Corky,
The guys are right - you will have a certain amount of wandering at slow speeds - just a little practice and you'll get the hang of keeping the boat kind of straight.
Also, you should check the amount of free play on the lower unit (side to side) to make sure that you don't have excessive play. When you have your boat out of the water, you can check the side to side movement by grabbing the drive and seeing how much free-play there is and is should only be a few inches at the most. If you have more than an inch or two free play you may have a worn gimbal ring to steering shaft wear issue.
There are a few threads on this board about checking the Gimbal Ring to steering clamp. Here’s a thread from last Fall about winterizing and checking the gimbal ring to steering shaft clamp:
FYI:
Dream Inn provided a great list of things to do - but there is one very important thing that he missed and that's to re-torque the connection of the gimbal ring to the steering shaft - not only is this maintenance recommendation in my 2008 Mercury Mercruiser Operation, Maintenance & Warranty manual (dated November 2006, Page 67), it's in my Mercruiser Service manual (Dated 1998, Page 1B-3).
If you recall, there was several threads about gimbal ring replacement due to excessive wear on the gimbal ring / steering shaft connection, most likely caused by not checking the torque at least once a year:
http://www.rinkerboatowners.com/forum/index.php/topic,2926.0.htmlhttp://www.rinkerboatowners.com/forum/index.php/topic,3050.0.htmlAccording to both of my factory Mercruiser service manuals, you should re-torque the gimbal ring clamping screws every 100 hours of operation or annually which ever occurs first. Torque specs are 30-40 ft. lb. (47-54 N-m).
Another symptom of steering shaft to gimbal ring excessive wear is that when you come off plane, the boat will tend to "hook" slightly to the port side due to the excessive play on the gimbal ring.
.Hope this helps!
Steve
