Kicker Steering hydraulic question

Captain PartyMarty

Crew Member
I am working on setting up a kicker motor on my second Seasport which has an inboard Volvo. The steering is currently hydraulic and the Volvo has a seastar steering ram. I hate tie bars so I don’t really want to go that way.

Has anybody just added a tee to the existing steering cylinder and connected the kicker via a steering ram to the hydraulic system. Is there a reason this won’t work? Will the system bleed properly if the bleed screws are on the kicker ram?
 
My main is a Volvo D3 inboard with hydraulic steering and Yamaha 9.9 kicker that is hydraulically steered with a separate ram outside the transom, and hydraulic lines tee'd in. There are valves to lock out whichever motor is not being steered. Quick and easy to switch over and has been reliable over 20 years.
 
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