Saturday the cylinder started leaking oil and basically ended my boating season on the spot.

Crippled home OK, and I'm pulling this week, maybe....(weather????).

I think this has been discussed here before, I am going to buy a rebuild kit and do it myself. I have all winter... :nailem:

Any suggestions?? Comments??

What cylinder do you have? Some are much easier to rebuild than others. First step is to get the old cylinder out and make sure that the ram is perfectly straight. If it isn't perfectly straight the rebuild won't last very long. You'll probably need a special tool to take the cylinder apart, its called a spanner wrench. If it's a telefles system their website has some great graphics demonstarating what you need and how to do it.

Doubtful the rod is bent, no reason for that, it was fine the last time out and has just been sitting since.(freakin weather) I think it just have sprang a leak.

I have an emial into teleflex, they were very helpful when i had a prob with the helm. I also found seal kits available and these come with the spanner wrench, about 90 bucks.

Just wondering how difficult they are to do.

A lot depends on how old they are and how much corrosion they have. If they aren't corroded and come apart easily, they are pretty easy to rebuild. If they are really stuck together they can be a Boitch. A bent piston may neo be immediately noticable, but it gradually wears away the seals, so that eventually they fail. Good luck with it.

I've been in email contact with teleflex, I'll see what they'll do first.
They have a great customr service.

I let youz know.

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....

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.

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.

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.

:af:

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 !!!!!!!!!!!! :af:

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

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

:af:

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 !!!!!!!!!!!! :af:

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.

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.

www.surplusunlimited.com

Well like I said I have had GREAT response and service from Teleflex.

A couple of e-mails back and forth and they just told me they will be sending
me a NEW CYLINDER !!!!!!!! No Charge !!!!!!!

Now that makes me a bit happier!!!!!

I still have to figure out how to keep this thing from crapping out again though.

I'm thinking of a couple of rubber boots on each end to keep water away from the seals. I had one of these on my original mechanical steering it worked well to keep the grease in and water out. If I can only find them again and adapt to fit the seastar hydraulic...it might proling the life of the unit.

Van,
One thing that helps prolong their life is to hose them down with fresh water at the end of each trip. If the salt water evaporates and leaves salt on the shaft it can eat away at the seals as the shaft moves back and forth. Kind of like throwing sand on it.

Van,
One thing that helps prolong their life is to hose them down with fresh water at the end of each trip. If the salt water evaporates and leaves salt on the shaft it can eat away at the seals as the shaft moves back and forth. Kind of like throwing sand on it.

I sure do, if you saw my boat you'd know how meticulous I am about stuff.
I bend all the way over the transom and rinse the tilt/trim hydraulics too.

SO........What I'm thinking of doing is cutting my losses, selling the "new" cylinder, 1 yr old helm and the hoses on ebay, then buying that nfb mechanical system. I should have some fuel money leftover too.

Waddaya think?

I hope its not a mistake though...I don't know how reliable the nfb's are and if they really work good. Got some more research to do.

Van,
Sorry I can't help on that decision. I can't use any mechanical system on my boat.