power steering from just starboard engine-

19ed50

Member
Jun 1, 2021
48
Boat Info
1997 280 ss twin 350's gen 2
Engines
twin 350's w/ gen 2 drives
twin 350 mercs- posted this complaint several weeks ago- I forgot to thank the gentleman who advised me 'by design'- power steering should be by both engines- is there a retrofit- thank you to anyone who can solve this idiocy- thank you- 19ed50
 
I'm not familiar with the 280 specifically, but the Mercruiser power steering system for the I/O's consist of a power steering pump similar to that used by General Motors through the 90's. Then a cable from the steering that is pulled and pushed by a gear on the back of the steering wheel then it goes into an assembly that opens the valve to assist the motion of left and right on the outdrive unit as the cable pushes or pulls it left or right. On twins they then connect the two outdrive steering arms together with a rod. It's not a hydraulic system but rather a hydraulic assisted system. You can only have the one pump on one engine to make it work. If you got longer hoses made you could switch the pump to the other engine but it doesn't really make sense to do such a thing.
 
Or scrap the whole power steering idea and install a SeaStar Hydraulic Steering system like the PO did on my boat. All the OEM steering parts were removed (including pumps/pullys, cables) and the steering hub is now the SS system's with two oil lines going to the transom to a hydraulic ram. The ram is attached to the stb steering lever which is tied with the OEM bar to the port steering lever. Very smooth, needs a bit more effort to steer under way but you can take your hand off the wheel and it won't budge until you turn it. More precise.
 
twin 350 mercs- posted this complaint several weeks ago- I forgot to thank the gentleman who advised me 'by design'- power steering should be by both engines- is there a retrofit- thank you to anyone who can solve this idiocy- thank you- 19ed50
Unsure as to your '97, but my '92 only uses the starboard engine's P/S pump. The port engine still has a pump, so, as @Hoplite808 pointed out, you could run longer hoses to connect to it. I guess my only question would be why you'd want to. One engine supplies more than enough to operate the system. Is it just for redundancy's sake?
 
A others mentioned, you only need one power steering pump "in operation" and a tie bar to connect the two outdrives together on the inside of the transom. That's perfectly normal and it's done this way on many, many thousands of boats - all with no issues. What you have is normal and good... leave it alone and look to spend your money elsewhere :)
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,945
Messages
1,422,754
Members
60,928
Latest member
rkaleda
Back
Top