Any thoughts on a better steering linkage setup? My bolt shifts sometimes under heavy load and I lose steering input. I tried tightening it down,etc but the bar shifts limiting my range of steering.

so that extension piece would replace this sliding pivot piece?

The sliding bracket and angled piece came off my old pump and thus I just copied the setup when I installed the place diverter. Would I still use the angled bracket connected to the diverter and just connect the steering extension to that?

Technically I probably should have attached the bucket cable to that sliding bracket (so the bucket cable sits flat and right above the steering cable) to avoid the angle in the last 6 inches or so but I figured the angle isn't that severe to per-maturely damage the cable and the mount was more secure being attached directly to the nozzle rather than sort of free floating.

Even the place diverter instructions say to reposition the bucket bracket and mount it lower to use a mounting point for the bucket cable which I did.

You can see from the pictures here all the 12JE/JF all that sliding bracket.

https://www.berkeleyjet.com/t-Berkeley-Jet-Pump-Identification-Guide.aspx

I can align the steering cable and wheel just fine if I center it on that adjustable steering bracket (thus why I think it has the slot so can center and align everything. I clamped everything down with lock nuts and nylon washers but things still move a little, you can tell the bracket bent a little from steering force.

I may try to eliminate sliding bracket and just connect the cable to the angle fixed bracket coming off the pump instead. My steering cables comes out the back of the transom down low like in the pic attached.

Here is a pick of that bracket on a stock JE pump

Edit: I found another image on the webs of someone using the same sliding bracket with a place diverter. They didn't use the bucket mount though like the place instructions indicate, they used the same stock JE method.

https://www.performanceboats.com/threads/got-my-first-jet-boat-few-qs.105073/#lg=thread-105073&slide=2

Edit, another image of someone who mounted it like me with the sliding bracket.
https://www.screamandfly.com/showthread.php?218314-Place-Diverter

Anther member on here has similiar bracket but it doesn't have the cut-out to slide, just a single piece.
http://www.socaljetboats.com/jet-pumps/need-advice-on-diverter-for-12je/?action=dlattach;attach=290251;image

@Jered503

Guess I will be experimenting to see if I can eliminate this bracket or find a replacement solid piece once instead.

I ended up getting the 5" extension and 3" purple nozzle insert (currently only had the stock red one but it seems lighter smaller boats like mine can seem to benefit from smaller inserts and pick up a few mph) for the place diverter during black Friday from them. The 5" extension looks like it will work just fine, I quickly just put some bolts through both holes and tested steering and it seemed fine. I will revise my bolt setup on the first linkage part given it is curved so washers don't exactly sit flush to keep it tight.

No more sliding bolts and brackets. Aligning steering wheel centered is easy enough with the fixed steering extension tube. Thank you for your help!