Sea Ray 270DA Steering conundrum.

[Erichills]

I have recently acquired a Sea Ray 270DA with twin 4.3 litre petrol engines. We had arranged to spend last weekend training but when our instructor began to move the boat off the berth he exclaimed that the steering did not feel right - too heavy. Being new to boating and not having the benefit of making comparisons with other craft, I believed that the steering was as would be expected. The drift of it was that our training was aborted.

So, I had a mechanic take a look, swop the power steering pump and change the hydraulic fluid which made no difference. His opinion was that steering on this boat with the twin engine engine/outdrive configuration would be heavy.

Thing is, you do need two hands to turn the wheel which also has some 2/3" of play. Having spoken to other boat owners, I'm now thinking that perhaps our instructor was right and that the steering wheel should be easily turned with one hand. However, I'm not sure what believe.

Any feedback in this regard, would be most welcome.

 

[adrianb]

Hi Rusty

I had one of these new back in 1998 was my first cruiser. That steering set up does not sound right at all. Can I suggest a call to Marina Marbella, Hamble - they will point you in the right direction.

PS I have some service spares for your engines, pm if interested.

Adrian
www.cleanandshiny.co.uk

 

[David2452]

IIRC these are power assisted cable steered, now matter how good the PA is if the cable from the helm to PA ram is stiff then it will never be right. Disconnect the cable at the ram end and see how free it is. Mind you I would have expected the mechanic would have checked that befire replacing any PAS parts, but you never know

 

[Channel Ribs]

Heavy steering? On an American boat, yeah right /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I had the next model down and it had lovely steering, very easy and firm. The engineer clearly has too much work on. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[ArthurWood]

Used to have a 270DA with single engine. Very easy to steer. Contact Sea ray from their website to get a definitive answer. They are usually pretty quick to respond. You'll need hull ID.

 

[Erichills]

Thanks for your reply Malthouse. What spares do you have?

 

[hlb]

Sheeesh! my steering has not worked at all for the last few hundred miles.

I'm sure it will get mended one day! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[mercman]

On older boats with twins i would check your cable first. the slackness i.e. play could be because of this. also a too tight steering run can cause heavy steering.
if you have already swapped the pump over all that leaves is the cable(which is the cheaper option to try first) then try a power steering ram these can be between 300 and 500 pounds depending on your dealer.
where is the vessel i have many mercruiser contacts i can advise you to use and the ones which not too!
regards
mercman