3207 Hynautic steering gone bad

[Six7390GT]

Over the years, the steering on our 1984 3207 has been getting harder and harder to turn the wheel. I'm pretty good at mechanical stuff - I replaced both engines with GT40 marine engines several years ago - but I'm not sure where to start with the steering issue. I added air to the reservoir last year, which helped a little, but now it's worse than before. I've done a search on this site, but haven't yet found a thread that helps me diagnose and repair the steering. Our boat has an upper helm as well as one in the salon. Can someone point me towards a solution for the hard steering?

[km1125]

You might want to start by disconnecting the ram from the rudders to make sure the problem is in the hydraulic side.

[Six7390GT]

Thanks for the reply. I disconnected the ram, and the rudder steering bar doesn't move freely by hand. I'm not a young guy, but I'm having difficulty moving it at all.
A little history, we've had this boat since 1998. We moved into another older house about 10 years ago, and up until then this boat was our baby, we were out on it as much as possible, we've made countless trips to the Gulf Islands on it from the Seattle area, but it has not seen a lot of use since then. I'm pretty good about keeping up with the normal maintenance, changing oil and fuel filters, keeping up on the cooling and exhaust systems, and we spend nights on the boat at our marina, but the boat hasn't been out much for several years.
Before I disconnected the hydraulic ram, I cycled the steering lock to lock about 30 times and it seemed to loosen up a bit. The wheel is also turning to starboard nearly normally now, but turning to port is noticeably more difficult, and the helm pump makes more noise in that direction.
I'm thinking that hooking the cylinder back up and cycling lock to lock many more times might be what it needs. But I would certainly appreciate any good advice to help loosen the rudders/steering up.

[waybomb]

Do I understand correctly, with the ram disconnected, the rudders are very difficult to move? There should be some resistance, but you should also be able to move them.
The air in the reservoir only pushes the fluid up to the helms, which are the pumps that move the fluid that moves the piston in the ram. The air has no effect on steering force.
With the ram disconnected. Does the steering work freely?

[Six7390GT]

Source of the post Do I understand correctly, with the ram disconnected, the rudders are very difficult to move? There should be some resistance, but you should also be able to move them.
The air in the reservoir only pushes the fluid up to the helms, which are the pumps that move the fluid that moves the piston in the ram. The air has no effect on steering force.
With the ram disconnected. Does the steering work freely?

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the rudders are very difficult to move - possibly from lack of use for several years? I do start the engines at least every other week, and I always move the steering lock to lock a few times while the engines are running.

[km1125]

What kind of water does the boat sit in? Is it possible there's a lot of marine growth on the rudder shafts where they go through the stuffing boxes? Do you have stuffing boxes for the rudder shafts or do you have some type of dripless seal there? Have you tried spraying some lubricant on the rudder shaft and working the shaft to see if it makes its way down the shaft? (caution though... depending on the shaft seal you might need to use a type of lube that won't damage the seal)

[Six7390GT]

Thanks for the reply. The boat sits under cover in salt water, we're in the Seattle area. We have our divers out every 6 months to do hull scrubbing and zincs. They serviced our boat earlier in the week and said everything looked good. The rudders have standard stuffing boxes and have flax packing in them. I have some kroil penetrating oil I thought I might use to try to loosen up the rudder shafts. If anyone has a suggestion for a different lube please let me know.
I tried to post a couple of pics of Choices that I took earlier in the week, but wasn't sure how to post them. Do I need to have them stored online somewhere? With the GT40 marine engines, fresh bottom paint and props she'll run 32 knots - if you can afford the gas.

[km1125]

Source of the post Thanks for the reply. The boat sits under cover in salt water, we're in the Seattle area. We have our divers out every 6 months to do hull scrubbing and zincs. They serviced our boat earlier in the week and said everything looked good. The rudders have standard stuffing boxes and have flax packing in them. I have some kroil penetrating oil I thought I might use to try to loosen up the rudder shafts. If anyone has a suggestion for a different lube please let me know.
I tried to post a couple of pics of Choices that I took earlier in the week, but wasn't sure how to post them. Do I need to have them stored online somewhere? With the GT40 marine engines, fresh bottom paint and props she'll run 32 knots - if you can afford the gas.

If they're on your computer, just upload them like this:

CYO_posting_pics.jpg

[Six7390GT]

Thanks - I'll try again.

[waybomb]

Based on what you said about difficulty in moving the rudders, I'd start there. Gotta free then up from whatever is causing the fiction.