Hydraulic Steering Won't Turn Lowers?
 

Just put new 90* elbows and hoses on my Latham Steering (inner rams), as I was trying to bleed per instructions I had no movement in my lowers. Anyone know what the problem could be? This was total PM, hoses had superficial cracks so I replaced them and shiny new elbows. Had NO PROBLEMS prior to my PM.

Simple stuff first.....Did you remove one hose at a time and put them back in the same spot? Out of the 2 port bulkhead fitting one should go to the front of one cylinder and one to the back of the other cylinder. Same with the other bulkhead fitting.

Are the lowers locked in one place or do they move freely if you manually try to move them?

Yes the hoses were placed correctly. The drives move freely when pushed or pulled manually.

TTT- Anyone? Freely moving mean more or less money?

Loosen fitting slightly on steering rams , push side on one pull side on the other , turn steering wheel sslowly the direction that will feed fluid to the loose fittings . With the wheel turned all the way and held there , tighten the fittings . Now repeat in the opposite direction . Repeat as necessary . Hope this helps . Don't let your fluid reservoirs run low during this process .

Thanks for the info. I assume the engine must be running while I do this or can I get most of the air out then finish with the engine running?

I don't know what your instructions entail, but the engine should be running all the time to deliver the fluid. I know it is also a displacement pump when not running but it is a lot easier when running.

True dat .

Is it a full hydraulic system or hydraulic assist? If you can move the drives side to side by hand I am guessing it's hydraulic assist. If it's full hydro you shouldn't be able to move the drives without using the wheel. Even if there is air in the system...they will move a little bit but not much.

Sounds like a plumbing issue. You sure you didn't swap hoses on one of the rams? The pressure circuit that feeds the extend on one ram has to feed the retract on the other, same for the other ram.

If you have full hydraulic to the helm, reference the 'Dual Bravo Dual Ram' diagram here for plumbing. It's not the Latham system but they are all plumbed the same outside of the boat, and those are the only hoses you changed.

http://www.cpperformance.com/Instruc...n-137-9204.pdf

It's a Latham system (full hydraulic I'm believe). I haven't had time to trouble shoot it yet. Probably get to it in the next couple days. I appreciate all the help.

Sounds like 2 hoses got swapped. Most get wrong idea thinking rear hose get tee'd together, and fronts get tee'd together.

My full hyd. can't be budged by hand more than an inch.

http://www.lathammarine.com/faq.htm

When I did mine I got it in pieces so lots of air. I ended up tuning the wheel hard over then open one fitting on one ram that would be getting fluid to move the drive then had someone slowly turn the wheel the other way then repeat until u have fluid

sounds like hoses crossed to me as well, or a total blockage in a hose or fitting...even with lots of air in the system will still turn...

Ding ding! much to my embarassment I had the port hoses switched. Got them plumbed correctley now and this year's maiden voyage went off without a hitch. Didn't even forget to install the plugs lol. Thanks to everyone for the help.

[QUOTE=Rookie;3641528]Simple stuff first.....Did you remove one hose at a time and put them back in the same spot?

That's great, I like to here about those simple inexpensive fixes.