Sea Star steering leak!

D

Dreamer

New member
In the midst of my chores in preparation for Lake Powell, I noticed the steering skipping and clunking as the wheel was turned. I checked the fluid and topped it off. Problem solved, or so I thought

Next day I noticed the puddle of fluid on the floor and a tell-tale drip hanging off the back of the helm pump. I came here first to ask for some pointers.

First of all, do I have a regular Traditional Tilt model or a Pro Traditional Tilt? The seal kits are different for these two models.

Then I check the installation manual and it lists a HS5176 and a HH5176 seal kit. The Teleflex website seems to list only one seal kit, a HP6032.

Has any one resealed one of these recently? Can you give me some advice? Thanks in advance.
 
Roger, the seal kit for mine is a #4600. Teleflex was very good over the phone and should be able to identify your system fairly easily. The best price I found was on Amazon and recall what I found out about fluids.
 
I just resealed both my helm and cockpit steering pumps and they use the same seal kit (HS5176) even though the pumps are different. Find your model number on the helm pump and see if its one of the ones supported by HS5176:

Seal Kit HS5176 for the following Seastar Hydraulic Helm models; HH5270, HH5271, HH5272, HH5273. Rear Mount Helms; HH5261, and HH5262
Click to expand...

HP6032 is not what you want since it is just steering wheel nut, 4 stud nuts/washers, woodruff key and a few other miscellaneous parts (no internal seals).

colobear":1fif9o9o said:
Roger, the seal kit for mine is a #4600.
Click to expand...

I believe that is the seal / gland kit for the cylinder, not the helm pump.
 
Hi guys I think the drip is at the back of the pump. (helm). Tell tale drip at the the back of the pump. The HH6032 is the seal for the helm pump. I just bought the cylinder seal kit as a spare as my cylinder was leaking. Since stopped by tightening I got the HS5157 to keep for spares to fix the cylinder (it has the wrench). The HS5167 is the same kit with no wrench. This does the cylinder. The helm I have is the 1.7 Tilt and would use the Hh6032. I need to buy one for a spare. Call teleflex Roger if need be. They are really good on the phone. George
 
Hi Roger if you filled the reservoir too full it's been my experience that the helm will burp up a bit of fluid. You may not have a problem at all if the fluid settles out to the full mark. I would check cylinder end caps for drips like mine was and all connections between your tie bars leave the vent cap off overnight after some turns hard over to hard over to let it burp up trapped air. . If the helm still does it's thing you may not need seals. I would still call Teleflex Canada in Richmond as they know their stuff. George
 
Sorry about that. HP6032 is the seal for the shaft of the tilt helm and is just an o ring. For tilt helms I only found a replacement tilt mechanism. I have a hunch if a tilt mechanism goes out teleflex wants it in their shop to service. I imagine some tricky wizardry goes on in there. They are a bit touchy about steering failure! If the leak is out the back my money is on an overfill coming out the vented cap It should settle down if the system downstream is leak free. My leak at the cylinder was really hard to find it needed someone seeing the steering in operation to see the drip Best. George
 
Not all Tom Cats have the same pump--heavier duty on later models. See if you can find the number on the back of the unit, and then call Teleflex. I also had good experience with their service.
 
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful replies. I have a trip to Fisheries Supply planned for tomorrow and indeed, they have the seal kit $ 51.00.

On a whim, I tried the local hardware store's hydraulic department. "Oh yeah, I've got those, how many you want?" I got two to be safe
$ 4.31 :wink: Part # Q4210

An hour later and the job was done. The shaft seal was definitely the source of the leak. Still going to Fisheries for some spare parts and an antenna exchange.
 
The HP6032 retails for $18.99 and is a simple O ring. Probably nitrile material to resist oils. Lotta money. I just paid $122 for the cylinder ram end kits locally. It includes the wrench and end seals as well as orings used for older helm. 15 years ago there were so many seals and orings as wagner and capilano and hynautic and others made steering, getting the right part was trouble now all bought up and became Teleflex. The $122 was a good price I thought for local. Rogers price of $52 kit would have some other bits. I bet the o ring Roger got is the same as the 18.99 one. Should by nitrile or oil resistant if for hydraulics. Big price diff. We be yachting mon. George
 
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