Maintenance On Steering Rams

[Wetpatch]

My boat is just on 2 years old and last week I noticed a dirty rust or dirt like substance that appeared on the Ram

I pulled the ram and linkages away from the out board motor and washed and greased the ram with a marine type grease

Is this the norm or do you fella's have a different method as spraying Inox or CRC just dilutes the grease and doesn't get in to fully lubricate the whole ram

After I had put it back together I noticed that the outboard has 2 to 3 mm freeplay before the wheel would turn all brackets are tight and the steeering wheels spins freely Id say its always been like this but its playing on my mind as whether this is normal in this type of steering or I have stuffed up

[cajun]

G'day Wetpatch,

Mine has some frreplay as well, but is much older than yours. I grease mine the same way as you described. I just make sure I turn it lock to lock a few times during the periods I don't use it. Usually after running the outboard thru the ears.

Steering seems to be the perfect example of "use it or lose it".

Ken

[Wetpatch]

Thank Cajun

I went and had a squize a week ogo at the new ones at Blakes and Tr marine yeah they all had the free play some where worse than mine