help with autopilot / steering problem

Oil does not flow uphill. After you opened the vents and uni-valve bleed by's ether one of the helm pumps or you autopilot pump or maybe some force turning the rudders pumped oil out of the system. Also could have been a great deal of compressed air that you released with the bleed screws.

Just finished bleeding the system again, all went well and the symptoms reported earlier have all disappeared. I left everything set up so I'll see if any air reappears in the morning.

Unfortunately although things look positive, I've been here before. I'll report back tomorrow on how it looks.

twistedtree said:

This univalve is new to me. How does it fit into the picture?

Click to expand...

Picture worth.................
Top three line are to and from the helm pump, bottom two lines go to the hydraulic cylinder.

You may still need to take the boat out for a run. The pitching, rolling and the wheel turning will purge any remaining air.
Keep that line and half filled jug attached while doing so.
You likely won't have the large burps but save the mess for the jug.

Have you tested the wheels hard over in each direction? They should stop hard with no or very little drift and with pressure on the wheel to turn.. If they feel soft at the turn stop or keep slowly drifting over then you still have some air.

It took me a run or two to finally be able to call it good. Ideally your entire piping and supply sytem would have a slight , constant rise back to the pumps just like your home plumbing has a slight , constant drop to the mains outside. That slight slope doesn't happen on most boats thus the need for a run to do it for you.

At least for the last run the air quantity was extremely small and only minor top ups, no more jug, was enough as the final small bubbles worked thier way out.

Well, I worked the pilot and helms this morning and got a few small a burps of air but I think I can safely say its properly bleed. I'll take the boat out for a run as Clectric suggests then button everything up.

The only concern I have at this point is that "with the univalve bleed screws slightly crackled the ram & rudders were still moving as I turned the helms, however when they hit the stops I could still continue turning. (I assume this is simply because I did not have the bleeds open far enough). That said, I noted that when operating the autopilot pump, it "was not" moving the ram & rudders. This concerns me and the only logic I can apply is that the pilot pump may have a much lower volume than the helms and simply does not have the voulume necessary to move the ram when the bleeds are open. Seems a logical explanation but it's only a worrisome wild guess.

All was / is working better than it has in a long while and I buttoned it up only to find it is now leaking in places it has never leaked before. Both ends on the ram cylinder and at the adjustment knob at the lower helm.

Sigh! Back to the drawing board.

Just arrived back at boat after a long sojourn. The saga continues, after bleeding and all the steps above I found I had many leaks that were not there before so I ripped out both hems and the cylinder and installed new seals in all. After reassemby & bleeding I found the hems quite stiff to turn but otherwise working normally, however when I engage the autopilot pump to starboard a large quantity of oil pours out the top helm, it does not do this engaging it to port. The other issue is I can not stop a tiny leak on the cylinder despite having it out twice.

I've had enough and am going to buy a compete new system, particularly since the uniflow valve is obsolete anyway.

Does anyone know if the new 1250/1275 Capilano helms and cylinders are drop in replacements for the old 250/275 helms??? I realy, realllly don't want to get into cutting and splicing copper lines.