Hydraulic steering advice please

[Rokraider]

I have a passive hydraulic steering system on the Pacific that I believe is made by Baystar. It is operating a Hamilton 273 jetdrive nozzle. There appears to be what feels like play in the steering, making for pretty vague handling. I replaced the rose joint on the RAM that was looking old and all the mechanical side of things look good, which raises the question over whether the hydraulic valves etc cause lag / play. The steering does about a turn and a half from lock to lock.
Hayling Rescues Jet RIB has a cable and it has less than 1 turn lock to lock.
My question is whether there is an inherent fault with the design that translates as freeplay in the steering or is there a tuning tip that might improve things?

It has been bled through and out of the water with no load, seems fairly tight, but I can't see what it is like under load.

I am tempted to convert it to cable if the hydraulics can't be improved, but the sand at Hayling Island is so fine, it gets into everything and the club Ribs all suffer with the cables giving up fairly quickly, so if the Hydraulics can be improved, it is probably a better option.

[C-NUMB]

Don't know about jetdrives, but previous time installed a hydraulic system it was a baystar.
After firs attempt there was little play, butt next weekend did a new, pretty quick bleed procedure and after that there was no play at all. Try to move the nozzle by hand if its possible(when boat is ashore) and check is there any play in the cylinder or elsewhere.

The baystar pump is small(1.4), a seastar 2.4 would has less turns lock to lock.

[mick]

Give these guys a ring http://www.hypromarine.com

[Rokraider]

Thanks for the advice. I will have to investigate further as something has to improve.