Was just wondering if anyone could shed some light here. Have an 82 model 312 Stinger and the steering pretty sloppy and just almost has a mind of its own. Steers way too fast at times and will kind of just dart off on its own? Being new to having twins was wondering if maybe the tie bar was set wrong or something? The drives do have a good amount of slack in them too when moved manually. Please help if you can. Thanks.

I had the same problem with mine and it was the gimble housing needed replacing. I also had lots of slack in the steering wheel and drive . After replacing the gimble housing it steering like a new one.

Is it hydraulic steering?

Verify the alignment by comparing the center of the propshafts with the bullet or nose cones.

well one of the gimbles was just replaced so not sure if thats it? and no its not hydraulic, just regular power steering? and ok ill check that. that is what i was thinking was maybe something to do with adjusting the tie bar? thanks a lot for the help!

If you have slop in the drives then that is the problem. We just put full hydro on a boat that would do that, it was controllable up to about 50 mph but anything higher than that and it just started darting all over the place and was uncontrollable until you backed off the throttles, scary as hell. I started ducking down into the bolster when it would do it, I thought for sure it was going to hook and toss us.

Had similar problem it just felt loose but never darted either direction.

When boat was on lift grabbed tie bar and could swing drives 30 degrees left and right without it turning the wheel, all cable, steering fittings, and connections slop from the helm back to the steering arms on the drives. It was just worn out totally. Gimbals and drive pivots tight and perfect.
VERY UNSAFE, spent $7,000 on FULL Hydraulic system. Solved Problem.
Get it fixed before it hooks, spins out, and/or rolls over. and mine is 6 years newer than yours!