Hydraulic Steering Cylinder Leak

[Van]

After a few e-mails, teleflex is going to send me the end caps (which have the seals) and the spanner wrench------------FREE---------------

They warned me about the rod being damaged, once on my bench I will be able to see whats up. This is another one of my winter projects....

[MakoMike]

Van,
Sounds like a good deal to me. The wrench alone is worth about $25. Beware when you take the cylinder apart, there a several other internal seals in there that you'll have to be very acreful not to damage.

[Van]

Got the cylinder in the basement, noticed just a bit of atinaing on the shaft, nothing that won't clean off easy.
BUT, I'm wondering if anyone knows if I pull the shaft out with the center seal to inspect it, will I be able to get it back in ?

Got the kit from teleflex as promised (free), came with the two ends with complete seals, and some o-rings for other fittings. But I want to inspect and clean out the center piston, but I'm not sure, any advice is appreciated.

[MakoMike]

Van,
If you got the complete kit, you should also have the O rings that seal the center section, so you can completely disassemble it.

[Van]

Now i peesed.. Got the cylinder apart in my workroom and found only slight staining on the shaft.. OK, not too bad, I'll spin it on the lathe at work and polish it up--no problem....

BUT, took a peek into the cylinder and there is pitting on the walls. The seal in the middle of the shaft looks OK, but with pitting in there, its gonna scrap, and get damaged. I think that was the original problem, corrosion crud from the pitting got in the fluid and destroyed the seals. But it also means I prolly got water in there HOW THE %$^#& DID THAT HAPPEN??????????
This stupid thing has had issues from day one.
IMO its crappy products to cut costs. They are probably skimping on the materials, and I'll bet its made overseas........

I will contact teleflex again and see what they say. I think I'm looking at a new cylinder now too.

So either i replace it or I clean it up as well as possible and see if I get one more season out of it..

after that (or if it fails) ITS COMING OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll go with the new mechanical NFB system...screw this fluid and bleeding and leaking and helms gone bad CRAP !!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll sell the parts (helm and hoses) on ebay and maybe recoop some of the $$$$$$$$$$.

[beamie]

Van,

Depending on the orientation of your cylinder, see if you can end for end it. We routinely do this at work on the ship if it can be done. That way the seal rides in a different "better" spot than it was and will be somewhat ok till the next time. Of course you can only do t his once, then it has to go over the side.

Jon

[ScottM]

Originally Posted by Van

after that (or if it fails) ITS COMING OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll go with the new mechanical NFB system...screw this fluid and bleeding and leaking and helms gone bad CRAP !!!!!!!!!!!!

After today, I'm with you Van. Last spring I had the end seals replaced on my Seastar cylinder. Over this season the helm started leaking, so I was prepared to replace that over the winter. Today I winterized the engine and in the process ended up accidentally breaking a hydraulic line at the cylinder. The mechanical NFB system seems like a good alternative. Even though I'm running a 225 Johnson, I think it will still be pretty manageable. My buddy has regular mechanical Teleflex on his 200 Yammie and it isn't all that much worse than hydraulic. Hydraulic is great, but there's just too much to go wrong.

[Van]

SCott. yup sounds like the right thing to do.

When I got hydraulic, i thought that would be the last time i'd worry about steering .....NOT...

I found NFB teleflex cable steering for around 170. I wish I did that 4 yrs ago.

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