Bleeding the pilot cylinder - 19 April 2018

At the end of the season last year, I had the bad surprise to get my pilot to stop operating the tiler, while I could still hear it attempting it. A few checks later, I realised that I was missing oil tank was empty...

No oil in the level bubbling window!

An inspection of the hull below the cylinder identified red oily spots indicating that there had been some leaking from the purge bolts...


In the Paris boat show, when I finally found the Lecomble and Schmitt stand (you have to look at "LS" in the directory!), I met with a most helpful guy who reassured me and explained how simple is the bleeding of the cylinder.

Here are the steps I followed...

What you need

• A set of spanners: 7 and 17
• 2 tubes 2mm ⌀
• A funnel
• 1 litres of Dexron  II or III oil. 

Steps

• Remove the lead of the tank and set the funnel in place.

Funnel inserted in the top of the tank with purge pipes returning to it.

• Fit the pipes to both purge bolts and get the other extremity in the funnel.

Purge pipes connected to purge bolts

• Bring the tiler in the position where the cylinder is all in using the helm.
• Start filing the tank with oil.
• Open the purge bolts and move the helm so as to get the cylinder all the way out while pouring more oil in the tank to keep it levelled. Air bubbles are getting out out in one of the pipes.
• Move the helm back so as to get the cylinder completely back in while continuing checking the level in the tank.
• Repeat mobilising the cylinder in both direction until no air bubbles are expelled anymore.
• Close the purge bolts. 
• Bring the cylinder half way (titler full forward)
• Remove the pipes from the funnel.
• Remove oil from the tank until the level is half through the level bubbling window. I used a pipe in the tank that I closed after insertion to capture and remove some oil until levelled.
• Close the tank.

Back to level...

All together, the bleeding took me an hour, alone, and was straightforward. The pilot is now connected back to the tiler!

Watch the video Lecomble and Schmitt has published on their web site.