Play in steering

[madsonp]

I have a 2007 Bayliner 205 SE with a 5.0 Liter engine that has power steering. I have quite a bit of play in the steering (approx 4 inches). Is there any adjustment that can be made to tighten this up a bit ?

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,..... 1st, you have to identify exactly where the play is, then deal with what ya find,....

It's best done with 3 people, 1 at the wheel, 1 at the drive, 'n 1 lookin' at the components in-between for slop as the 1st 2 either hold, or shake what they're holdin',.....

 

[madsonp]

Thanks, I'll see what I can figure out.

 

[harringtondav]

Adding to Bondo , Turn the steering wheel back and forth, and have someone watch the steering lever at the cable clevis at the transom. Any lost motion will tell you how much play is in the steering gear. Then shake the out drive right and left. This will give you and idea of the play between the steering lever and gimbal ring. You can squeeze some of this out by tightening the two bolts at the top of the gimbal ring to tighten up the grip on the steering shaft. You'll need to steer the out drive hard right and left to access the inside nuts. The steering lever connection to the shaft is almost impossible to tighten with the engine installed. I'm small, and by removing the power steering cylinder, I wedged myself in far enough to get a little wrench action on that joint. All of this reduced some of my excess play. I have a Teleflex rack and pinion steering gear. I disassembled it, and ground some material from the pinion case to remove backlash. I overdid it, and had to shim it to restore working backlash. Short story: there are no adjustments, only places to squeeze out free play.

 

[DouglasW]

With the engine running or just shut off, try to move the outdrive from side to side. The power steering ram will keep it locked in place for a while. If you can move it more than an inch measured at the back end of the cav plate, you probably have a lot of looseness in the steering swivel shaft bearing attachment. Loosen and re-tighten the two small bolts facing aft on the top of the drive. I went from about 1" of play to about 1/4" of play after that. That is supposed to be done every year as part of the maintenance routine.

If that doesn't help enough, you can purchase a kit to drill two holes in the upper housing to allow you to do the same thing to the steering swivel shaft lever attachment bolt. The kit included threaded plugs for the holes and a template to guide you. You will have to supply the drill and tap separately. This kit allows you to use socket wrenches to loosen and tighten the bolt and nut that attach the lever to the swivel shaft. Another type of kit is for cutting a square hole in the back of the housing in order to use end wrenches. There is also a special set of end wrenches available,

If your steering system uses a sheathed cable, like mine, It will always have significant amount of play at the steering wheel.