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Moves freely when sitting still??? Really hard to move when motoring? Could it be a wrong prop? If prop was angled too much ?
I’m lost here.

Which boat do you have? If an X or M, are your rudders up or down?

26x. Rudders and keel up with no ballast.

50 Hp Honda motor (sorry to say)

Is it hard to steer in both directions or more one than the other? I'm wondering if your motor trim tab might be set wrong (or missing).

ErnieKim wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:53 am 26x. Rudders and keel up with no ballast.

Need more detail to provide any meaningful help. Maybe some photos, too.

With rudders and keel up, the boat won't steer worth a darn, but the wheel should be easy to move under power.

The symptoms you describe happen when (at least) one of the rudders is down, but not all the way down. In this case, the wheel would be easy to turn when not moving, but very hard to turn when moving, and the solution would be to make sure the rudders are all the way down.

I don't see how it could have anything to do with the prop. Sounds more like a steering hardware issue to me (if a rudder isn't partially down, I mean).

Starscream wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 2:30 pm Sounds more like a steering hardware issue to me (if a rudder isn't partially down, I mean).

Yeah, good catch. That would be the next thing to check.

Check the steering cable in the hold for crimps or sharp bends.
Check the cable core to see if its abraded or rusted.
Or just replace the cable anyway.

Since it happens with all of the "usual suspects" (the rudders) out of the picture it has to be something with the cables. The steering cable is not going to change at all moving the engine while running or not running. The only thing that will change is the throttle and shift cables will have moved. Does the hard steering show up in forward and reverse? Try both gears and various throttle positions to see when the hard steering begins. Does the boat have to be moving to experience the problem or can it be duplicated on the trailer?

As a former 2001 owner, this scenario sounds familiar. When I bought the boat at its five year mark, and for several years thereafter, I welcomed a certain amount of stiffness with the stock steering. It wasn't enough to make me think something was wrong, but it allowed me to step away from the helm and sail / motor hands free at times. In 2015, I ended up replacing the steering, because leading up to then the steering required increasingly harder effort as well reduced turning performance.

Upon removing the original rack and pinion steering from the helm for inspection, I discovered the pinion gear teeth had broken. I replaced the original R&P steering system with a new rotary steering system. IIRC, I also replaced the original 8' steering cable with a new 10' steering cable.

The difference between the older R&P steering and new rotary steering is like night and day! The new system felt like butter as well as eliminating the play at the wheel. The only downside was losing the step-away-stiffness that was inherent with the old steering.

Ernie,

You don’t state whether the problem occurs while sailing. Is there some sort of excess stress while the boat is moving as opposed to sitting still?

All of the responses are not quite successful in pinpointing a solution that applies to your description.

It seems you may have to inspect the entire system; cables, linkage, etc. If physically doing this yourself is beyond your comfort zone, I hope you have a trust worthy boat mechanic in Sarasota.

You don’t want steering failure while on the water. I do remember a post years ago about one of our board members who did have such a failure, and how he rigged a push pole to the motor, and used it as a tiller.

ErnieKim wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:12 am Moves freely when sitting still??? Really hard to move when motoring? Could it be a wrong prop? If prop was angled too much ?
I’m lost here.

"Sitting still": throttle at idle stop and shift cable centered.
"Motoring": throttle cable and shift cable will have moved.

Assumption: "sitting still" the engine was lowered. If the engine was raised while "sitting still" then the geometry of all three cables will likely have changed and I would then move the steering cable up to prime suspect.

We really need more information to help with this.