Hydrolic Steering Problem

[teaser]

Hello to all,

I'm looking for a little information if possible for my boat and this board is the 1st place I turned to with all the great guys ( & gals) here and all the knowledge thats been shared.

I have a 23' c.c. and I developed a problem within the last 2 times I took my boat out that seems to be getting worse and I was wondering if there is someone who's had this problem or knows of the cure.

Here's the problem: last time I took my boat out I noticed hydrolic fluid coming out from under my steering wheel right at the top of the steering box, it looks like a seal has quit on me, nothing major just a trickle at the time so I added fluid to it to replace what had come out, I take my boat out today and now it's coming out pretty good ... enough to really make a slippery puddle on the floor.

My question is this: is there a seal kit that I could pickup to replace a seal (seals), is the unit repairable at all, am I going to have to buy a new steering box, or do I have to buy the whole thing from stem to stern?

I figured with all the knowledge on this board maybe someone out there has had this happen or knows what my next step should be.

Any information at all would be "GREATLY" appreciated, I just don't want to take a chance and be out there and loose the steering or have it lock up on me while I'm riding the top of the waves. My dad's usually on the boat with me and at 72 years young I don't want him or anyone else to get hurt.

Thanks in advance for any help that may come my way.

Keep the lines tight, the tobacco dry and hope to see ya out there one day!

[thefishingfreak]

no worrys there.
sounds like the oil expanded a little with the hot weather and it purged out the fill hole.{top of the helm}
you put even more oil in it.... and it purged that out too.
if there low on oil they'll usuall start sticking when you turn.


carry on

[slapshot]

I have the same problem. Mine actually ran down enough at one time where I had air in the lines, and temporarily lost the abilty to turn to the right. It hasn't been too bad the last couple of years, just make sure you keep it topped off, or it will let air into the lines.

There must be a seal in there that needs replacing. I have not found it yet.

[MakoMike]

If the unit is really leaking and not just purging some fluid on hot days, yes it can be fixed. I jst swaped out one of my heads so as not to tie the boat up for too long and I'll rebuild the head over the winter and keep it as a spare. What type of unit do you have? Teleflex sells rebuild kits for all of their units, and they come with pretty good instructions. Go to the teleflex website and figure out the part number for the kit you need and then do a google search on that number, you should find plenty of places selling them on the net.

[JohnR]

Some of the very older systems can be hard to get seal kits for but most within the past ten years, especially the SeaStar stuff is easy to have done. Several marine hydraulic placed in New Bedford alone to reseal the head unit for decent money - about 1/3 the cost to replace if it is infact leaking...

Assuming you have a SeaStar unit, go to their website - lots of information, including I beleive instructions on how to bleed the unit to make sure there is no air in the lines...

[MakoMike]

Yes, the full owners manual for most of the seastar systems are available on the website.