Minor Hydraulic Steering Leak

[Scott79]

The boat has sat for 6 weeks or so (in a shed), and I noticed a small amount of steering fluid in the splashwell. It looks as though it had leaked from where the seal gland screws into the cylinder. I have inspected the rod and it is immaculate and have given everything a good wipe over and it definitely hasn't leaked any more. It has leaked during some very hot days, and I topped it up at the helm today with only 20mL of fluid.
Aside from actually taking it for a run and monitoring it, is there much else I can do to see if it will continue to leak before embarking on replacing the seals?

Thanks,
Scott.

[scottar]

Mine does the same thing and has done for about 6 months now. I have no intention of doing anything about it except topping it up every so often and leaving a rag under the ram to catch the oil unless the leak becomes significant. Compared to some of the leaks I have seen in hydraulic systems it is extremely minor and not likely to cause an issue unless not periodically topped up IMO.

[Spaniard_King]

Its a bit of a risk doing nothing, be prepaired for total failure at worst.

Any irregularity will cause a seal failure. Sounds like you have a baystar steering ram.

Marine control systems will reseal the ram if you can remove it, then you will need to refit and bleed the system

[scottar]

Its a bit of a risk doing nothing, be prepaired for total failure at worst.

Any irregularity will cause a seal failure. Sounds like you have a baystar steering ram.

Marine control systems will reseal the ram if you can remove it, then you will need to refit and bleed the system

After 20 years fitting pilots and steering rams to trawlers and seeing the condition of some of their steering systems that were still functional Garry, I'm pretty comfortable with my decision. Each to their own though. Steering is Seastar and if I can't fix it myself, I will simply replace it.

[Spaniard_King]

I gave up on Sea star ages ago, sick of their rams pitting

[scottar]

I will quite probably go back to Hydrive if and when the time comes. Aussie made and the local distributor is only 10 minutes down the road. Have had no issues with any of their gear personally but like anything - if it's not looked after it will fail.

[feral cat]

I paid $80 for 2 O-rings in my ram. Oh yeah, my arse is still hurting haha.
But no leaks.

[scottar]

I paid $80 for 2 O-rings in my ram. Oh yeah, my arse is still hurting haha.
But no leaks.

Guess that's good - after all that is really the last thing you want leaking - even if it does hurt . The hydraulics are good too ? The joys of spare parts - assume that was without fitting?

[feral cat]

Guess that's good - after all that is really the last thing you want leaking - even if it does hurt . The hydraulics are good too ? The joys of spare parts - assume that was without fitting?

Yeah mate thats right. No fitting, just $40 per o-ring.

[wirlybird]

$20 O ring kit from Ebay then you should have parts for life

[Scott79]

Mine does the same thing and has done for about 6 months now. I have no intention of doing anything about it except topping it up every so often and leaving a rag under the ram to catch the oil unless the leak becomes significant. Compared to some of the leaks I have seen in hydraulic systems it is extremely minor and not likely to cause an issue unless not periodically topped up IMO.

Thanks mate, I am thinking I will probably do the same unless it gets worse. I probably expected it should have vented through the cap if it is temperature related though.

I gave up on Sea star ages ago, sick of their rams pitting

Correct Gary, it is a Baystar unit. Had one on a previous boat also and the ram pitted and I think it was in the high $200's for repair, but so far this one is immaculate. I will persevere.

[Scott79]

$20 O ring kit from Ebay then you should have parts for life

Some big prices out there, the genuine kit is $200+. I think if I do end up going down the path of re-sealing it I will try to get someone locally to do it, I am sure the non-genuine parts + labour will cost less than the genuine kit alone.

[wirlybird]

Only suckers buy Genuine

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/419-pc-PC...YAAOSw-dBTvyFU

[Scott79]

Only suckers buy Genuine

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/419-pc-PC...YAAOSw-dBTvyFU

Is it that easy mate, just buy a set of Metric O Rings??

[frank100]

Wot 'O' rings ?... My cylinder has oil seals for both shafts. $100 for pair of cylinder ends was a bit much for me so I pulled out the seal & brought two from a bearing place, that was about 5 years ago. I replaced the leaking seal and never got around to the other one, till it leaked as well (about 2 years ago by then the price was $200). By that time I had lost the second seal ??(old age !) so I pulled out the leaking one & took it another bearing shop because the original place of purchase had to order them in & brought 2 more. Installed. Both sides have not leaked since. One thing to note well a couple of things.. You need a tool to slip the seal over the threaded end of the rod, it is a thin walled tube with a taper on one end, place the taper of the tube into outside of the seal .Slide tube/seal onto rod (cleaned of course & smeared with hyd. fluid) when clear of the thread remove tube, slide seal into place. I think I tapped it gently with an ally rod (about 25mm diam.) which I had drilled with a clearance hole for the rod.
Sorry about the long story but I did get a lot of info from Baystar on the net.
The seals are $5 or $6 from memory.
Regards
Frank