Steering System

waterboy

Hi Everyone,  If anyone can help me out here I would appreciate it. Last yr I bought the SS 188OB and powered it with the E-Tec 175hp. Like the boat, love the e-tec but it steers horribly. First the marina in Ontario where I bought it all put a BayStar steering system on it. It was a terrible system as it is made for engines 150 and below. It took all my strength to turn the wheel.  Had a problem when I backed off the throttle. The boat would hook sharp alsmost throwing me out of the boat. I was scared to drive it.  With a few threatening phone calls I managed to get them to sttempt to fix the steering. They put a U-Flex system on the boat but the boat still doesnt handle well.  I believe they put on the u-flex for a smaller Mercury engine. Turning the wheel is still very difficult and choppy especially when the boat is accerlerating. My prior boat was a v-hull with a 8 cylinder engine and always handled well.  When I turn this boat it seems I am turning the wheel forever to get the engine from centre to the left or right before it will come to the end. If anyone can tell me of their steering experiences I would be grateful

Bryan

 

nquirk

@waterboy.  You've indicated that you've had both a Baystar and now a UFlex system.  You're absolutely correct that the Baystar is for under 150.  The 'torque' of the E-Tec would rip it from your hands and try to spin your boat hard starboard.

The SeaStar hydraulic steering system is great, but again, for that size engine with a front mount setup on the SS188, you should've had the SeaStar system from them installed.  It is the unit above the BayStar made for the larger outboards.

I have the SeaStar on my SS188 with a 200HP Mercury.  Works fantastic.  What I can tell you is that the system is a little firm at low speeds/idle but really is responsive on plane, etc.  This is a good thing.  Also, you'll never be able to find the softness to compare to your V8.

As for the U-Flex system I don't know anything about them nor could I find details.  However, if it is the right size to fit that engine (determine that first), then I'm inclined to believe from your assessment that its difficult to turn when accelerating that the hydraulics lines haven't been bled properly and there is still some air in the steering system.  (I've had it happened when mine was first installed.  After the water test, we corrected it and the steering was fine afterwards)

If you need to bleed the system (and decide to do it yourself).  Get the proper hose to connect to the filler plug near the helm to a bottle of hydraulic steering fluid.  Puncture a small hole in the bottom of the bottle and get someone to hold the bottle upside down, (allow the air to escape).  Then while they're holding it, work the steering wheel slowly completely from left to right and back again, until you see the air feed back up the line.  Continue this until all of the air is out of the line.  May get a little messy so if you can get your dealer to do this, great.  But if you live far away, and you want to be sure, this is a fairly inexpensive way to ensure there isn't air in your steering system

Hope this is helpful/useful and solves your problem.

 

 

waterboy

thank you for your answer.  I went up on the weekend and had a closer look. The helm says "seastar" and the system on the etec is the U-flex.  If I turn the engine all the way to one side and then count the complete revolutions it takes the wheel to go all the way to get the motor to stop at the other side it is 4.5. I compared it to my neighbours pontoon boat which took 2.5 turns.  Docking the boat is difficult because the boat just goes with the current at the low speed and because of all the play in the wheel and i have no control at the slow speed. Can a uflex system and a seastar helm be used together? Without taking the boat to the same useless dealer how difficult is it to remove 2 turns from the helm.  This is a dangerous boat the way it is.

 

nquirk

I don't believe you can change the number of turns lock to lock (full starboard to full port).  That is usually specific to type of hydraulic steering system and how it is made to its corresponding size of engine, etc. 

As for the interchangeability of the helm with the steering system, I have no idea but would assume they'd be similar (again, some assumptions that the fittings and hydraulic hose is similar inner diameter, etc)

Did you get the model of the uflex steering system and compare it online to see if it matches the one for your engine?  That would be the first starting point.

 

 

nquirk

Also, this is not a situation where a 150 and a 175 HP engine share the same engine block and weight with different HP.  The extra HP and torque needs to accounted for so you need to sure the right sized hydraulic cylinder matches that rating of the engine.

 

waterboy

I checked with U-flex. and nquirk you are correct. You cant change the number of turns. U-Flex was quite helpful.  I sent them a photo of the cylinder and he confirmed it was the larger one which can work on engines over 300hp but believed the helm was the wrong size although it is SeaStar. He was able to figure the helm is a 1.7 cubic something and I should maybe go to a 2.  It will drop the turns to 3.65 from 4.30.  To me that still seems to be to much turning and unresponsiveness. The trade off to go larger helm pump is the steering wheel will be harder to turn as the pump increases in size but will gain responsiveness. 

If anyone out there has a O/B of 175 and larger on a Hurricane boat can you tell me what your experiences are with the steering. 

He also mentioned I could have an airlock. To confirm put the boat on the trailer. Place foot on the cavitation plate and push hard seeing if there is any play.  If there is turn the steering-wheel until i hit the lock and then force it another 1/2 turn. This will apparently not hurt or break anything but may release the airlock.  

Everything nquirk mentioned above was exactly what U-flex talked about.

nquirk

@waterboy, hope its just an airlock and you get your steering issue resolved.

 

I just realized from your original post you mentioned Ontario.  Where in Ontario?  I'm also a Canuck, living in Ottawa and boat 40 mins outside of town near White Lake.

waterboy

Oddly enough i am also on another White lake which is just east of Peterborough at the end of Stoney lake.This landlocked lake is 3 miles by 1 mile.. 35 years ago it was called White lake and then it was changed to Dummer Lake. Last year someone petitioned to change it back.  Although it was a stupid name it was the only one.  There are a few White lakes.

Again thanks for the help. If you could count your turns next time you are on the boat I would like to know. I will do a bit more research and maybe look into changing the helm size at the end of the year.

nquirk

@waterboy.... I'll check the turns out this weekend and let you know.