Pacific 22 / Mermaid

[roohairy]

Neville,

Cheers for the advice Neville, I've got one of each, but the Dorset's not a Mermaid hence my confusion. And I thought that the pumps were the same, superficially they are similar and I've only looked at the Mermaid a few times - just sitting in storage at the moment.

[Neville]

Andy, Sounds like either the system isnt bled properly, or the incorrect type of fluid is in it (its worth it to drain and refill it if you dont know whats in it), or the helm is knackered.

Look in ther manual on how to bleed them properly. It takes a bit of time and involves removing the hoses to do it properly.

They will generally self bleed after a while at sea though. You can see the air in them through the tubes inside the console. If you can see too much air , then it needs bled!

[Scary Des]

Originally Posted by Andy Cox

..........a spurt of oil is coming out of the breather hole in the filler plug as soon as I start to come back the other way. In addition to this, ................ and I try to turn, there is a lot of resistance at the wheel which suddenly gives and out comes another spurt of oil.

Andy

Sounds familiar, and I am sure it's air.
I had no end of problems bleeding my steering after fitting a new pump, pipes and ram, I think mainly due to the fact that there is little difference in height between the helm pump and the ram. I suspect that most boats fitted with this type of helm pump (original P22 is a Wagner type G) have more vertical distance.

I think that another problem was air leaks and I resolved this by thread sealing every joint. I also made a temporary ‘header tank’ using a piece of pipe and plastic bottle with the bottom cut off and by leaving it for a period and then turning it lock to lock I finally got all the air out. You can watch air bubbles raising up the pipe.

Even with a new helm pump there is tendency for it to ‘spit’ at full lock and for that reason I do not have a vent in my filler plug equally because the helm is out in the weather (as opposed to in a wheelhouse) I wanted to keep water out.

Des

[Andy Cox]

Thanks guys,

I've also spoken to Mike Bellamy at Lancing who also thinks it's air, so I'll perservere with it. When I first got it, I did slacken off the unoins at the ram and re fill the system, so I might take it out of the water again and have another crack at it.

Andy

[Atlantis.diver]

Which way do you turn the screw on the pump to increase the power, in fairly confident that it's been turned down as full throttle it only does 2200 to 2350 rpm when it should be around 2600. Or it could be something else I don't know. Boat only had 2 people onboard not kit nothing.

Any feed back would be great guys and girls

[GuyC]

I think that you turn the screw anti-clockwise to increase the fuelling. See the first post on Page 3.

If it is not reaching 2600 rpm, then it could be the throttle that needs adjustment. You might find the cable has stretched which doesn't allow you to reach maximum rpm.

Mine does about 2300 rpm at wide open throttle. As it is 25 years old I've cut it some slack and don't push it too much.

[Atlantis.diver]

If been told today that I may have the wrong propeller, as when the boat out of gear it revs fine, but as soon you put into gear will not go past 2350 and has a gps speed on roughly 24mph. It's has high performance stern powr on the leg, does anybody know what type of prop I need and how can I tell I have the right 1