Yesterday I started making up hydraulic hoses. I wasn't certain about exact lengths, straight versus angled ends, etc. Also, hydraulic hose bends but doesn't twist, so if you have two right-angle ends, their rotational orientation needs to exact or the fittings won't go on the devices. To deal with this, I decided to take a two-step approach.
Starting on the starboard side, I made a first cut at each hose's length and fitting styles, rounding hose lengths up to the next foot. Hose sells by the foot, so I was paying for it anyway. Then I went to the hose shop and had them cut the hose, but only crimp one of the two ends on the hose, and give me the other end loose. By the way, we have an awesome marine supply shop here in town that can do all this.
I hauled all the partially assembled hoses back to the boat and test fit each one, marking them for cutting as needed. It turned out I only had one hose with right-angles on both ends, so I only had one alignment challenge to deal with. I also miss-calculated one of the hose lengths so I had to eat one partially made hose.
Then, with all the sample hoses in hand, I test fit them to the port side to figure out how those were going to work. After all that, it was back to the shop to get the ends crimped on, and give them the list of port side hose to make up. In the process, I cleaned them out of #6 JIC fittings. Once back at the boat, everything fit perfectly.
In tightening up all the fittings, I concluded that I need to relocate the oil filter. It's not too hard to do, and frees up some access space on the starboard side which is otherwise very tight. I still have the return hoses to the oil cooler and filter to make, but I'll wait until I have the cooler installed and have sorted out the new oil filter location.
With as many hoses in place as possible, I switched to the wiring harnesses and started getting them hooked up. Tomorrow I hope to finish the cabling.
Starting on the starboard side, I made a first cut at each hose's length and fitting styles, rounding hose lengths up to the next foot. Hose sells by the foot, so I was paying for it anyway. Then I went to the hose shop and had them cut the hose, but only crimp one of the two ends on the hose, and give me the other end loose. By the way, we have an awesome marine supply shop here in town that can do all this.
I hauled all the partially assembled hoses back to the boat and test fit each one, marking them for cutting as needed. It turned out I only had one hose with right-angles on both ends, so I only had one alignment challenge to deal with. I also miss-calculated one of the hose lengths so I had to eat one partially made hose.
Then, with all the sample hoses in hand, I test fit them to the port side to figure out how those were going to work. After all that, it was back to the shop to get the ends crimped on, and give them the list of port side hose to make up. In the process, I cleaned them out of #6 JIC fittings. Once back at the boat, everything fit perfectly.
In tightening up all the fittings, I concluded that I need to relocate the oil filter. It's not too hard to do, and frees up some access space on the starboard side which is otherwise very tight. I still have the return hoses to the oil cooler and filter to make, but I'll wait until I have the cooler installed and have sorted out the new oil filter location.
With as many hoses in place as possible, I switched to the wiring harnesses and started getting them hooked up. Tomorrow I hope to finish the cabling.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Make comments here