would open up the orifice on the discharge side of the pump first (as recommended by steering mfgs for dual ram, single engine setups)or as said before, find the source of the problem if there has been a change in behavior. Imco's website has the required orifice diameter and it's quick and easy to do.

Rene

Check the fluid level, consider flushing the system, consider raising idle just a tad.

Thanks to all. I will take them all into consideration!!

The stock Merc PS will do that if it needs bleeding ....Turn it lock to lock several times ....

CK voltage, my boat had a dead battery on one engin and was hard to steer until the voltage came up.

How is voltage tied into rpm?

I don't understand that either.