Tackling the job
1 Before removing anything mark it up and photograph where it all goes. Here you can see the back of the steering pump and the old hose connections. I carefully pulled the hoses through from the stern, having first attached mousing lines to each so the new ones could later be pulled back along the same route.
2 The new hoses were marked up to match the old ones, and the ends were taped to stop any debris getting in. The hoses were then attached to the mousing line with a sliding hitch that was also given a protective layer of tape, and finally some cable ties provided extra security to ensure the line stayed attached to the hose.
3 Both hoses pulled through with only a little difficulty with the tape, knots and cable ties still in place having done their jobs. The hoses were connected up at both ends guided by the markings copied from the original hoses. Care should be taken not to overtighten the connections.
4 Filling up the oil reservoir with a funnel would be messy so I bought a threaded spigot to fit into the filler hole on the reservoir and bought some clear plastic tubing to fit it.
5 Old washing up liquid bottles fitted the tubing and I punched holes in their bases to allow air in and the oil to run down when filling and bleeding the system. To bleed the system turn the wheel from port to starboard and back again, jerking it occasionally, until air stops coming out of the bleed valves at the steering ram at the stern.
6 Bleeding the system from both the port and starboard bleed nipples at first produced black oil that was obviously way past its best.
7 The one-way valve in the tube system stopped working so in the end I used a plain piece of tube, and loosened the valve nipples a quarter turn to let air and oil out as I turned the wheel.
8 Once all the bleeding was completed I tightened up the nipples and carefully removed the tubing and bottle of oil. The reservoir was now overfull and needed some oil removed.
9 Like a mini dipstick, the spigot moulded into the oil reservoir cap shows what the correct level of oil needs to be.
10 Rather than just putting the cap back in, spilling oil every where, I used a medicine dropper to remove the excess.
11 All back together and working. Notice the effect the new right angle connector has on the run of hoses. The boat is now kept indoors so future deterioration should be minimal.