Volvo/Teleflex Steering - Leaking

SailingVet

SailingVet

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Hi
I have a volvo D4 engine set up with Teleflex wheel steering via rams on the legs.
It leaks at the wheel - left full lock comes to a stop and fluid leaks out somewhere under the cover - seal on the wheel shaft? Or if you push hard on left lock the filler cap blows out and everything turns pink!
Right lock doesn't come to a stop in the same way - resistance increases but you can still keep turning the wheel.
Legs move OK from lock to lock.
The local engineer here in the Med. doesn't seem to have an answer and as we've just gone from sail with cable steering to this I can't get my head round the connection of the parts - PS pump on engine, wheel "pump/valve", rams and is there something else linking these parts. Plus can't get my head round the ATF flow round the system. Not sure if it's high pressure ATF going through the wheel or if that's separate and controlled by the wheel via another so far undiscovered component.

As you can see, confusion reigns.

Any help or explanation of how this all works would be much appreciated.

Andy
 
You have a pump on the engine which supplies high pressure fluid to a valve block at the rear of the engine which is where the hoses going to the rams connect. There is also a pump behind the wheel which gives low pressure fluid to the valve block and operates a shuttle valve which diverts the HP fluid to the the appropriate ram. it all uses the same oil which returns to the reservoir in the engineroom. You won't have high pressure at the wheel, only if there is air in the system which can push fluid out og the filler, it sounds like the system needs bleeding which I do with a 1 1/2 liter pepsi bottle 2/3 full with oil connected with a tube to the filler, I then twirl the wheel from Lock to Lock with the engine running holding the bottle upside down so air comes out and fluid goes in, this has worked well for me on dozens of jobs where I have replaced steering hoses. You said everything turns pink, that indicates there is seawater in the oil, check the colour in the PS pump reservoir, if this is pink too then you need new external hoses.
Do you have a tiebar between the two legs, if not then you have VP's special hydraulic tiebar system which requires a special bleeding tool which connects to the shuttle valve inbetween the engines
 
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Hi

Thanks for the reply - makes more sense now.
The reference to all turning pink was when the cap blew out and lots of ATF covered the windscreen and reached many other places!
There is the solid tie bar, so one less thing to look at.
Do the seals on the wheel shaft on the front of the helm pump fail often in your experience?
 
Check the quick release elbow on top of the steering reservoir in the engine compartment. If the elbow is not pressed completely in the fluid can’t return from the helm pump and causes the pressure to build in the helm.
There is now a better version of this elbow and cap on the reservoir because of this problem.
 
These might help ...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nc4rve9mlig6wgv/Teleflex Seastar instruction manual detailed.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1qfzkjqq7bs37yk/Teleflex steering seal change.txt?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dl4u1v0gp2ornl9/Teleflex Seastar instruction manual.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhjs6jtddqdtrw2/Teleflex Baystar instruction manual.pdf?dl=0

I had to replace the shaft seal on my Turbo 36 which was also a Teleflex. The seal was a Quad ring, which is basically an O ring with a 'X' cross section. These are available for pennies from decent bearing stockists. Fish the old one out with a bent safety pin once the wheel is removed. I replaced mine on the lower helm with loss of just a few cc of fluid whilst I swapped the seals over. See also the Text file attached.
 
So, an update.
The leak at the helm is only past the O ring on the filler cap, not via the quad ring.
Right lock, bypass opens - hissing at helm and change in engine pump note - and no leak
Left lock, the bypass opens - sounds are identical to right lock - but enough pressure at the helm to cause a leak.
Checked the elbow into the reservoir cap - all OK
Next suspect is the shuttle valve at the transom? It's not very accessible and as the boat has stood idle for a year before we took it on I might keep exercising the steering (avoiding the hard left lock) and hope that a "sticky" valve decides to free itself with use?
Or am I being ridiculously optimistic hoping for a self cure?!
 
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