Steering loose DPA pic provided

"91 DP-A, My steering has went

"91 DP-A, My steering has went from being smooth to clunky and has a lot of play/loose. There is also a clanking/poping noise coming from the steering cylinder where the steering cable goes in. The source of the noise is the piston shaft popping in & out real quick on both ends before its moves back and forth. I attached pic of steering cyl. Any ideas what is wrong?
"

"David, you will need to someh

"David, you will need to somehow get the pinch bolt out of the spindle arm and remove the collar steering fork from the spindle arm and from the shield.
You will also want to remove the entire assist unit and inspect the mount and/or the slave side of the valving.

I see the later model assist units on e-Bay quite often. May be worth looking!"

"I hate to be critical, but wh

"I hate to be critical, but when was the last time that spindle arm saw any grease? It just amazes me that people will run boats day in and day out in water, both fresh or salt and never think about a little grease and oil to protect exposed parts. Pay me now or pay me a lot more later, is truely appropriate in this case."

"Casey P.... that is so true!

"Casey P.... that is so true! Most of us take better care of our clothes than we do our boats, cars, homes, etc.
I know.... I see this on customer's boats all too often."

Thanks for the instructions Ri

Thanks for the instructions Ricardo: just a few questions since your process seems a bit involved and technical for me...could my issue be from air in the system and if so how would you bleed it..when u say a assist unit is that the same as the black steering cylinder in the pic..I got the part name from the schematic print out from VP.

"Yes, this is a hydraulic assi

"Yes, this is a hydraulic assist cylinder, of which includes a slave valve.
If you had air in the system, it would have self purged with the operation of it...providing that the pump reservoir is up to snuff."

"I just bought this 91 26'

"I just bought this 91 26'carver last year and yes the previous owner neglected maintinence and the boat sat for many years under a tarp..the pic is from when I 1st bought the boat and I have since replaced and fixed a lot of items. I took pics of everything on the boat & drive so I could get a better understanding of the parts I did not recognize etc..and I knew at some point I would have to use the pics for forums like this..I had a VP mech. servive the drive as soon as i got it..new bellows,shift cable, greasing, gear oil, etc..and I greased all the nipples again before this season includung the one on top of the steering fork..I also soaked and cleaned up that rusted spindle arm with PB blaster...believe me the boat is now happy and getting TLC compared to the old owner..u could eat off the engine area now."

"Good.... the way I like to se

"Good.... the way I like to see it!

That reminds me..... I think I left a half eaten Cheese Burger on my Stbd engine! (I shouldn't be eating those anyway!)"

"Well I'm glad someone is

"Well I'm glad someone is taking care of her. Based on the above picture she was suffering from the major neglect of the previous owner.

Why someone would spend a bunch of money on something and then not maintain it just boogles my mind. Boats require constant attention. Always something to repair, grease, oil or paint and doing it gets old if you don't enjoy working with your hands."