plumbers crack

My new boat has about 1/2 inch of play on steering rams,turning the wheel lock to lock and holding doesnt remove air what next?I was told to crack lines at transom but I have to know if its pushing fluid or sucking.Any one have a trick?

monstaaa

try starting from hard over to one side , then as someone turns the wheel in the opposite direction from which you started, loosen the pressurized line on the ram( after the plastic shield is removed for access). doing this a couple of times usually works. you may have to do this procedure on the inside of the boat, because of the design of the manifolds and associated plumbing of the its, there is alot of areas where air can or may get trapped.

good luck

Falcon

Look at the steering connection blocks mounted to the inner plate. At least one of the blocks should have some small fittings that resemble brake bleeder fittings on the top, they may have rubber caps on them. They will be in threaded into the stainless port plugs. Don't confuse them with the larger plastic covered ones on the front and back. You can connect some small hoses to the fittings (I use some small tie straps to keep them from falling off). Run the lines into the top of the reservoir. Open the fittings about 3/4 to 1 turn (5/16" wrench). Now start the engine and slowly turn the wheel back and forth to steering lock. When you stop seeing many air bubbles in the lines (I forgot to mention I use clear tygon, yellow should be ok), snug up the fittings. This works very well and doesn't make a mess. Some boats with low decks and/or over hangs may make it more difficult to get at the fittings. I wouldn't worry about a very small amount of movement when the engine isn't running, it snugs up when the pump is running and over time may slowly work it's way out.
Another little trick, if you can keep the drives from hitting each other, is to remove the tie-bar. Because of toe-angles and slight transom variations the cylinders may not completely bottom resulting in a small amount of air that may have trouble getting out of the cylinder. I normally wouldn't bother with this, but thought it was worth mentioning.

plumbers crack

The only problem is I dont have the block to which you are referring to.My system is for only 1 drive.I was told by the builder that I didnt need the block.I am only able to remove enough air then a few days later it comes back and the drive swings back and forth.I guess Ill have to do what Monstaa suggested crack lines and hope the fluid pushes out the air and this will slove the problem.

monstaaa

10 4

Falcon

I can understand some not wanting the extra "pump and cooler" connection block because they would rather make the connections direct, but your builder should have put in the block. It's not any more difficult for the install and includes cross-port relief valves and the bleeder valves. The cross port relief valves help protect the components in the event of a "severe" side load and the bleeder fittings make it possible to fill and bleed the air from the system without hardly any fluid loss and mess.
Now that the install is done, monstaa's method should work fine. You may want to do it on the outside with the cowl off on the top manifold block.