Hydraulic steering cylinder, another thing that broke in the first month

Marc Rainaldo

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
260
Netherlands
Boat Info
Sea Ray 500 DA 1994
Engines
Detroit diesel 6v92
Hello all,

When you just bought your new ship and faced different numbers of problems in the first few weeks it’s always nice to make a trip with your family. Of course they are proud and curious too.

In the harbor I always maneuver on my twin engines. I make sure my steering wheel is in the middle. According to the gauge it was in the middle so I didn’t steer much. Somehow I felt it ain’t right but didn’t want to say something to my missus (we were already tired from al the problems we had) and didn’t want to scare the rest of the family.

At the moment we were out of the harbor and hit the throttle my concern became truth: no steering. Now I had to tell everybody hahaha. Panic lol.
I checked everything and found out that oil was leaking from the cylinder.
Since we were already on the water we decided to go for a short slow trip.
Suddenly the wind increased and we went back to our slip. Docking in the slip was no problem.

leaking steering cylinders can be easily fixed. Don’t need to buy a new one and saves a lot of money.
In the USA you have sealkits For almost everything, unfortunately here in the Netherlands not so had to order them separate.

When you ever do a job like this make sure you grease all seals and be very careful with assembling. I had bad luck and 2 times the outer o-ring broke with assembling. And I found out after reinstalling the steering cylinder... not funny.

On YouTube you can find great videos for the de-assembling proces especially with the retaining pin:
Overall easy job with low cost. We were glad we faced this problem now and not at a big trip. Just a worn out issue that you can face on boating....

EE13D6A8-5D38-4901-97C3-0365015EA0BD.jpeg
337DB80A-F34E-48E7-8809-6CFE191BE47B.jpeg
387A5B89-9ECA-4D6B-B140-B1CED43674EB.jpeg
6F38B7FF-268C-4C1A-B526-8E0C096010FA.jpeg
660D085C-93C8-4191-99EE-03A7F044F4E0.jpeg
EA7E7353-86C9-4C0F-8A07-A6A9F2203DCF.jpeg
 
Hello all,

When you just bought your new ship and faced different numbers of problems in the first few weeks it’s always nice to make a trip with your family. Of course they are proud and curious too.

In the harbor I always maneuver on my twin engines. I make sure my steering wheel is in the middle. According to the gauge it was in the middle so I didn’t steer much. Somehow I felt it ain’t right but didn’t want to say something to my missus (we were already tired from al the problems we had) and didn’t want to scare the rest of the family.

At the moment we were out of the harbor and hit the throttle my concern became truth: no steering. Now I had to tell everybody hahaha. Panic lol.
I checked everything and found out that oil was leaking from the cylinder.
Since we were already on the water we decided to go for a short slow trip.
Suddenly the wind increased and we went back to our slip. Docking in the slip was no problem.

leaking steering cylinders can be easily fixed. Don’t need to buy a new one and saves a lot of money.
In the USA you have sealkits For almost everything, unfortunately here in the Netherlands not so had to order them separate.

When you ever do a job like this make sure you grease all seals and be very careful with assembling. I had bad luck and 2 times the outer o-ring broke with assembling. And I found out after reinstalling the steering cylinder... not funny.

On YouTube you can find great videos for the de-assembling proces especially with the retaining pin:
Overall easy job with low cost. We were glad we faced this problem now and not at a big trip. Just a worn out issue that you can face on boating....

View attachment 79935 View attachment 79936 View attachment 79937 View attachment 79938 View attachment 79939 View attachment 79940

I'm planning a long trip in a few months, want to make sure my vessel is 100% before I depart home port. To that end I've been changing and rebuilding systems but had not thought about over hauling the power steering cylinder. I may not tear it down now but I'm for sure going to get a rebuild kit just in case.

Thanks for the tip
 
This was an excellent post. The seal kit is about $50. A rebuild service is about $400, and a new cylinder is about $700-$800. Everyone warns about "nicking" the shaft and redering the whole thing useless on a rebuild. I'd like to know the service longevity you get out of this. Thanks for posting a most informative video.

Jaybeaux
 
This was an excellent post. The seal kit is about $50. A rebuild service is about $400, and a new cylinder is about $700-$800. Everyone warns about "nicking" the shaft and redering the whole thing useless on a rebuild. I'd like to know the service longevity you get out of this. Thanks for posting a most informative video.

Jaybeaux

Sounds like you might know where to source said rebuild kit.
 
Hello all,

When you just bought your new ship and faced different numbers of problems in the first few weeks it’s always nice to make a trip with your family. Of course they are proud and curious too.

In the harbor I always maneuver on my twin engines. I make sure my steering wheel is in the middle. According to the gauge it was in the middle so I didn’t steer much. Somehow I felt it ain’t right but didn’t want to say something to my missus (we were already tired from al the problems we had) and didn’t want to scare the rest of the family.

At the moment we were out of the harbor and hit the throttle my concern became truth: no steering. Now I had to tell everybody hahaha. Panic lol.
I checked everything and found out that oil was leaking from the cylinder.
Since we were already on the water we decided to go for a short slow trip.
Suddenly the wind increased and we went back to our slip. Docking in the slip was no problem.

leaking steering cylinders can be easily fixed. Don’t need to buy a new one and saves a lot of money.
In the USA you have sealkits For almost everything, unfortunately here in the Netherlands not so had to order them separate.

When you ever do a job like this make sure you grease all seals and be very careful with assembling. I had bad luck and 2 times the outer o-ring broke with assembling. And I found out after reinstalling the steering cylinder... not funny.

On YouTube you can find great videos for the de-assembling proces especially with the retaining pin:
Overall easy job with low cost. We were glad we faced this problem now and not at a big trip. Just a worn out issue that you can face on boating....

View attachment 79935 View attachment 79936 View attachment 79937 View attachment 79938 View attachment 79939 View attachment 79940

Just watched the video; now I remember doing this on my 400DA. Digging out that darned locking ring was a challenge.

Good on you for getting all that done.
 
Last edited:
When I sea trialed my 2000 SeaRay 460 Sundancer, the steering felt so light that it felt like I could have turned the wheel by blowing on it. Shortly after I got it home, the wheel became more and more difficult to turn so I checked the hydraulic fluid level and discovered it was low. After filling it up, the easy steering came back. But alas, it was short lived. My trusty mechanic arrived on the scene with a rebuild kit but we soon discovered that the shaft had a good sized nick in it. The decision was made to replace the entire unit. No more hydraulic leak but the steering is not as easy as it once was. We did some process of elimination hunting around and discovered that the rudders themselves were taking a lot of pressure to turn. It was explained to me that the packing gland (I think that was the term he used) was probably tightened down over the 20 years of its life and most likely a new packing gland will be needed at the next haul out. My mechanic said we'll check it removing the rudders and examining the glands.

Buying an older boat can be a series of fixing a lot of little things. Hopefully if you do your homework, it won't be fixing really big expensive things. I am fortunate that my boat was well maintained by the previous owner but some things just "age out." Oh the joys of being a boat owner...I wouldn't trade it for anything.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,862
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top