Augoose
Lieutenant Junior Grade
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2010
- Messages
- 1,223
All,
I'm helping out on a center console with steering issues and I'm looking for assistance. The issue is that there is no steering response from the dual Mercury 150's when we turn the wheel at the helm.
Because the boat has been sitting for about 2 years (indoors) we decided that the Sea Star Outboard Hydraulic Steering Cylinder might be frozen or some other mechanical interference was causing the lack of steering. After removing the cylinder completely along with the hoses, the cylinder operates normally as does the rest of the steering linkage. If we keep either bleed screw open on the cylinder, you can physically push the engines from port to starboard. As soon as we close the bleed screw it locks down and we can no longer push the engines side to side.
We then inspected the Sea Star / Teleflex 1.7 Tilt helm, HH5741 for any obvious signs. There seemed to be no leaks that we could find and the fluid level seemed to be full.
We then tried to bleed the system of any air and had one person turn the wheel to starboard as the bleed screws on the cylinder were opened - fluid and spurts of air shot out of both bleed screws at either end of the cylinder when turning to starboard. I don't recall what happened when the wheel was turned to port during this part of the test.
The person turning the wheel noticed that there was a heavy amount of resistance when turning to port (engines were already positioned at full turn to port) and the wheel seemed to "skip" between heavy resistance to light resistance and then back again to heavy, but only when turning to port. When turning to starboard, the engines never moved and there was little to no resistance in the wheel and would turn indefinitely with again no response from the engines.
We drained quite a bit of the fluid which was pretty dark and replaced it by pouring it into the intake at the top of the helm. After filling it up until it would take no more, we bled the system by releasing the bleed screws and turning the wheel to port. After filling and bleeding several times, the helm wouldn't take any more fluid but the engines still didn't turn.
How does the system work? Is pressure created by the turning wheel force fluid into one side of the cylinder, thereby forcing the cylinder to move the engines or is there a separate pump that I haven't found?
Thanks all
I'm helping out on a center console with steering issues and I'm looking for assistance. The issue is that there is no steering response from the dual Mercury 150's when we turn the wheel at the helm.
Because the boat has been sitting for about 2 years (indoors) we decided that the Sea Star Outboard Hydraulic Steering Cylinder might be frozen or some other mechanical interference was causing the lack of steering. After removing the cylinder completely along with the hoses, the cylinder operates normally as does the rest of the steering linkage. If we keep either bleed screw open on the cylinder, you can physically push the engines from port to starboard. As soon as we close the bleed screw it locks down and we can no longer push the engines side to side.
We then inspected the Sea Star / Teleflex 1.7 Tilt helm, HH5741 for any obvious signs. There seemed to be no leaks that we could find and the fluid level seemed to be full.
We then tried to bleed the system of any air and had one person turn the wheel to starboard as the bleed screws on the cylinder were opened - fluid and spurts of air shot out of both bleed screws at either end of the cylinder when turning to starboard. I don't recall what happened when the wheel was turned to port during this part of the test.
The person turning the wheel noticed that there was a heavy amount of resistance when turning to port (engines were already positioned at full turn to port) and the wheel seemed to "skip" between heavy resistance to light resistance and then back again to heavy, but only when turning to port. When turning to starboard, the engines never moved and there was little to no resistance in the wheel and would turn indefinitely with again no response from the engines.
We drained quite a bit of the fluid which was pretty dark and replaced it by pouring it into the intake at the top of the helm. After filling it up until it would take no more, we bled the system by releasing the bleed screws and turning the wheel to port. After filling and bleeding several times, the helm wouldn't take any more fluid but the engines still didn't turn.
How does the system work? Is pressure created by the turning wheel force fluid into one side of the cylinder, thereby forcing the cylinder to move the engines or is there a separate pump that I haven't found?
Thanks all
