Bleeding the steering system..

[Boatmon]

This is also posted in the Classic Trawler list too;

Yesterday I bled out the steering system, as you know the bridge was off for the shipping North. I filled the resivor and pressurized to 40lbs. cracked the upper bleed screws one at a time and turned the wheel both directions until solid fluid came out. This raised a few questions;
1. the instructions say 25 or so revolutions each direction, I could only get 8 or 9 to start with and as I bled it was reduced to about 5?
2. how many wheel revolutions should it take to take the rudder from center to each side, and one side to the other?
3. Someone posted the other day that if you have three lines on the system, that you do not need to bleed? I do have three, but it would seem to me that it should need to be bled anyway?

Any in-sight no this would be greatly appreciated

[DougSea]

I can't comment to much on the bleeding issue per se, but 5 or so turns lock-to-lock sounds right to me. 25 must be an initial guide...can you imagine having to take 12 full revs to go from straight ahead to hard over? Docking would be impossible!