Fixing a leaking 70's era Capilano 250V Helm steering station

[sbman]

Resealing the Capilano Helm pump - Step by Step Part 3

Step 9 - Change adjuster screw o-ring

Now you can carefullly pry the o-ring off the adjuster with a pick and then slide the new one on, lubricate it with power steering fluid or sil glide. It uses a size 010, and I also chose the soft version for this.

Step 10 - Reinstall adjuster screw

Screw the adjuster into the back of the front cover by hand. The new o-ring should not cause any binding, if it does, double check that it's seated properly, well lubricated and not damaged before re-installing.

Now you need to install the roll pin. A roll pin installation punch is very helpful. Place the pin in the punch, line it up with the hole and then gently tap it into place. You can put the shaft back on the socket or any hard surface to install it.

Now the cover is ready to re-install.

Step 11 - Install front cover

To start, you need the swash assembly. It's the round bearing that has two half round lumps that seat in the front cover, and is sitting on top of the plungers on the main shaft.

Lift it off, and place it into the front cover.

Be careful because the bearing is multiple pieces, so hold them together as you move it around. Do not pick up the shaft, the plungers have springs and ball bearings behind them and you don't want to lose any of those!

Line the bearing up so that the lumps ride in the valleys in the front cover on one side and on the adjuster on the other side.

Now hold the bearing onto the front cover and slide it onto the main shaft. It should look like this:

Step 12 - Reinstall shaft and cover in pump body

Place your spacers back on the shaft. You'll find they are too long. Push down on the front cover and spacers to compress the springs in the plungers. This doesn't take a lot of force, but get it down far enough to put the washer back on the hold it all together.

When you press down on the cover and spacers to get the nut off, a lot of power steering fluid will likely get pushed out of the pump onto the bench. It's a bit messy.

Now slide the entire assembly back into the pump body. You'll need to align the shaft with the pump body internally as you insert it, it has to be aligned with the machined surface in there to slide on freely. Do not use force, you don't want to damage the pump body or shaft. It should slide easily in 90% of the way. After that the large face sealing o-ring is touching the pump body and it gets a lot harder. Press it down into the body to engage the o-ring. Re-install the four 1/2" bolts and tap the key way back onto the shaft.

Make sure the adjuster is oriented towards the BOTTOM of the pump. Don't do it like I did in this picture and install it upside down. If you do install it upside down, just put the spacers and nut back on and unbolt it, rotate it to the correct orientation and then bolt it back up. All done!

 

[Choices]

I just rebuilt mine and finally got it right the third time.

The oring around the end case cover is a bitch while compressing the pump.

I cut it twice, and had to pull it twice.

Very good write up.
As a note, the Garmin Auto pilot pump is the same design with a DC servo motor.

 

[healhustler]

Absolutely fantastic, sbman!! I just installed a new Garmin Reactor 40 Autopilot with V2 smart pump on this old Capilano 250 and I’ve already blown a hose and my ram seals. I figured after going through so many quarts of dextron, each time opening and bleeding the system, I may end up weeping everywhere. The new Garmin V2 smart pump doesn’t mind putting the pressure to the system during the configuration, twice jamming the rudder against the stops and I had to release the pressure on the ram/hose fittings to get it loose. Anyway, great timing and so well detailed presentation.

 

[sbman]

I just rebuilt mine and finally got it right the third time.

The oring around the end case cover is a bitch while compressing the pump.

I cut it twice, and had to pull it twice.

Very good write up.
As a note, the Garmin Auto pilot pump is the same design with a DC servo motor.

Some Sil Glyde and making sure the adjuster is in the full 'less turns' position (full counter clockwise) helps quite a bit with that. With the spacers installed on the shaft and the nut holding it together, you should not have to fight the springs at all, just the large face plate o-ring.

Absolutely fantastic, sbman!! I just installed a new Garmin Reactor 40 Autopilot with V2 smart pump on this old Capilano 250 and I’ve already blown a hose and my ram seals. I figured after going through so many quarts of dextron, each time opening and bleeding the system, I may end up weeping everywhere. The new Garmin V2 smart pump doesn’t mind putting the pressure to the system during the configuration, twice jamming the rudder against the stops and I had to release the pressure on the ram/hose fittings to get it loose. Anyway, great timing and so well detailed presentation.

That's good to know. I've got a working autopilot pump but the head unit/controls are all too old and not worth fixing. At some point I plan to get a modern autopilot controller to hook up to it. I'm sure hoses will need to be done at some point soon. I've gotten pretty good at draining and filling/bleeding the system which is a skill I'm happy to have if I ever have issues on the water, I feel comfortable that I can find any leak, fix it and refill. I've got a box of spare seals and extra fluid, some extra hose will be added to the kit as well. I haven't resealed the ram yet, but that will come eventually.

 

[sbman]

In post #24 about the uniflow valve, I said to be careful when removing the O-rings and not damage the sealing surface. I can't stress this enough if you are doing this type of work. The uniflow valve has two aluminum 'bleed screws' and I scratched one of them, resulting in a leak. It was a couple of drips per minute, and that may be OK for a stuffing box, but not for a steering system. ughh.

So. I inspected it in the stereoscope, and found the damage.

It doesn't take much, but you can see the scratch. The screw also had some pitting that may have been contributing. You can't buy parts for this, so I headed to the lathe to make one up.

I started with some aluminum round bar stock and turned the tip to the right angle and a shoulder for the threading operation. Line up the threading tool with a gauge.

I started turning threads and the realized I was turning left hand threads. Ooops

Start over. New tip, new shoulders and I decided to cut the slot for the o-ring before I cut the threads as well.

Had to grind a special cutter for the O-ring slot.

Light first pass on the threads

Threads are cut, all that is left is to part it off the stock.

That's it clean it up a bit, cut a slot in the head with a hacksaw and it's ready to have a new O-ring and install.

Re-install, fill and bleed the system, and finally no leaks that I can find. I decided to make the O-ring sealing surface about .006" larger in diameter to compress the O-ring just slightly more and it's sealing great. The original screw was pretty loose on the O-ring.

 

[sbman]

A final update on the system rebuild.

With the soft versions of o-rings in the helm pumps and the new screw in the univalve, the system is free of leaks. A vented cap has been installed on the upper helm and the system has been exercised regularly with no leaks, drips or issues. If a leak or issue develops, I'll post back here.

 

[Night Star]

Just wanted to says THANKS this article was most useful.

 

[Mambo42]

Thanks so much for this detailed explanation. I just took off my pump from the fly bridge, I ordered the kit and now I am going to give this a try. Will simply put the laptop next to me and follow your steps. Hopefully I wil be able to do it.

Interesting to read about a sintered plug, since I saw that mine does not have that at all. Guess a former mechanic did not know about it and simply closed it up.

 

[DC 11]

aiuto!!! posseggo un DC 11 cantiere della pasqua e carnevali del 1984 e ho dovuto togliere l'auto pilota per riparazione impossibile e lo schema di doppio timone mi dice di togliere anche la valvola uniflow,adesso mi ritrovo con la timoneria che non va da una parte quasi mai e l'aria sempre in impianto!!! ma la valvola era da togliere o da lasciare??? le mie scatole guida sono della capilano ,modello 250 V serie 13819,grazie per il vostro aiuto

 

[Mambo42]

Capisce Italiano pero scribere e un poco dificile. Si ay un 250V posso usare anche un 1250 V capilano. Unico differenze e il valvolo di non riturno non e necessario. Si ay besogno de un 1250 V capilano io ho 2 disponibile. Il mio barco e en Grecia, posso prendere a Italia en casi 2 o 3 setimane.

 

[DC 11]

grazie mambo 42 ho deciso di smontare le due pompe dei timoni e revisionarle,visto che il problema può essere solo nelle pompe,spero di non doverle cambiare!!!

 

[DC 11]

Just wanted to says THANKS this article was most useful.

veramente utilissimo grazie