Junkyard Power Steering Pump for Junk Sailboat 

Been trying to get caught up on 14 years worth of build videos. It's exhausting just watching ALL the work in the videos...can't imagine how absolutely thrilled you must be to be where you are now doing what you are doing. Even with the problems you are having to work thru. I'm sure none of them "seem" minor now, but in comparison to what got you here they are. I am blown away by the work you and your wife accomplished basically by your selves in the beginning. Absolutely incredible and inspiring!!!

Nothing more frustrating that trying to track down what's wrong in a system that should work! I know nothing about any of this, but I find it entertaining and educational.

Doug, I really enjoy your videos. I rarely leave comments, but I couldn't resist commenting when I was seeing all of the zip ties in your engine compartment. At some point you or one of your ship mates are going to reach in and slice their arms up on those little sip tie ends. Get yourself a pair of flush cut pliers, or take a pair of wire cutters and grind it so that it will cut them flush. Keep up the great work, and can't wait to see more.

Working bugs out of a custom built boat should surprise nobody. Even known boat manufacturers have sea trails to sort issues out before delivery. Love that Doug shows everything.

You're gonna love StarLink!!! I've been using it for over a year and its FANTASTIC!!! 🙂

Im really glad I found your channel and your community of followers. Your attitude and positive outlook is contagious and refreshing to find in today's world. I would love to shake your hand and spend some time helping out with getting the 'ol girl doing what she wants to do. Thanks for all you do Doug!

Make sure you connect the star link at least once, you can't force update them once the software gets to many versions out of date as Everyday Astronaut found out, love seeing the grind making her ready, I think allot of folks never understood half the work on these kinds of builds happen after it's in service because there's no way to plan for everything and not spend a few million up front vs a few thousand on the back end

My rebuttal to naysayers that say that I must do x or I can’t do y or the other variants… “Life is an experiment”. This is why I like your channel so much. U treat life as and experiment and don’t let anyone tell u what u can and can’t do 😎. U guys are awesome!

"Shaft moves in and out" *makes hand gesture* I can't believe you passed up the opportunity to recognize that bad joke!

I once put motor oil into a hydraulic winch on a boat as I had lost the hydraulic fluid, it circulated fine but didn't winch very well at all and foamed up and overflowed out of the tank, as soon as I got it back on hydraulic fluid it worked fine again.

Love watching you work through the problem. Good luck!

I love the Troll sketch!!! 🤣😂🤣😂

Thanks for the update, Doug.

I love shad me and my cousin used to always catch a good few with a cast net then use them for bait to catch catfish. Spent most of my summers as a kid fishing on a creek bank, dock, wading, fishing form a leaky aluminum boat (we had a live tank an hour or so into fishing), or running trot lines. Man I miss it so much even the times I got sick, sun burned, minnows pecking at you, raising our boat the time it sank, the fresh smell of the lake in the morning or evening. We have been talking about going again but life is life hope we do miss the summer breaks as a kid. No cares or worries just fishing for days if not weeks to have a family catfish fry.

Comment section is Doug's think tank. What a great resource.

Thanks for responding Doug. I also had another thought. On hydro boost units (Diesel engines don’t produce vacuum for a brake booster.) they utilize an integrated electric boost pump in case of engine failure you still have pressure in the power steering system so you have power brakes. Might be a cheap option to the Volvo and also is an inline pump not active until pressure loss which would eliminate the need for your check valves or shut off valves and could easily be wired to automatically kick in if the main pump failed.

doing a fine job

I love preemptive troll trolling. Keep killin it.

My Starlink does pitch side to side as well but it’s all controlled by the app when setting it up. I got the long arm mount to mount it under my soffit while my neighbor just screwed it to his roof with the cross arm mount that comes with it. Both mounting options have worked great so far.

I don’t envy changing that seal. Good luck and may that force be with you

If you can not sail the boat, fish with the Shad!

Totally love the troll. I fell out of my chair and it took 10 minutes to stop laughing and get off the floor. Great message! Been watching for years. Now I have to ice my ribs and diaphragm. Dare mighty things.

Finding out you got Starlink is my favorite part of this video not going to lie Doug.

Interesting problem there Doug ! I’ve used motor oil in diggers before when I’ve ran out of hydraulic fluid and had no problems with it , can’t wait for you to hit the high seas 👍🏻 watching from Spain 🇪🇸

Need more content! I check RU-vid everyday hoping for a video lol I can’t wait to see her sail!!

The most amazing shared knowledge. Thank you

I know you have gone the less costly option with the dual ball valves but there is a T valve with a single handle where you can set it to one route or the other so neither will ever be engaged at the same time. I don't know what your shifting unit is rated at for psi but it might be possible that o-ring blew out if your pump can make pressure way over what the system is rated for and you don't have a pressure dump, any sort of bind or block happens and your pressure spikes with no relief and that pressure is going to go somewhere. The loops I have seen had a pressure dump built in, there was a T in the line right after the pump, the open end of the T led directly to a check valve set to whatever pressure the system was operating at, and that went right back to the res. Since you have a dual setup this would be after your ball valves to cover both pumps. You could put a third ball valve leading into your system to close it off and read your in line gauge to take a pressure reading and see what your check valve is actually set to assuming your dump line can handle the full flow of whatever pump you are running. Our pumps could make 3000 psi but we were running 200-400 for lubrication on various equipment and all the rest just went back to the res. The systems had ISO 32 to 300 in them, you are probably on 40w for motor oil so I do not see a problem there. Goodluck on the disassembly and investigation, good to get everything worked out now and not on the Mississippi.

Good advice on the Trolls - made me smile :-)

Most hydraulic oil have a viscosity equal to 0 or 5 weight engine oil, the only problem they may come from switching oils is seal, o-ring, hose, etc... Compatibility not oil rubber goods can handle the different types of oil, the other 5.9 Cummins was used in a lot of equipment, and school buses and big trucks use engine oil for the power steering. You can also get low cracking pressure check valve for hydraulic system, we us them all the time in oil field. We gets 1/4” check valves that open at like 3 psi, the 1/2” I believe we were using were 7 psi, both would handle 5,000 to 7,000 psi.

I think hydraulic power steering are is all open-centred systems -- where the fluid flows freely when no work is being done. Is it clear that the hundested pitch controller is also for an open-centre system? Using a fixed displacement pump on a closed-centre system will force the pump to work at maximum pressure continuously and cause pumps to fail very quickly.

I worked at a hydro power plant for a few years. We had a governor that did not like to start cold. We would typically run a hair dryer for an hour on the governor head to pre heat the oil. Then it would operate just fine. The manufacture changed the specification of the oil on the governor to aft cold starts where no longer an issue.

we only run motor oil in all are heavy machines at work for well over 30 years without problems besides the cold weather its all fine

We run a fleet of cat excavators all run on 10 weight engine oil for hydraulic oil and is recommended from the manufacturer

Frustration been there done that but there is always an answer and finding it is the journey to knowledge. The feeling of achievement when you solve the problem makes you realise that the journey wasn't that bad after all. Little bit of advice though keep a log book of all the facts you learn about oils seals fittings as a reference just like an aircraft a boat is so complicated it's hard to remember it all then it frees up your brain. You may say I use my computer but books don't need electricity and sometimes it's much easier to find what you need in the written word. Good luck with your journey down river.

The starlink actually has a real neat turret drive that lets it pitch and yaw

I get the same kind of gremlins with stuff I work on. I get the same thing from experimenting on stabilizing guitar bridges. It's always if it's not one thing it's another.

Knowledge comes from endless failure. That's how we learn. But too much endless failures will drag a melancholy person down. I'm one of those kinds of people. I have been called negative so many times, that I instantly knock those people out of my life for being negative about me. They don't help. I design buildings and have been told by many that I have good, useful drawings, not full of useless fill. I examine every item. That critical attribute gives me an ability to see problems ahead of time. But I am careful not to load too many problems onto a customer because there is a chance that problem will never occur, but I let them know it could be a possibility in today's government permitting system. I have had to learn to take my time on my own projects and not get frustrated when things don't work. I have learned from Doug's analytical method of just trying different methods to solve problems. Even old dogs can learn new tricks, speaking of me, of course. I have enjoyed Doug's learning process, especially the bronze casting where he did it over and over and over looking for a method of beach casting in an emergency. I'm still wondering if the motor oil is compressible to the same (term?) density as hydraulic oil. If it was, it would seem that everybody would use motor oil instead. Looking forward to more experimentation. Thank you Doug.

Just a bit of advice on mounting your Starlink antenna. I'd highly recommend you at least keep the mounting pole configuration to allow the panel to orient itself via the internal motor. While, technically, the panel will still be able to generally "position" itself via the phased array system internally, you will still benefit from allowing the panel to physically orient itself to the overall correct position in the sky.

ATP AT-205 re-sealer might work to refresh the seals. Had a power streaking pump leak, added some of that stuff and it stopped leaking within a day. I guess it wouldn't work if the seal was completely gone. Something to try especially if you got internal leaks and you don't quiet want to take it apart just yet.

Damn Doug!!! I would pay just to attend a Marine Engineering course as a class for the Seeker. Seriously I am always learning from your project and this is like a master class in Marine Engineering. Excellent work

Hi Doug. In my time in the South African Defence Force, we had exactly the same power steering pumps on our vehicles, as per Deutz and ZF recommendations, swing the main engine without starting and keep topping up the oil until the level stabilizes. Hope that helps. Also realizing not a truck but a great build boat with a bus engine.

I've run shell rotella oil in my hydraulic systems for decades. If it doesn't work as good as hydraulic fluid I couldn't tell you why.

Make a custom tank. It shouldn't be too difficult, and should keep any temps under high load down. It will give you more options. Other than that, I have zero knowledge of the issues you are working through. So, thanks for showing us everything you are learning. I've always gone with what I know works. These are the experiments that we can learn from.

Excellent

That water pump that's on the Cummins motor. The FLD 120 I had, the pump got pulled off or out of the motor, literally out of the block, bolts and all. I had to get a new block

you are usually only doing lots of fast and tight steering when you are in parking lots and such at low RPM, makes sense to have it on an electric motor

Peogout/citroen is a good source for EPS pumps. Simple 2 wire connection

Keep up the great work!

Most of the time those oil filters have check valves as well.... parallel fuel filters are anywhere from 1 to 10 micron

Love your engine room! Well thought out with room to move around. Been in to many sailboats where engine tucked away under cockpit and can’t do any maintenance.

The satellite spins to aline the pivot relief cut with the direction it needs to go. Although I'm sure you already set it up

Sounds like my latest issue. Been fixing a couple mowers I got for free to make a few extra bucks. First one was the pull start so I replaced that and sold if for about 100 profit. Turned that cash around and bought some parts for a riding mower. The rider didn't have a blade belt at all so that was 15 bucks, the carburetor was full of crud and had something messed up inside not to mention the little main jet solenoid which shuts off the fuel was busted so that was about 30 bucks, and someone put a metric thread filter on it so I had to get the right one for another 5 bucks. Replaced the filter first and with the old carb it would run but not great. Replacement carb and belt came in so I swapped that stuff out and then it wouldn't run at all. Started messing with it and ended up figuring out that the new main jet had something like hot glue inside of it and it was completely plugged, cleaned that out and it purrs like a kitten. Sharpened the blades, mowed the yard with it and put it up for sale. Thankfully it only took a couple days to have someone say they wanted it. Now I have a few extra bucks to put towards the house I didn't have available last week.

So the addage....Captain goes down with the ship....welp....now I'm thinking that "THIS" ship will go down with the Captain....what I mean is after watching and seeing just HOW MUCH intricacy is involved in your little ship and little things that all have to jive with another to keep it run, I'm thinking it would take a another Captain quite a while to master every part/motor/etc of your ship to keep it humming along so it's likely it'll go down with you! BTW your a fascinating man....fascinating and very involving...my type of man! I have Starlink also and just watched this video today (June 2023)...I'm curious how your Starlink has been for you!

Hey Doug heavy equipment/truck mechanic here. 99.9% of my units that utilize an independent power steering system especially trucks have a vented reservoir. I noticed your cap was solid not vented and could be causing the system to air/Vacuum lock. Just a thought…

I would recommend putting some gages with ball valves so you know what is going on. As a pipe fitter you can ever have enough gages or valves. When you're not using the gages you can shut off the valves to them. This way there's no chance of them leaking.

They way that river wanders all over, you must be 500 miles from the Mississippi River?

You are an animal ! Love the videos !

Hey Doug! Nice to see you got Starlink Mobile :)

It seems you may have more than one problem. The main difference between motor oil and hydraulic oil, beside other additives, is the that hydraulic oil does not have the detergent additives that cause it to foam. You could use non-detergent motor oil or AW100 which is 30 weight oil. I use hydraulic oil that is 20W-50 in my hydrostatic mower. However it was about $35 a gallon last year. Hydraulic filters on the inlet need a very soft bypass. Most hydraulic filters are after the pressure system and just a coarse screen on the inlet. Some systems that use a fine filter on the inlet use a very large soft bypass and they should be mounted below the hydraulic reservoir. They use a very large filter area so there is no restriction to the pump.

Well at least you must be getting close to the gulf of Mexico soon. Eh Doug?

Doug, That variable pitch prop was a massively interesting project , from making the blades to figuring it out etc. but was it really made to feather that far for sailing? Looking at the big picture a big old 3 blade fixed prop would be a so much more reliable solution . The drag you save from the feathering when sailing is tiny compared to the bilge keels and the huge prop shroud…. Sorry I sound like a dumb ‘told your so’ I’m not trying to be. But it’s such an important component you need 500% reliability from it. Can it be fixed in one position? The Mississippi river is not the place to loose drive…… Cheers Warren

The hydraulic check valve on the electric pump pressure line could be faulty. This would allow fluid from the engine driven pump to return to the sump and would explain low pressure readings. A ball valve on that line in place of the check valve would be an easy way to check for proper function.

Motor oil dissolves rubber O rings over time. Hydraulic fluid won't. Similar viscosity but Hydraulic fluid is cheaper overall and less maintenance because you don't have to replace all the rings with silicone to avoid broken rings in a few months.

My Subaru has electric power steering. So there’s a whole other brand you can shop for at the ole junk yard if you need, in the future.

Just a couple thoughts,, years ago we used stuff called "tractor fluid" that ran all the guts of a tractor, trans, engine, hydraulics, 50GAL drums at the farm store.. If the diesel would be happy with it your golden. When you guys were changing the water pump, I noticed the fan pulley and hub were still there, on later engines that pulley is like a A/C clutch to stop and start the fan. You might be able to use that to run a PSE hydro pump (From the race / 4x4 industry) The PSE pumps can handle tons of abuse and are dead small and simple.. With the clutch you could disengage when not needed, once the prop is pitched can you isolate the pitch gizmo with a pair of normally closed valves to lock the pitch? Then the pump would only run or be needed when changing the pitch of the prop. And could no longer leak to the engine crankcase.

Idea: install a header tank on your suction line. just below the deck of the wheel house should be sufficient, to give a postive pressure on the suction line at all times, (also gives expansion and back pressure a place to go) and that might prevent the vapouring you mention at 16:56. (okay now back to the video, maybe you do this in the next 10 minutes :P)

Tell me---when does Seaker go out to the big water ??

Let’s make sure the o-rings are all compatible with the motor oil in the huntersted..

This episode should be re-titled to something about Perseverance! I have taken a note from you, either you edited out the wrench that got thrown and a few interesting curse words or you are just that patient! Either way you went systematically through the entire system with several rolls of teflon tape to boot! I guess you will be tearing into the Hundested again :) Good Luck, and if you have outtakes of a wrench getting thrown that would be great too :)

I thought you were supposed Christen the Boat, not the other way around. LOL Hope you find the problem and you get it fixed with out to much frustration

I got lost… is it working?? Good luck on the ride down stream. Hope things are sorted so there are no issues.

Doug, don't listen too anyone that says SV Seeker is doomed to failure, in fact if you do go down with all hands i will personally make sure there's a song written in Seekers honor maybe a country and rap version, it will rival the Edmond Fitzgerald. HEAD TO SEA AND CLAIM ETERNAL GLORY! P.S. I already have the first verse

Remember, per the TOS you aren't supposed to use starlink while you are moving ;) you can thank the FCC for dragging their feet on approving them for that.

toyota MR2 has a good PS pump

Did you ever perform a killer dowl pin fix on the 5.9 cummins? If not you really should do it.

The Mini cooper also had electric power steering pump fyi, you should really put the pto gear in your Allison, i can track one down if you need it

12:41 for the money shot!

I always have a screen on the inlet filter on the return.

nothing like getting intimate with an engine :-)

Problems occur when you only have LIMITED knowledge ..... quote ... A little knowledge is enough to get you into trouble!! Hey Google ?.

Oh Well Doug, At least YOU learned some things beneficial to Seeker's future ops... Trolls can't learn, since they already KNOW it ALL ! Right ? Maybe adding some diagnostic tees in some of the critical lines so you can swap a gauge or two around as needed would be helpful or just to see flow more easily, or a clear section that could also be an air bubble trap/vent ? OH, and Hi Bart !

Crazy question: I like how you've decided to replace power steering fluid with engine oil in case of seal failure, but do you need to worry that the extra oil level will result into blow-by of that increased oil level into the diesel's cylinders resulting in diesel runaway? I hope you include a reliable method of emergency blocking the intake should a runaway occur.

Check the device that moves the angle of the propeller

I'm sure you know but I doubt that ball valve has the rating to deal with hydrolic pressure. Most cap out at 600psi. I only say this because I had a 1" ball valve rated at 600psi blow appart on me at 150psi. Dang thing about took my head off. Not being a saftey snob only sharing experience.

Doug, just think the Pilgrims made it all the way from my county to your shores in 1620 with out a Volvo pump...

I would consider a pressure relief to protect that cylinder seal...obviously the pump seal was blown out at the same instance... the question is was that a cause or a symptom??

Maybe the motor oil makes the o-rings stick more than hydraulic fluid?

motor oil will work. just fine. swapping to a actual oil filter will change the aspect of pressure before the filter. the issue will be the particulate size the filers would remove. keep the hydronic filter. use the engine sump as the sump for the pump. just return it to the oil pan. or a overflow tank for the eng. the powersteering in my truck uses eng oil. I change it once a year. filter 6 months. but it also holds 5 gallons of oil. I have a tank under the bed. a scavenge picks up the dry sumo th the overflow through a cooler to the pump to the eng pump it the power steering. now that I've seen this I am going to swap to a electric pump. and use the eng mounted just for hydronic capstan and wench. great idea. I get to reduce the demand on the pump without replacing it every 2 years and if it fails I can still drive out.

Hey doug, have you ever looked into sea water hydraulics for the tender? a university in china has been developing tools for divers that reportedly have unlimited depth usage as they use just a pump, a filter, and a discharge line as a means to move the tools. I have had to do some research on it for a project at work, fascinating stuff.

That arrow with the "3000PSI" is the cracking pressure. A power steering pump puts out around 1100-1300 PSI, you might want to see what the required pressure is for your pitch controller.

Not sure exactly if this would help you, but there is a hydraulic steering pump used on tractors. I have one on my small BladeMor road grader. It is nice in that the power come from you the operator. This may possibly suit your needs for when the pump fails. The pitch could then be controlled by something much like a steering wheel. Not quite sure if that would be a good idea because I don't fully understand your situation. But in my experience if you can arrange things so that a manual means can be incorporated that is the best backup there is. If posable this manual arrangement could be the primary means because how often do you change pitch? Just a thought. But sure do like following your progress. Thank you

I would double check the inside of that shaft movement while you have it apart. You know you have the pressure to blow two seals but why? Is the shaft not moving while not in gear?

You could use another electric tail lift pump

When you did the pressure test what position was the valve in? Is your valve clearance allowing fluid to bypass at 50psi? Meaning your only ever getting a max 50psi through your system because the rest bypasses at the valve through the bearing clearances. Looked like the assembly just used “normal” o rings not hydraulic style with backup rings or Vee packings. Are the units meant to have high presser on both sides of the piston? I could see it being designed as one side being lower pressure so the blades feather with little hydraulic pressure but the side which holds the pitch having a higher pressure. Can’t see that o ring failing unless it’s not the correct style. I’d like to know the pressure on the gauge with the selector valve in the center position with fluid bypassing through the clearances on the brass part you made. Also why isn’t the system bypassing at 290 psi when you close that ball valve. Did you take out the system bypass or override for this test? That o ring probably is not rated for that kind or pressure without blowing out.

This may be a dumb question, but are the o-rings compatible with the oil you are using? I know O-rings will swell or fall apart if used in the wrong application

Would a belt driven hydraulic pump for a snow plow work better than the power steering pump?

I have a question for the conventional sailors out there. If your jib uses rope and slot connection to the roller, would you call the jib clueless?

Why not just take the whole hydraulic off it and put a lever to actuate it and a cable up the lever in the helm? Then you can adjust pitch any time power or not?

Maybe the engine oil is not compatible with the seal material in the pitch controller

Looks like I made it at #3 over here. I'm having a great evening tonite. Double dipping with Seeker makes for a great Friday evening. Good to see Bart again. Has the river dropped enough yet for you to get under the bridges? Looking forward to seeing Seeker travel down the river and into the lake. Take care all.