Sea Star Hydraulic Steering

Your very bumpy/lumpy steering may not be from your hydraulic system.
Air in the system may cause some mush but not hard to turnover issues.

I fear you have fouled rudders or a binding rudder post. Disconnect the linkage and hand rotate the rudders to check this.

Leave the bleeder tubing in place. It needs never be removed or opened up.

I see pink in that picture, somebody already been messing with that cylinder or is it leaking?

Rudder bearing is a reasonable suspect. Been there. Bought the ride.

Bumpy or hard steering isn’t an hydraulic issue but a hardware problem. I had this happen on an 84 which developed a hard spot turning to port. You d have to crank up the steering and then the rudder would jump

Nobody could figure it out then while returning from a pre purchase survey sea trial the tiller just broke coming into the channel to the marina. Rudders were pretty much amidship so I put my poker face on and slowed down steering with the engines all the way to the slip. Nobody noticed… neither the surveyor, brokers, buyers etc. Turned out to be the rudder bearing.

You might be low on fluid. The steering wheel is higher than the auto pilot pump. Auto pilot might have enough fluid to work well despite the system being low on fluid

You have no idea how hard that AP pump is working to turn the rudders.
Yes, check the fluid levels.
Then check your rudders as responded to and not argue to your responses.

I am constantly at a loss when people argue with responses.
If their the sudden expert, then why ask us?

Low fluid will result in the wheel turning loose. What you describe is rudders binding.

Check those tie rod ends. They can freeze up causing tightness in steering.

Agreed, or keep arguing and leave her moored.

What I think you are describing is exactly how I described the feeling when my system was low on oil before I rebuilt the helm pump and steering cylinder. Check the oil level. Add if necessary. You may get lucky and it will self bleed or you may need to bleed it manually. That hose is just connected to the bleeder nipples. I have seen people store the hose that way so it' available when bleeding is necessary.

Store? No need to remove it from its service position.
It the picture you can see the clear, by-pass tube still has fluid it it from it's last service use.
In the picture is an old fluid stain possibly from that poor fitting hose clamp but that tube (hose) needs to stay rite where it is.
Please re-read post # 2, 3, 4, 9 & 11.

Took a closer look at the picture . On my Ocean the setup is very similar but where the bypass tube (didn't know there was such a thing) is attached , mine has something like a brake bleeder valve that I attach a clear hose to perform the bleed process. I then close the bleeder and remove the hose. Please explain how this bypass tube works. Certainly it could be something more drastic but I still think the system is low on oil and causing the lumpy feel. Hopefully, if you didn't scare him off in post 7, the op will report back after there is a resolution.

Like a car brake bleeder nipple, Open these on each end of the cylinder and the helm pump will rotate the fluid full circle.
Every tech has their own schedule on how/when to do this vs the position of the cylinder's position (full std/port).

If I offer any more, I'll have to either kill you or you buy first round.

I'm a fan of keeping things simple. Mark the bolt locations on the tiller arms, and drop those bolts. 3 minutes are required to do this. Now you are free to operate the tillers by hand to check their mobility, and the ram is free to move without any resistance. You want to rule out cutlass bearing restrictions and know that your rudders turn freely without restrictions. At that point your issue has been purely reduced to the hydraulics.

I really don’t think so. First post stated “hard and lumpy and hard to to run over”

low fluid level result in just the opposite: wheel will turn with very little effort until it suddenly gets some fluid and rudders start turning.

completely different issue and symptoms

Agree with Dr, Pascal..
Hard and lumpy is not a low fluid problem but rather helm-pump damaged or worn out, or both.
Been there done that on a previous boat,
A new helm pump was about $1k at Lewis Marine wholesale in Fort Lauderdale.