Hydraulic Steering Cylinder Leak

[Jru29]

Hi,
I've noticed the last couple of times out that there has been a small leak on the cylinder of my hydraulic steering. It's a seastar hc5345, kinda standard looking front centre cyclinder, with the piston rods coming out either side.

I've ordered the overhaul kit from BLA thinking that I'd have a go myself, but then I went to look for some manuals from the net and noticed that they say that an authorised marine mech should do the cylinder overhaul.
Has anyone had any experience pulling these things apart? Does it really need a mech's gentle hand! ;)

Cheers
Jru

[Chimo]

Hi Jru

Yours look like a seafarer too I think?. I have limited experience with a leak in one of the two on the Vag. In the end after a good look at it I had Seafarer do the repair and no problems since.

With the correct gear and experience you could probably do the job, do you have someone elses boat to practise a repair on so you can get it right first time on yours?


Cheers
Chimo

[Jru29]

Haha I like your idea! :)
I only recently bought the boat, it's actually 8 years old so I reackon thats pretty good service from the steering cylinder.

Wish me luck!

Jru

[Jru29]

FYI...For anyone searching the threads in the future...

I changed out the cylinder end seals, it was fairly easy and only took an hour or so to do - no need to remove it from the boat, it can be done in situ, you just need a couple of sockets. The kit came with a special spanner, and was around $250, there were instructions in the pack, needed a couple of reads but I figured it out. Two bottles of the teleflex steering oil and two people and ten minutes later the air was out of the system and the oil changed out.
You could probably reuse the old oil, I kept it and over a week or so a small amount of sediment has fallen to the bottom of the bottle, it's a lot darker than the new oil and smells stale if oil can smell stale...

All tested and works great.

Jru