Bleeding Pre-alpha rams.

[cheburashka]

My pre-alpha outdrive blew a hose. I've replaced it and purged the system. Now, I'm wondering how to bleed it. The system has no limit switches, so I go by the sound the pump makes. The up circuit was easy to bleed, as the weight of the outdrive puts downward pressure on the extended rams. Is it necessary to have upward pressure placed on the rams to bleed the down circuit?When I run the up circuit, everything is fine, with a clear change in the pump sound when it hits the end of travel. The down circuit seems mushy, and the pump doesn't change its sound when it hits the end of its travel. Any tricks to bleeding this system? Will it sort itself out in time, or will the air bubbles stay in the system?

Thanks

 

[Don S]

Re: Bleeding Pre-alpha rams.

It's self bleeding, just run it up and down a few times.

 

[vipzach]

Re: Bleeding Pre-alpha rams.

Like DonS said, they are supposed to self bleed. Keep an eye on the oil level in the reservoir and run it up/down several times.

With that said, When I had to refill my lines, I would run the drive all the way down and crack the hose until you could not hear the air being pushed out, retighten it and do it over again until it quit pushing the air out. My lines were so full of air, water, and oil that you could push my drive to the ground (with your hand) after it had been trimmed all the way up. That is how I cleared all of my lines out.