Re: stiff steering
More likely, you have a bunch of caked up, dried up old grease in there, defying your attempts to add new grease. It's important to grease those things on a regular basis. I do mine twice a season, but that's pure fresh water use. In salt water, more frequent greasing is needed.
What to do now? You could try removing the fitting and use some hand tool to bore through the hardened grease, then put in a new fitting and try to get some fresh grease in there. It's also possible to dissolve the old grease, once you get through the caked up stuff, by injecting a solvent through the fitting and working the steering to help distribute it. It can take a bit of time and hard work, but once you can grease the thing so fresh grease is well-distributed, frequent regreasing should eventually rectify the situation.
Of course, you could also tear the assembly down and clean it up and check the parts, but that's a big job. I'd work on trying to do it the other way.
