Tilt issue on Evinrude motor

[Bduck]

Curt, I did mine also, I helped obi with tooling to fix his since we both have the Yamaha outboard. The noise your hearing most likely is the ram struggling with air mixed in with fluid but don't count out possibility of water seeping into the system. I feel you should pursue changing seal with fluid. Freds Marine should have what you need. It will be a lot cheaper to replace the seals than to replace the ram. Can you post a pic of ram leaking?