Tag Archives: Catana

Costa Rica is for the Birds!

Marina Papagayo (look for the green Footloose)

After a few days of hanging out in Playa del Coco Anchorage with the Papagayo winds blowing like snot, we were relieved to dock at Marina Papagayo. This was to be a quick stop, a week no more, eager to get moving to the Gulf of Nicoya. When we arrived there was a Panama Posse fleet here, which made it fun to catch up with boats on our route, including Michelle & Juan on Ay Caramba, who also own a Catana. We’ve met only a few Catana people out here, so we were happy to exchange some stories and tour their 431. Other than socializing, we  made the most of our week taking care of some boat projects. Michael was able to repair our main sail bag, which was huge, since the zipper had broke, leaving our main sail vulnerable to the elements. We also sewed the unraveling bits on our gennaker and once again re-furled it, tighter this time, fingers crossed it will unfurl and furl with ease as we anticipate using this sail quite a bit going south. AHHH. Footloose is all cleaned up and ready to go. Our last night at Marina Papagayo, we splurged and went out for dinner at a neighboring resort restaurant with our buddy boat partners, Paradisea and Sonamara. Over Manhattans, we chatted about our sail plan for the following morning, expecting to depart at 0600. Returning to the boat, I noticed that the air condition was off — did we trip a breaker?  Also- the AC panel was all lit up red. Uh, Michael, I think there’s a problem. Long story short, our Mastervolt inverter/charger was down. Michael was up until one am troubleshooting, but to no avail. Plans aborted, we watched our friends leave the harbor at dawn. We’ll catch up, but now it’s time for us to order parts in foreign places. Concerned because we’ve heard how expensive Costa Rica can be. How would this work?  Dan who manages the Marina, walked us through our options, including flying to Florida to pick it up and carrying it through customs. Imagining our new inverter being tossed about in luggage, we opted to have it shipped with a freight forwarder. 2 weeks approximately.  Costly setback for sure.

While we sorted things out, many sights to see around the marina. Many of the posse fleet had departed, but a new one rolled in, Interlude, with Captain Mike, making his way back from Panama to Mexico. We first met on the HAHA 16, so it was especially nice to reconnect and reflect on where we’ve been.

Waiting for Inverter Delivery… Flexible sailors, we try not to cry, but we do find ways to mend disappointment. In this case, we got out of Dodge, away from the dock, in search of birds and monkeys, and Costa Rican Pura Vida! The wildlife and bird watching in particular at Palo Verde National Park and La Fortuna (Arenal Volcano) did the trick.

Palo Verde

Birds of Palo Verde

Palo Verde National Park is home to spectacular wetlands and one of the best examples of a tropical dry forest. It was quite dry and windy during our visit. The water level in the surrounding marshes was also low, so some species had already departed for temperate summer nesting grounds. Probably better to visit December – February for full-spectrum of birds that migrate here every year. The Roseate Spoonbills, for example, had pretty much cleared out (we saw one or two, but two weeks earlier they were plentiful when our friend visited).  Still, we saw plenty of other species. Thanks to a friend’s recommendation, we booked two nights at the OTS (Organization for Tropical Studies) Lodge, located right in the heart of the park. This is not a tourist place by any stretch. Most visitors are scientists, researchers, academics. They do welcome mere novice bird aficionados, so we were in. The lodging is basic with no air conditioning and mosquito nets hung over the twin beds. We did have our own bathroom with warm water. No matter, as we were not here for 600 thread count sheets. It was comfortable and cheap with three meals included with the lodging (bonus, given the aforementioned inverter order). Plus there were interesting people, and wondrous birds.  We rose with the sun and hiked to marshlands with cameras and binoculars. Jose, the young man working in reception, also serves as a guide. He introduced us to the nearby marshland and pointed out the birds in his scope. We also befriended a couple visiting from Holland, Marc and Pauline (pronounced Pauline EH). Marc is a serious and knowledgeable bird watcher. Outside the dining hall was our favorite spot for dining and talking about birds, travel, and even some politics.  We also met Gernot and Richard Kunz, a father and son team of biologists visiting from Austria. Gernot is an entomologist, so he had light traps set up and collected insect species (leaf cutters) for examination. Apparently, the dry air and full moon were not ideal conditions. He was passionate about teaching and mentoring future biology teachers to learn more about the morphology of organisms.  He also was an advocate for the spider family, who undeservedly are the most feared in the insect kingdom. Go ahead hold the tarantula in your hand! Gernod and Richard have created an application “Animals of Costa Rica”, and continue to update it with every new animal identified (over 7000 photos so far).  He explained how people name new species (never after yourself!).  He showed us a picture of this brightly colored leaf-cutter, which reminded Marc of a Picasso painting, and so it was that he named it thus – “Picasso”.  On the funny side- Gernot noted that someone even named a Caterpillar “Trump.” Laughing I asked, does it have orange hair?  -Yes, as a matter of fact!  We all cracked up. It is also the most venomous in the genus, go figure.  Gernot and Richard went off the beaten path around the park as you might expect. Gernot directed us to a nest, “turn right on Catalina, continue on the road till you reach the lone banana tree, behind that in the Guanacaste tree, third branch up, you can’t miss the large nest with baby Jabirus  We found it!

Birdwatching at Palo Verde: It’s harder than you think. First to spot them or hear them, and then to identify them. Throw in a camera to focus and it is quite challenging. We are still learning, but having fun doing it.

La Fortuna, Arenal Volcano

Toucan with Arenal Backdrop

Leaving Palo Verde, we drove 2 1/2 hours NE to La Fortuna, from the hot and arid climate to the lush rainforest.  Along the way, we picked up hitchhikers, a mother and young daughter escaping Nicaragua to be with family in Liberia, Costa Rica. We let them off at a bus stop near La Fortuna with a few colones.  Wishing them safe travel and reunion. Onward we went, through the curvy mountainous region around Arenal. We stayed at the Arenal Bungalows, again nothing fancy, but nice garden and view of the Arenal Volcano. There is lots to do in this area— ziplines, thermal hot springs, hiking, horseback riding, and of course bird watching. Obviously, a tourist hot spot, a far cry from the solitude of Palo Verde. We went to Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park, where we did a self-guided hike through the park and then returned the following morning for a guided bird watching tour. Our first day, we sat drinking coffee, waiting for our hiking reservation. Sitting next to the gift shop, I turned my head and “WOA is that real?”  I spotted my first Yellow-Throated Toucan just perched on a tree smiling at me. There’s something about your first in most things, including spotting tropical birds.  Thrilling!

Birdwatching at La Fortuna: Many new birds here, varied colors and songs. I walked around with my head tilted back, eyes to the sky, waiting for a glimpse!

No Place Like Home

Marina Sunset

After our four-day tour, we were excited to get back on Footloose. Before giving up the rental car, we stopped at Auto Mercado for one more  provision run and of course lunch at Coconuts at Playa del Coco. Marina Papagayo is really nice, but isolated without a car. There are restaurants and one small market around the marina, but very expensive. We did get a reasonable marina rate with a Panama Posse discount, and the staff and amenities are A+, with great walking and biking paths, a pool to cool off in the afternoon, do-it-yourself lavandaria and a quiet cool conference room with strong wifi. Back on Footloose, we began tracking our inverter shipment. It may be delivered as soon as Friday. Michael should have it installed quickly and we’ll be back in business – ready to catch up with our friends along the Costa Rica passage. 

Fair winds everyone,

Lisa and Michael

10 Days in the Boatyard

We leave Paradise Village Marina and anchor for the night off of La Cruz. On the way out we have no power, the engines are smoking black and boat speed is limited to 3 knots. Props? I don’t swim in marinas, which can be pretty gross and may even sport the occasional crocodile; plus, being a cheapskate, I didn’t have the bottom cleaned since we were going to the yard for that service.

We anchor outside the mouth and I dive in to scrape a thick layer of calciferous creatures off of my propeller. Boat speed increases to 7.5 and engines stop smoking. Another cruising lesson learned.

Calciferous growth

Prop looked like the drive leg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day One
We motor into the yard and they pick us up right on time. The boat glides into the way with a couple of feet between the boat and the cement walls. We spend the morning supervising the blocking of the boat. Footloose has a cored hull so taking the pressure unevenly on the supports can cause delamination.

Peter Vargas at the yard shows us the trick of using pieces of foam boogie board to spread the load from the blocking. We have two jobs to take care of in the boat yard. 1) bottom paint, which the Peter Vargas crew will handle. 2) my job- is to replace the sail drive hull seals. I’m nervous, thinking about it.

We check into our hotel, the La Cruz inn, take a swim and enjoy a Paloma by the pool.

Day Two
The yard guys are sanding the bottom and I begin the work of removing first our propellers and then output shafts from the sail drives.

Next, I remove the starboard sail drive from the boat, a Volvo 130S. I have been worrying about this step. The instructions include the direction to slide the engine forward 30 mm. They tell you to support the front of the sail drive with a 12 mm rod, but after spending a lot of time looking for that, I learn that a 12mm is actually too big and the hulls are too narrow to allow sliding the rod in anyway.

Wedge to Position Sail Drive

Wedge to Position Sail Drive

The Catana group on Yahoo enlightens me. One of the members emails me a word document that describes using a piece of 2×4 fitted between the drive and the hull opening to keep the drive in position. I modify the procedure making a wedge that gives me the ability to adjust the input shaft angles slightly as needed.

I create a short fall with two triple blocks that came with the boat and a length of dyneema I had on hand. I am able to lift the motor slightly and after disconnecting the motor mounts, I am able to separate the sail drive from the engine with one gentle kick on the bell housing. At about 50 lbs I am able to lift the transmission assembly out of the engine room and drop it over the transom with the help of a line. This won’t be so bad after all.

Both propeller shafts are scored from the lip seals, so Peter Vargas drives me down to Torno Neptuno in Puerto Vallarta and we plan to have the grooves welded up, then lathed to specification. I am a little worried about the welding taking the shaft out of true, but they assure me that they apply the weld in small lengths on opposing sides of the shaft. The answer I wanted to hear.

Scored Shafts

Scored Shafts

Back to the pool and another Paloma.
The Inn has a restaurant and Lupita our waitress befriends us and patiently helps us to learn a little more Spanish… Gotta figure out the verbs.

Day Three
We are removing the drives because we want to replace the rubber seal that goes between the hull and the sail drive. If this fails, your engine room fills with water… not good. Volvo recommends replacement every 7 years. I think the port side is original with the boat (20 years). The metal retaining ring is oozing rust, so the time has definitely come.

 

To change the hull seal, we need to separate the transmission from the lower portion of the sail drive. In the middle, there are a series of shims that you need to keep track of. These limit the endplay of the vertical shaft in the sail drive. I separate the two pieces and am moving things around when Peter comes over to talk about something. I look down and there are 2 shims lying on the ground. Argh.. I pick them up and with two more shims and a spacer, I put them safely in a plastic bag and into the tub with the rest of the parts from that side of the boat, and then double check that there are no more shims that may have rolled a distance.
The sail drive is aluminum and needs special anti-fouling treatment, so a guy from the yard takes the drive leg along with the parts tub over to the shop to carefully prepare for the new specialized aluminum bottom paint we are using, a coating called Petit Hydro coat.
I take the Port side drive out during the rest of the afternoon and then back to the inn for a swim and another Paloma. Just sitting on the steps sipping an icy drink made for a great end to another very sweaty day in the yard. Most days are mid 80s for both temperature and humidity.

Day Four

I disassemble the second drive leg. This is a Volvo 120S. Yes the two sail drives are different because years ago, the boat hit a log off of Panama and the starboard drive was replaced with a later model. I carefully place the shims in a plastic bag and then into the parts tub. The yard collects the second leg and tub to prep for antifouling. I reassemble and reinstall the 130

Outer hull seal

Outer hull seal

and glue a new outer hull seal to the bottom of the boat. This does not keep water out of the boat, but acts to improve the hydrodynamics as the water flow passes the drive leg.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Willa is parked off shore and boaters are doubling up their dock lines and preparing for the worst. If the Hurricane comes here, hauled out is a good place to be.
Swimming and another Paloma.

 

Day Five

Time to reassemble the second drive. I carefully set up the drive gasket with Permatex adhesive and then get ready to replace the shims. I cannot find the shims! I tear apart our garbage. I never really throw anything out until I’m done with a project like that. The yard guy is sure he never saw them. In my heart I believe he misplaced them in the shop which is very busy with many simultaneous projects going on, but I have no way to be sure, so I keep looking.

Permatex on the gasket

 No dice. I spend the afternoon figuring out how to order new ones. I use my old Vernier caliper to measure for replacements according to instructions in the manual. Some shims for the older 120s drive are discontinued, so I contact another outfit who specializes in out of production Volvo parts….for a price.

Swimming and more than one Paloma.

Day Six
It is raining off and on but the air temperature is still mid 80’s giving me the odd sensation of walking miles in my shower. Lisa accompanies me to the yard. Fresh eyes, new day, we will try to find those shims. The tubs have been closed up in a garbage bag to keep the rain out, and I carefully look again. Lo and behold the shims are actually in their bag in the garbage bag! Somehow I missed the tub when I put them in there. Hooray….. I confess my sins to the yard guy who seems relieved.

 

How many shims does a saildrive take?

I begin to reassemble the drive, but now there seem to be too many shims. The spacers and shims seem about ¼ inch too thick for the space they need to fill. Remembering the 2 shims that I dropped originally, I begin to worry that some of the shims from the first drive were confused with the second drive. Although the dropped shims were far less than ¼ inch in thickness. OH NO that means there may not be enough shims in the first saildrive….. I feel trapped in a bad movie.

I have to be certain. Tomorrow I will remove the first drive again. At least I’m getting good at this.
Swimming and multiple Palomas.

 

Hurricane Weather

Hurricane Weather

 

Day Seven
It’s Hurricane time, raining a lot but only light winds, even the predicted swell fails to materialize and the storm passes 100 plus miles outside of Banderas Bay.
I remove the 130s for the second time and dissect. No problems, the shims are actually a different diameter and not interchangeable. I measure and all seems good. But what is going on with the 120? I start to measure again and press firmly against the bearing race that will support the shims. It slides into the transmission ¼ of an inch. Now it will work out. I measure again and everything seems OK. I start to put the 130 back into the boat, but stop when the rain picks up.
Things are looking up. I sit on the steps of the pool in the rain drinking my icy Paloma.

Day Eight
It’s raining, but the yard charges $50 per day for parking there, so I need to keep moving. We rig a plastic awning over the engine room and I finish connecting the starboard transmission to the motor, then shift to the port side and install that transmission.
The rain made for a dark day, but things are looking up.
Pool and Paloma

Day Nine
The sun is back, and the yard is sweltering in the humidity. They need 24 hours for the paint to dry so today is the day. I arrive early and glue down both external seals. They do the first coat, while I reassemble the propellers and put oil in the sail drives. The second coat of paint goes on in the afternoon. What a great job Peter and his crew have done. In the afternoon, I prep the propellers and apply Propglide, a less expensive version of Propspeed, but probably the same stuff at a better price point. Tomorrow is Splash Day!

Almost done. A relaxing swim and a sweet Paloma.

Day Ten
We wait through a little scheduling issue. The delivery captain ahead of us is fuming, but I’m done with heavy lifting, so what’s a few more hours? They hoist the boat and paint the patches where the stands were touching the hulls and it’s splash time. They gently lower boat into the ways, stopping for a moment when the deck is at ground level so we can get aboard, then into the water. We check for leaks and after a minor exhaust issue, we are good to go. The engines start and we begin to back out. Oh no, the starboard dagger board snags the lifting strap causing the starboard side to drag against the cement wall, with gel coat crunching and popping off to my dismay. Disappointed, we move to the Marina. At least we are back on board and afloat. Paloma please.

Day Eleven
We meet Dublas, a freelance gel coat artist who comes highly recommended. For $1000 he will repair the injury plus about 30 or 40 minor dings and scratches. Boats accumulate these things over 20 years and this is a great deal.

Soon we will be off towards Panama and new adventures—with the boat yard, a distant memory.

That's not a Paloma

That’s not a Paloma

Michael’s Paloma
2 parts tequila
1 part soda water (Aqua Mineral)
2 parts grapefruit juice (Toronja)
Mix well, Pour over ice,

Lithium Battery Install Using Manzanita Micro Components

After hearing of other successful installs, I decided to replace our 1200AH golf cart battery pack with Lithium Ion batteries.

Since Lithium battery packs are capable of 80% discharge, by my calculation an 800 Amp hour pack was the equivalent of my  lead acid system.  We plan to never discharge more than 640 amps.

My system consists of two 400ah packs with 4 cells each of CALB (Chinese Aviation Lithium Battery) cells which I purchased directly from CALB USA.  We had one defective cell about six months after installation and this redundancy proved itself at this time, as we were able to operate completely normally but with half the capacity.  The defective cell was covered under warranty.

I fabricated a housing for each pack out of Aluminum Plate with pieces of steel all thread holding the plates together.  The bottom is a piece of boat board with grooves in the underside to slip over the all thread. The all thread is covered with pieces of black irrigation tubing to keep the all thread from abrading the cell cases.  A bracket is fitted over two pieces of the all thread to mount the regulators. This thin piece of sheet metal helps to dissipate heat from the regulators which can get very warm when they are dissipating current to bypass a fully charged cell.  A small fan is also mounted that is thermostatically activated when the regulators get warm.

A clear acrylic cover was fabricated to prevent accidental shorting of this very high amperage system.  As a Navy Electrician, I saw a man blow the head off a crescent wrench shorting out a larger diesel starting system.  This system has greater discharge capability.

Each pack has an isolation switch, which allows you to disconnect the pack from the system or bypass the disconnect relay in the event you are willing to risk the pack for navigational concerns.

Components of the Manzanita Micro System are connected in a buss formed with standard telephone cable.

The Manzanita components are:

The regulator board mark 3x4SMT:

The regulator board has voltage taps for each cell of the “battery”.  Temperature sensors are also available.  I have not installed these because the pack does not fluctuate in temperature at all when charging.  With our system we rarely charge at more than 200 amps and this pack will absorb 800Amps/hour. The board has a telephone jack that allows it to connect to other components of the Manzanita system.  The regulator is programmed through the display.  The interface is pretty clunky but once you’ve done it, you will never be back.

The Robb II  Regulator relay output board:

This Black box, it’s aluminum actually, plugs into the telephone buss system and provides a low current set of normally open or closed contacts that will actuate in the event of high or low voltage. These contacts are used to trigger a high current relay opening the battery circuit in the event of High or Low Voltage.

Rudman Buss Display:

A pair of monitors, one for each pack independently, is also connected to the buss.  This product is discontinued.  Theoretically one display can monitor both packs, but I was unable to make that work, so I have one display for each pack.  There is also a USB Dongle available which allow you to monitor the pack with a computer.  Per the owner, Rich Rudman, these monitors are replaced with a system that uses a cheap Android pad as a Monitor.  In my last conversation with Rich, I think I finally understood that one monitor could be used by renumbering the cells, 1-4 for the first pack and 5-8 for the second pack.  Since I want each regulator to turn off one pack only, I have two independent BMS systems so that only the failed battery is disconnected.

In addition I used 2 Gigavac GXL14 high current latching relays to open the battery circuit in case of High or low voltage state… These guys are expensive $400 each give or take.  And on first reading of the ROBB manual you might think you need two, one for the high voltage state and one for the low voltage state.  Making 4 if you have two packs.  Luckily, if you access the regulator board, you can set up the high voltage ROBB contact to act for both high and low voltage states.

Clock wise from upper Left. Fuse, Gigavac, Disconnect, display, ROBB, Regulator, Voltage Leads

Clock wise from upper Left. Fuse, Gigavac, Disconnect, display, ROBB, Fan, Regulator, Voltage Leads

The connections for the 400 amp CALB cells are very large. I had difficulty finding a termination that would fit over the bolt and provide a solid High current connection at this high torque connection.  I made my own termination by soldering the voltage sensor wires to pieces of copper ground strap.  I then punched a hole of the size necessary for the battery bolt.  If you use this method you should be certain that your copper connector is small enough that it cannot short to an adjacent post….. (Don’t ask how I know this). During the assembly each connection was cleaned with fine sandpaper and then immediately coated with antioxidant grease.  Oxidation or poor connections will adversely affect the regulator operation.  It is also a good idea to complete all connections to the pack before plugging in the voltage sensor plug as the Regulator board is very sensitive to voltage surges.

Before final assembly, each pack was balanced.  The cells were connected in parallel with a digital power supply.  I used a BK Precision 1688B set at the individual cell charge voltage of 3.4 volts.   Interestingly, the pack took the max current for about 40 hours and then quickly tapered to nothing over the course of an hour or so.

Starboard pack is not balanced

Starboard pack is not balanced

My system works great although I haven’t seen any failure modes.  The battery temperature is always at ambient.  The batteries charge at full current with a short taper at the end perhaps one hour.  On the gen set, I don’t usually complete the cycle.  Another great feature is that it took about 500 lbs. out of my cabin.  The waterline raised about an inch in the bow…

Manzanita Micro is closely managed by Rich Rudman, an early innovator in Electric Vehicle performance components.  His interest is in extracting as many watts as possible from a smaller pack.  To meet this need, his system provides a high level of adjustability and monitoring.

From a boaters perspective, however, it is needlessly complex.   As a boater, I want a big pack charging and discharging at less than 1C to provide a long time between charges.  I also want redundancy, so 2 packs, to allow me to isolate a bad pack.  Trouble tends to come in batches so I want a safety for a dark night in a crowded foggy channel, like the time my radar stopped in the mouth of San Francisco bay with heavy traffic and fog.

I have encouraged Rich to develop a boat-specific product.  To me this is a single card/box with the following features:

  • Thermal sensor
  • Voltage sensor
  • Normally open contact to disconnect the pack from the buss via a latching relay
  • An appropriate contact to shut down a charger
  • USB or wireless output to a computer
  • Conformal coated
  • A piece of software
    1. Should be able to recognize multiple regulators say up to four.
    2. The software should allow the user to set voltage limits for the specific cell type in use.
    3. Settable alarms would be good.

Rich believes this market is too small for the investment required.  I paid about 6000 dollars for my 800 AH Lithium pack with all the bits and pieces.   The current West Marine catalog shows a 12v 180 AH Mastervolt pack at about $5000 and a 360ah at $9000.  I would think there is a little room for profit in that mix.  If you are interested, I think Rich would entertain an investor.

Michael Cope is a fellow Catana owner. He used components from EV Power.  Doing it again I might consider this method simply because the Manazanita system is more “geeky” than necessary for boats.  With that said Manzanita Micro gave me excellent support, delivered components quickly and were a pleasure to deal with.  Rich is a fountain of knowledge regarding Lithium power.  I had originally planned to follow in Mike’s footsteps, but in 2014, when I called EV Power to order, the owner (These seem to be small companies) told me he was switching to a surface mounted design and had no inventory, and no product availability date.

That is my experience to date.  It is not a recommendation, in that you should proceed at your own risk, but hopefully my experience can help others with their process. I would certainly do it again.

Michael Britt

Footloose

Catana 471 #28

Replacing Ram Seals on a Lecombe and Schmidt Steering Ram

This document describes my method of rebuilding a steering ram.  The boat is a Catana 471 and actually has two rams.  If you have ever rebuilt a car master cylinder,  you will find this to be an easy task.

Remove the Cylinders

Open the bypass valve to allow you to adjust the cylinder position to conveniently remove the bolt through the steering Quadrant.

Close the shutoff valves to allow you to drain just the cylinder, while keeping fluid in the rest of the system.

Bleed the cylinders into a pan, by pushing the ram in and out several times.  Note that the socket used to hold the tubing ends in the pan.  This will keep the tubing in the pan and mess at a minimum.

Disconnect the ram hydraulic connections and finally remove the ball joint cover at the other end of the ram cylinder.

Replace the Seals

You will not be able to remove the end cap without removing the ball joint.  Before removing the ball joint, it’s a good idea to take a measurement so that you can create the same pushrod length when you reassemble the RAM.

 20171128Elph-11-Edit

Remove the four nuts and washers at one end of the ram.  Pull the end cap off.   Push a clean rag through the cylinder.  The walls should be shiny and smooth.

Remove and replace the o-rings and seals being careful not to damage the adjacent machining.  On the ram rod is the Bypass seal.  This seal has two parts, a flat tough ring that is much less stretchy than a typical O-ring.  Underneath that is a standard O-ring that lies in the same groove.  I was able to stretch the new seal into position with a little hydraulic oil for lubrication, but without the use of tools.  A tool might damage the sealing surface.

Note that the shaft seals in each endcap are installed with the concave surface facing in towards the cylinder.

Reassemble the Cylinders

 The key here is to keep it clean.  Lubricate all the rubber bits with fresh hydraulic oil and gently reassemble the ram into the cylinder.  You may have to compress the bypass seal to get it into the cylinder without jamming it into the edge of the cylinder. Finally, replace the endcaps.  Before tightening the nuts, be certain that the cylinder is rotated such that you can read its label when the ram is installed.

Reinstall the pushrod ball joint at the appropriate length.

Bleed the System

Close the bypass valve and open one of the disconnect valves and its bleed screw. Turn the wheel in the appropriate direction until no bubbles are seen coming from the bleed screw. Close the bleed screw and repeat for the other half of the ram.  I repeated this a couple of times to be sure.  While bleeding it’s a good idea to have another person keep an eye on the fluid reservoir to be certain that you do not introduce new air to the system by letting the reservoir run dry.

Be certain that your cylinder operates properly from stop to stop, and for catamarans that your rudders are synchronized per manufacturer’s specification.

Other Thoughts

 The seal kits are available through PYI in the United States. The kits are pretty expensive If memory serves $109 each.  If you were dissecting your system in a large city, I might find a shop that repairs forklifts and see if they can match up the seals.

My kits included an additional pair of seals that are replacements for a different vintage of Ram.

Unused Seals

Unused Seals

Finally, of course this document is meant to help you decide if this project is within your abilities.  If you are in doubt, you should seek professional assistance.

20171128Elph-47