Dave M

Same thing here. Fired it up and turned the wheel back and forth maybe three times and that was it.

With the engine running, can you push the drive(s) to either side? IMCO says that if the drive moves more than 1/2", that there is air in the system. If you have air in the rams it should be obvious.

Strip Poker 388

Tried bleeding again and nothing. I took the pump off cking it the valve looks ok. It doesn't act like its air . The is no power assist at all. Like its not pumping . If there is air in it would it at least have some assist??

p4-33

Hi Rob,

Your pump is different than mine. I'm running the automotive style that mount up high on my motors, with their own internal reservour. I have an external reservour that feeds the top of them.

Last winter, I added hydraulic quick disconnects to make pulling motors less messy. I had a problem with one of my pumps not pumping, and it turned out that the size of the fittings from the external reservour to the top caps of the pumps were too small, not supplying enough fluid to operate the pump. My symptom (other than stiff steering with just that motor running) was the external reservour would back up to the point of overflowing.

Is it possible that you have a restriction from your reservour to the pump?

I have dug into one of my old pumps to see how she ticks. There's a rotor inside with a series of steel vanes that act as an impellor, some valving, not much else.

Does yours come apart? Might be time to dissect it.

Good luck,
Brian

p4-33

Some pics of my setup...

Bad Girl

p4-33, I can agree with what you said.
The common problem in a dual system is the pump farthest away from the resivior is also the last to get any oil. The best thing to do is run a separat an LARGE hose to each pump. Do not tee into the bottom of the resivior. You need another hole.
The pump farthest from the resivior runs out of oil and since it cannot get back to the pump from the resivior lines fast enough it overflows. Then the steering will not work. The pump will also aeriate the oil with bubbles that get sucked throughout the entire system.

I had fought this problem for a season before finally fixing it to working fine.

Hope this gives you some ideas to your problem.

Strip Poker 388

Brian the reservoir is the black plastic tank and sits above the pump and has a 1/2 rubber hose feeding the pump. I looked in the reservoir and it was clean no metal.

I took the filter apart again and blew thru it with my mouth .Its a machine marine filter with a wire mesh type screen filter . I could blow thru it . I am real sure its not the prob.It was clean when I started and when I looked at it again there was nothing in it .

There is a snap ring on the back of the pump .It will mess it up when i take it out. If I buy another pump I will disect it to see how it works . Dealer cost on the pump is 308.00 so I kinda want to make sure its the pump.

Pedro At Machine Marine told me the pump is the same as on a 2003 Chevy truck .Nope not even close

Does anybody know IF the system has air in it will it feel like it doesn't have power steering??.like its in manual override ???

I am thinking its a restriction or the pump is not pumping .

When I revved up the motor it did not get easier.

The steering rams will not fully contract or extend I bled it the last time.I think the B Max drive changes the mounting point father back than the bravo . So I don't have full turning capability

The drives will not move with the steering arms hooked up.

p4-33

Bad Girl,

I solved this problem last spring. My quick disconnects supplying the pumps were undersized - 1/4" ID. I bumped them up to 3/8" and she works great now. Sure was acting like Rob's problem when running the one motor by itself.

Thanks for the input,
Brian

Strip Poker 388

Another thing when we first started last night my buddy started turning the wheel just for the h e ll of it, before we did anything and the wheel turned freely for a few turns .Motor not running, then it got hard . I figured it might of been a air pocket?

I Just talked to a buddy He said it sounds like that its the same as the one on his Grand National Buick , but the Buick one turns different direction. he said he has taken the vanes out of a camaro one and used them in the Buick one .

He seems to remember the vanes haven a pitch in them thinking it will only pump turning in one direction[rotation]

This pump has to be a GM pump

p4-33

1/2" should be plenty. Worked before, should work now.

Sounds good...

Bastages... I hate paying Merc prices. I fried a pump troubleshooting stuff last year. It was WAY high, just because it was blue. C'mon Strip, I've seen the awesome work you did on your motors, can't be that bad digging into a pump. But... I've not had one apart like yours.

Did these guys offer any other suggestions? Where's Falcon when you need him? Between him and Latham, we got my problems straightened out fairly quickly.

You have to look at steering like two systems... the supply/return circuit is driven by the pump. The other circuit is the rams. The helm is your "switch" telling the supply side circuit which ram line to supply pressure to.

Air in the pump circuit can cause what you're seeing, no power assist. If you have air in the ram circuit, the pump will still drive it, but it will feel spongy or jerky. With enough air in the rams, you can push the drives by hand, and they will spring back. Sounds like this isn't your case.

I'm leaning towards a bad pump

This is good! As long as your gimbals are getting to the stops, you have full turning capability. The alternative would be that your rams bottom out before the drives reach the stops.

Again, a good sign that your ram circuit doesn't have air.

Best of luck,
Brian

p4-33

That's not right. I keep thinking about what you said about having your ram lines apart. This will put a LOT of air in the system, and it needs to be bled out. Some will bleed by cranking the wheel around, but your supply lines are shorter than the ram lines, so there's only as much fluid as in the supply circuit that can cycle back and forth by turning the wheel. Again, the rams are dead-end, so nothing cycles thru, just back and forth.

How big is your reservour bottle? On a 38' boat, there has to be a couple of gallons of fluid total in the system - pump, lines, helm, bottle. When you bled it initially this year, how much fluid did you have to add before the reservour bottle held it's level?

Are we having fun yet?

Brian