Peculiar Helm Response

[LIBERTY]

Recently when steering from the lower station of my Hynautic system after steering to the left a SLOW follow up turn to he right results in the wheel turning but no rudder response. There is no resistance and the wheel will turn right indefinitely if the turn rate is one revolution every ten seconds or less. A quick snap of of the wheel to the right of even an inch re-engages the wheel for normal operation. I have tried turning from lock to lock a number of times, but no change. Do I have an air bubble? If so, can I bleed at the Wheel or do I need to do the whole system?

 

[Boatsb]

Run it hard over and put a little pressure on it. Does it slowly build up or is it a quick build.?

Is it different one way than the other?

 

[egaito]

This sounds somewhat similar to a problem I had on one of my previous boats. In my case, it turned out to be a bad check valve in the "helm pump" which is what the wheel at the helm is mounted to. Spinning the helm wheel is in effect pumping the fluid to the ram. in one direction, it didn't work right. When the check valve failed, pressure exerted at the helm leaked through the bad check valve resulting in slow to no movement of the rudders in that one direction.

It COULD also be air in the system, low pressure if you have a pressure tank, or low fluid if you haven't checked for those things yet.

The failure in my case (according to the manufacturer) was the previous owners use of transmission fluid instead of the "expensive" hynautic fluid When I replaced the helm pump, I bled the red fluid out of the whole system. I was able to source the fluid from an aircraft supply store at the same price per gallon as a quart costs with with the "marine" stamp, but with the same MILSPEC ratings, which made the bleed/flush/replace process a bit less expensive.

 

[carolinacoast]

5606 is the mil spec for the aviation fluid and is about$32/gallon at an aviation supply house or skygeek.com will ship it to you. It is red and has the added benefit of being easy to spot. When my lower helm unit seals began to fail, my wife said 'honey the boat is bleeding down here'. At least I knew the issue without the use of tools.

 

[captddis]

First check the reservoir for fluid level then check the pressure. Most likely you are low on pressure. Bring it up to 30 to 35psi. Then run the wheel back and forth to reprime.

 

[Canuck Dennis]

That fixed my similar problem 3 weeks ago...

 

[MikeP]

5606 was the only recommended fluid initially. Later, the Hynautic folks figured out there was money to be made by selling their own version so they marketed Hynautic brand fluid which was a clear version of 5606 at 4x the price. At some point the instruction manual went from only listing 5606 or Hynautic fluid to also including ATF as a secondary choice. So ATF is not BAD in the sense that it will cause any sort of problem with the system itself but it requires more effort to steer, especially in cold temps.

Re bleeding - I have found that the hynautic instructions for bleeding usually do not do the job on our 53my. It usually takes as many as 100 turns in one direction and then 100 in the other to bleed the system as opposed to around 1/2 that per hynautic instructions.

Also, FWIW, the pressure in the reservoir does not affect steering effort. The system pressure just ensures there is fluid throughout the system and prevents air entry. Whether you have 10 psi or 40 in the system, there is no change in steering effort; the helm pump(s) generates the steering pressure as you turn the wheel. The reservoir pressure just ensures there is fluid present for the pump to "push."