Hydraulic steering fluid

[Dleopoldi914]

Hoping to maybe learn something. My hydraulic steering boat is on the third season and I notice it is not as responsive as it once was.

Boat is a 2021 21se with sea star hydraulic.

Parker gave me two tubes, one for the cylinder to attach to each fitting and losses fitting with tubes attached. 1 for the helm, the tube attaches to the bottle.

I watched a video and guy opened the valves on the fittings with the tubes attached to cylinder fitting and got a little fluid.

Then at the helm he dumped the fluid via tube from the bottle he poked a hole in the top. It seemed a little low when I took the fitting on the helm off.

When I attempted to do this I would get it to a point where the pressure from the system would pop the tube at the cylinder. Did I maybe loosen too much the fitting so pressure is too much?

Finally I didn’t need to poke a hole in the bottle I did that and I got stuck ditching the bottle and putting the hydraulic fluid in a spray bottle. After I was about to quit.

Finally a mobile mechanic that I am friends with next to me and working on another boat said to top it off you don’t need to loosen those fittings at the cylinder, just attach at the helm dump fluid and keep going until all the air and the bubbles are gone. We did that and steering feels good.

Where did I go wrong?

Did I loosen fittings too much at cylinder so pressure was too much?


If you are topping off is it not necessary to run that tube over the valves?

Will using a better connector tubing help, my tube had no brass fittings on the end it was just rubber tubing.

Sorry if a newbie question.

Video enclosed if how I did it with mechanic

 

[Andy]

Hoping to maybe learn something. My hydraulic steering boat is on the third season and I notice it is not as responsive as it once was.

Boat is a 2021 21se with sea star hydraulic.

Parker gave me two tubes, one for the cylinder to attach to each fitting and losses fitting with tubes attached. 1 for the helm, the tube attaches to the bottle.

I watched a video and guy opened the valves on the fittings with the tubes attached to cylinder fitting and got a little fluid.

Then at the helm he dumped the fluid via tube from the bottle he poked a hole in the top. It seemed a little low when I took the fitting on the helm off.

When I attempted to do this I would get it to a point where the pressure from the system would pop the tube at the cylinder. Did I maybe loosen too much the fitting so pressure is too much?

Finally I didn’t need to poke a hole in the bottle I did that and I got stuck ditching the bottle and putting the hydraulic fluid in a spray bottle. After I was about to quit.

Finally a mobile mechanic that I am friends with next to me and working on another boat said to top it off you don’t need to loosen those fittings at the cylinder, just attach at the helm dump fluid and keep going until all the air and the bubbles are gone. We did that and steering feels good.

Where did I go wrong?

Did I loosen fittings too much at cylinder so pressure was too much?


If you are topping off is it not necessary to run that tube over the valves?

Will using a better connector tubing help, my tube had no brass fittings on the end it was just rubber tubing.

Sorry if a newbie question.

Video enclosed if how I did it with mechanic

Here's a video I posted showing how I bled our 2013/2014 2520. This is video #2 of 3 videos.... This system works well, and I have since bled numerous other boats hydraulic steering systems using this same system and same method.

 

[afitzray]

I notice it is not as responsive as it once was. You might have some air that has gotten into the system.

Where did I go wrong?
The guy in the video appeared to only be adding a small amount of fluid to the helm. I didn't see him loosen the fitting on the rear cylinder or mess with any tubes back there. If you're just a little low at the helm this works, but it won't address air in the system unless it's trapped very near the helm and not back near/in the cylinder. Normally you'd only loosen the cylinder fittings and use the tubes to bridge the fittings for fully cycling the system to bleed out air, or with the fittings not bridged together for pushing out old fluid so you could put fresh fluid in.

Did I loosen fittings too much at cylinder so pressure was too much? Loosening the cylinder fitting just opens the system similar to bleeding car brakes. Usually about a 1/2 to 3/4 turn opens as much as it needs and you shouldn't have to go further than one full turn. If you loosen too much, either the fitting will just unscrew all the way and fall off. Did you have the tube set up to attach the two fittings together? If so, you'd have to open both fittings so the fluid could pass from one fitting, through the line, and into the other fitting. Sounds like one was open and allowing fluid and pressure into the tube but the other wasn't so then it didn't have anywhere to go and it pops the tube off the fittings. That tube connecting both sides is meant to create a loop in the system so that if you continue turning the wheel one direction, eventually the fluid that is being pushed from the helm travels all the way back to the cylinder and back up to the helm where it can burp out of the fitting at the helm (with tube and fluid bottle attached). If you bridge the two cylinder fittings you need to be prepared to go through the whole process of fully cycling the system to remove air bubbles, then manually moving the outboards across the steering range to purge air from the cylinder.

If you are topping off is it not necessary to run that tube over the valves? Not to top off fluid. Only need to mess with the cylinder "valves" when you're bleeding air or replacing fluid.

It would be good to study a schematic of the parts and how the steering system works. It makes it much easier to understand the process for bleeding air or fluid. The helm is just pushing fluid through one tube or the other that connects to either port or starboard side of the cylinder. The cylinder in the back has a seal in the middle that pushed one way or the other as fluid is pushed through one tube or the other - with the fittings tight and closed, the fluid on one side of that seal never contacts the fluid on the other side, it just gets pushed back and forth inside the cylinder.

Sorry, lots of typing, it's just not that easy to explain through a message board.

This guy does a pretty good job explaining:

 

[Dleopoldi914]

I notice it is not as responsive as it once was. You might have some air that has gotten into the system.

Where did I go wrong?
The guy in the video appeared to only be adding a small amount of fluid to the helm. I didn't see him loosen the fitting on the rear cylinder or mess with any tubes back there. If you're just a little low at the helm this works, but it won't address air in the system unless it's trapped very near the helm and not back near/in the cylinder. Normally you'd only loosen the cylinder fittings and use the tubes to bridge the fittings for fully cycling the system to bleed out air, or with the fittings not bridged together for pushing out old fluid so you could put fresh fluid in.

Did I loosen fittings too much at cylinder so pressure was too much? Loosening the cylinder fitting just opens the system similar to bleeding car brakes. Usually about a 1/2 to 3/4 turn opens as much as it needs and you shouldn't have to go further than one full turn. If you loosen too much, either the fitting will just unscrew all the way and fall off. Did you have the tube set up to attach the two fittings together? If so, you'd have to open both fittings so the fluid could pass from one fitting, through the line, and into the other fitting. Sounds like one was open and allowing fluid and pressure into the tube but the other wasn't so then it didn't have anywhere to go and it pops the tube off the fittings. That tube connecting both sides is meant to create a loop in the system so that if you continue turning the wheel one direction, eventually the fluid that is being pushed from the helm travels all the way back to the cylinder and back up to the helm where it can burp out of the fitting at the helm (with tube and fluid bottle attached). If you bridge the two cylinder fittings you need to be prepared to go through the whole process of fully cycling the system to remove air bubbles, then manually moving the outboards across the steering range to purge air from the cylinder.

If you are topping off is it not necessary to run that tube over the valves? Not to top off fluid. Only need to mess with the cylinder "valves" when you're bleeding air or replacing fluid.

It would be good to study a schematic of the parts and how the steering system works. It makes it much easier to understand the process for bleeding air or fluid. The helm is just pushing fluid through one tube or the other that connects to either port or starboard side of the cylinder. The cylinder in the back has a seal in the middle that pushed one way or the other as fluid is pushed through one tube or the other - with the fittings tight and closed, the fluid on one side of that seal never contacts the fluid on the other side, it just gets pushed back and forth inside the cylinder.

Sorry, lots of typing, it's just not that easy to explain through a message board.

This guy does a pretty good job explaining:

I watched thus video and notice his connector tube has metal fittings to go over the bleeder valves.

I went at lunch today and did about 20 minutes of wheel turning and was smooth I am going to assume it is fine now.

 

[camron]

When I did mine I put the two lines off the bleeder crews in the back into a bottle of full hydraulic fluid. Opened one side at a time while filling helm and turning wheel until clear fluid came out. And repeated other side and buttoned everything up. Just make sure helm bottle doesn’t run out.
I like to do this while bleeding by myself.

 

[Dleopoldi914]

Ok thank you everyone.

Top tube is the one Parker gave me with the boat and bottom one is one I ordered.

The one Parker gave me didn’t have those fittings on the tube to fit over the nipples. The Parker one just a tubing will break when you go back and forth with the motor.

I am thinking next time I do it i use this