we jsut bought a 53 ft. drifter house boat, 1 reverse is out, hydraulic fluid leaks under the insdie helm. are htese boats known for these problems, any ideas where or what to check on no reverse first? we are new boat owners and hubby is sick,, so trying to figure it out alone. thanks! nancy

Nancy, I am afraid you are confusing two separate problems. Your reverse has nothing to do with your hydraulic steering. Start looking for your "no reverse" problem at the transmission for that particular engine. With the boat securely tied and running at idle, you should be able to shift that engine into forward, neutral and reverse by hand using the lever on the side of the transmission where the shift cable connects. If all works well there then you know that you have a cable or helm shift control problem. Sometimes it can be a simple spring clip where the cable is connected to the control mechanism that is allowing the cable to be pulled or pushed one way and slip going the other way. As to your hydraulic leak, that is definately the steering box and can be as simple as a loose fitting or someone may have overfilled it and it is burping out excess fluid when turned. Good luck. 

Thank you so much! seems like the forward and nuetral work just fine, a guy at the marina said he thought it had an electronic solonoid of some kind for this type of tramsmission. no cables , electric shift. no one seems to know about these where we are. thanks so much for your help/ how can we tell how mcuh fluid goes inthe steering? no books seem to be available on this old boat. a 74 drifter,it is port side that reverse is gone. thanks again,nancy