twin evinrude outboard misalignment

[g_reaper3]

I have a Twinvee catamaran with twin 150 evinrudes. The steering is hydraulic. Somehow during the winter the steering changed and the engines point much further inward than before (they always were angled in some). Since it is a cat, they are far apart so they cant hit each other. Also, at high speeds they straighten out but steering in the canal is difficult since they dont point straight back anymore. I also wonder if the steering will just go at some point.

Any thoughts? I dont know anything about hydraulic steering.

 

[wilde1j]

Re: twin evinrude outboard misalignment

Single cylinder or two? Generally, if one motor is slaved to the other, turn the slaved one free (trust me it will track just fine), get the boat planning at a decent cruise speed, then re-attach the loose motor while running. It will be adjusted fine ... just be careful to do this on flat water.

 

[Dhadley]

Re: twin evinrude outboard misalignment

Generally if you turn it hard over to hard over they will realign. On most cats each motor has a cylinder but there is no solid tie bar. If so they use the hydraulic tie bar system.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: twin evinrude outboard misalignment

I have no experience with hydraulic steering systems on boats but did spend some time working on hydraulic systems on airplanes. That said, I am wondering if you have air in the system. I would imagine that there is a procedure to bleed your steering system and re-align it.

 

[Dhadley]

Re: twin evinrude outboard misalignment

It's common for twins with a hydraulic tie bar to get misaligned. Sometimes they do it over a short period and the misalignment is so small you may not notice. The system may or may not have air in it. It may or may not have a valve that is by-passing slightly. Turning the wheel hard over in one direction then the other will corrct the alignment.

If the motors have a solid tie bar you may find both are over to one side after a period. Since it has a solid tie bar they will both be over the same direction obviously.

 

[g_reaper3]

Re: twin evinrude outboard misalignment

Thanks for the input. I will try the hard turn over turn and see if that works. There is no tie rod. The motors are actually quite far apart (about 66").

I will let you know.

 

[g_reaper3]

Re: twin evinrude outboard misalignment

Thanks everyone. Problem fixed. The lock to lock turns didnt work but when I followed the hydraulic lines from the engines they came together into a unit with a lever. When I flipped the lever, one engine was no longer connected so I straightened them out and then flipped the lever back. I assume this is the master slave arrangement mentioned. Anyways, it worked great, thanks again.