Got a litle problem with my old SeaStar Pro Hydraulic steering system
When I'm driving straight my steering wheel is turning left. What I mean is if I would put a tape on a top of my steering wheel after 15 min of driving it would be on the left side after another 15 minutes it will be at the bottom etc.
Is there anyone who can service that? Whatcould couse that?
I don't see any leak anywhere.
What do you think. Repair? or Replace with cnew one?
Got a litle problem with my old SeaStar Pro Hydraulic steering system
When I'm driving straight my steering wheel is turning left. What I mean is if I would put a tape on a top of my steering wheel after 15 min of driving it would be on the left side after another 15 minutes it will be at the bottom etc.
Is there anyone who can service that? Whatcould couse that?
I don't see any leak anywhere.
What do you think. Repair? or Replace with cnew one?
Mike
I raised the same question and was shown that if you jiggle the steering wheel repetatively with the engine straight ahead the steering wheel will slowly creep arround and the engine doesn't move,I think its something to do with the no feed back.Nic
Got a litle problem with my old SeaStar Pro Hydraulic steering system
When I'm driving straight my steering wheel is turning left. What I mean is if I would put a tape on a top of my steering wheel after 15 min of driving it would be on the left side after another 15 minutes it will be at the bottom etc.
Is there anyone who can service that? Whatcould couse that?
I don't see any leak anywhere.
What do you think. Repair? or Replace with cnew one?
Mike
This may sound silly, but, have you tried bleeding the system again? Mine was a nightmare. Was always steering to stay in a straight line. After bleeding was spot on.
I installed a Seastar Pro system this year on my Hydrolift, and really took the time to bleed it out when installing it-no air.
But it still behaves like you describe on here, when running high lift on the engine(prop-shaft even with bottom of the keel..)
When running the engine lower in the water I at least don`t have any problems with the steering "creeping".
A solution to the problem would be a high dollar system with dual hydraulic rams on it like SEM/Latham etc...
ALL hydraulic systems creep, its the nature of the non return valves in the helm pump. They shouldn't creep whilst travelling in a straight line though
Interests: Fast cars, bikes,quads, boats, going fast...etc
Boat name: Cheetah
Boat make: Hunton XRS37
Engines: Volvo D6 with DPR drives
Cruising area: So'hampton
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: East Mids
Posts: 557
As Burty has pointed out the check valves do cause quite a lot of wheel creep as they open and close. The helm unit itself is a bidirectional hydraulic pump with pistons operating inside honed bores, the pistons do not have seals they rely on the precision fit to the bore so there is a small amount of leakage which is another reason for wheel creep as the pressure is never equal on both sides so a side wind or prop torque will require constant steering input to counter the effect.
As Burty has pointed out the check valves do cause quite a lot of wheel creep as they open and close. The helm unit itself is a bidirectional hydraulic pump with pistons operating inside honed bores, the pistons do not have seals they rely on the precision fit to the bore so there is a small amount of leakage which is another reason for wheel creep as the pressure is never equal on both sides so a side wind or prop torque will require constant steering input to counter the effect.
Peter
with your hydrol expertise is there a mod that can be done Peter as i too suffer the same with the same system on my boat.
Interests: Fast cars, bikes,quads, boats, going fast...etc
Boat name: Cheetah
Boat make: Hunton XRS37
Engines: Volvo D6 with DPR drives
Cruising area: So'hampton
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: East Mids
Posts: 557
Quote:
Originally Posted by baj666
with your hydrol expertise is there a mod that can be done Peter as i too suffer the same with the same system on my boat.
Hi baj666,
Before i started development on my fly-by-wire steering system i stripped a new seastar helm unit to see if i could modify it to rectify the wheel creep, unfortunately the design doesn't lend itself to modification as it is a bit cheap and cheerful and although i could reduce the amount of leakage i would not be able to cure it totally so i decided to go down the fly-by-wire route which will at some stage become an alternative to seastar.
Boat make: Bernico F3 OCR, Bernico Prototype Inboard, and some Ribs
Engines: Yamaha Pro V 115
Cruising area: UK, France
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Devon
Posts: 3,095
By reducing the Torque on the engine you will reduce creep !! A Torque tab on the skeg worked on both me inboard and outboard !! also by using the equal spoke wheel you dont notice it anyway !! Inboard ran 100+ on a 1000psi Seastar helm with side mount ram !!
Bob
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