480 DB Hydraulic Steering Leak - Servo Box

But.... think of the children.
 
So.. I just want to confirm Gary, will you be in possession of a spare seal kit, this way the rest of us don't need to go thru the same trouble, we'll just get it from you...

Reminds me of an Andy Rooney commentary. He needed a vacuum cleaner belt. When he bought it , it came with 2 in the package. The 1st one lasted 12 years. Think he's going to remember where he put the spare belt in another 12 years!
 
I will gladly sell anyone a spare seal kit... at my cost... plus a nominal "shipping and handling" charge of $995.00
 
What is wrong with the ram itself? Won't the seal kit correct the issue? Is the ram pitted or causing the leak?
 
rondds said:
You could always bum a ride with Rick - so far, he doesn't have a date for the dance.
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Dude wouldn't set foot on a Dancer, much less a 41 footer, not to mention a GASSSER! The humiliation might give him a heart attack and then someone might have to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation.

That would be like the fella who got bit on the end of his private parts by a poisonous snake. He told his buddy to run to the Doctor, real fast, and ask the Doc what to do. His bud speeds off running for all he's worth to the Doc. Doc says cut an X at the snakebite and then suck all the venom out.

The bud rushes back to his friend. Fella asks "What did the Doc say?". Bud says, "You're gonna die".

I ain't doing mouth to mouth...
 
Didn't Gary cut his teeth on a 3X0DA? I think he'd deign to take the ride with you if he was BOATless.
 
Four Suns said:
Anyone ever mess with these things? Spending $50 for a seal kit seems a little kinder on the wallet than $2200... plus looks like something I need for my spares kit.
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Took your advice and ordered a seal kit for the spares kit. They also offer a repair kit for the helm pump (for $15), but it doesn't appear to be seals as much as mechanical items. Grabbed one anyway just in case.
 
It arrived at the office this morning:

DSC_0149.jpg


Sure doesn't look like $35 of o-rings....
 
rondds said:
Didn't Gary cut his teeth on a 3X0DA? I think he'd deign to take the ride with you if he was BOATless.
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Yeah, he sold W!ngless his old boat. How do you think all the cool mods were on it?

Four Suns said:
It arrived at the office this morning:

DSC_0149.jpg


Sure doesn't look like $35 of o-rings....
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That's $8 of O-rings and $27 worth of instructions.
 
Gary I'm thinking I'd like to order one of those kits, can you once again provide company, part number phone number and I'll get one coming, it's only a matter of time.
 
fwebster said:
But, I bet they are very good quality o-rings.

Lots of them are near the same size...........be careful.
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So... taking your advice and given the facts that the o-rings are all close in size and I want to goof off at my desk, I went and built a special jig to make sure I aligned the physical o-rings with the correct part number. With instruction sheet in hand:

RevCpic.jpg


I assembled this special high-end jig:

DSC_0151.jpg


Two coffee cups and a small thin rod to make sure I could organize them from "small" to "big" and use a complex mathematical algorithm built on the "process of elimination."

I could then place them on another specially made part holder specific to the HS5196 seal kit (you may find the jig and part organizer on Ebay when I'm done) that would identify the parts during assembly:

DSC_0152-2.jpg


Only to find... THAT ONE OF THE DAMN O-RINGS IS MISSING! I am supposed to have qty (2) of item #6 and I only have one... and note on the drawing that item #6 in the middle (Detail F) is the "Back Up O-Ring" and item #6 at the bottom in "Detail C" is not an o-ring but a metal retaining ring. ???

So I call the "guy" I bought these things from here... he tells me there is nothing he can do. If it was him, he would just go to the hardware store and get one that was "close". Mind you he is a certified Teleflex dealer/repair shop (Note to self: Don't let this certified professional near the boat). I call Teleflex. They forward me to "Customer Service." They can't even find the seal kit number in their computer... can't help... he sends me to their "hydraulic experts"... leave message... wait 2 hours... go take a whiz as I can't hold it after all that coffee and SURELY he won't call back while I'm peeing on the stuffed w!ngless in the urinal. He calls while I'm peeing... Call and leave another message...

But.. I noticed that the info I downloaded from Teleflex is different. It is here:

RevDpic.jpg


This document says "Revision D" on the top and the one with the o-ring kit I got says "Revision C". Note that Revision D has a whole Gland Assembly (part 11) instead of the stupid little o-ring I will have to get in there. Mind you this is the part leaking on my boat... I assume this revision is there because EVERYONE who has this system has their GLAND go bad. I also note that they correctly label the retaining ring and I am supposed to HAVE ONE INCLUDED... but I don't...

Ugh... Nothing is ever easy.

High quality... yeah... says "Made in China" on the package.
 
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OK... Just got off the phone with the "hydraulic expert" Teleflex sent me to. He couldn't find the "parts" in the computer in the kit either. He said I should have gotten Rev D and not Rev C. My speculation of people not putting the o-ring in the gland assembly correctly was spot on and so they now just ship the whole thing with the inner seal installed... sorta like a new prostate gland if you ask me.

The retaining ring was missing and so was that one other o-ring so he said he was going to talk to Teleflex about it but I probably wouldn't get it until Friday.

He did say he is afraid to go on the water now... said a bunch of not-so-smart people work on boats now and it's scary... He also said most people don't rebuild (or have rebuilt) the systems anymore. They usually just buy new ones and scream about the price.

We shall see... I was getting ready to head down to the local Tru-Value hardware store and pick up a garden hose washer and cut it to size per the "certified professional's advice" here.
 
When you are done with this, you might consider going into the hydraulic steering rebuilding business. You will definitely be the world's foremost authority on the subject... :grin:
 
You could start a budding business called "Guy who will do all the stupid crap that normal mechanics won't." Duckbill changes, replacing o-rings for $500 (rather than replace the entire apparatus for 5x that), repair leaky fresh water system components, hook up A/V systems in the boat, etc. I seriously think that a business like this would keep someone with 1/2 a brain and some know-how busy 7 days a week.
 
First_Mate said:
When you are done with this, you might consider going into the hydraulic steering rebuilding business. You will definitely be the world's foremost authority on the subject... :grin:
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You may want to wait on that comment until it is back together and there are no explosions or injuries.
 
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