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bwp777.
I have only read good things about uflex!
Me too. The one I personally had my hands on really had zero slop. Ive never been able to get a seastar below about 1/8″ of slop. Not a lot, but still there. But I am not going to repeat with sea star since they seem to be intent on being difficult to deal with.
Ive done told myself awhile back when mine goes out i was going with the uflex. Let us know how the install goes. From my understanding you can use just the cylinder and its a basic swap. I kno Don over on bbc speeks very highly of the uflex. I never have understood why so many have troubles with the seastar on such a simple system. The seal you speak of might explain it.
UFlex is drastically changed improving and they have a new engine cylinder that they are working on. There are things we dont like about both systems and we have reasons for using SeaStar. We do expect UFlex to soon have a system we would use. We have them in stock for Prototype use and we have them in use in the field.
This is something beyond “silver steer”? There is something inherently clean about hydraulic steering, but also something inherently simple about dual cable. Only thing I didnt like is I wore out two helms (Ride Guide) running a Merc 280 at something like +1.5″ above the pad. LOTS of effort to steer. Helm would develop a “skip” when turning left due to wear between pinion gear and rack attached to the cables that caused. Seems like sea star has a different type of wear, where this metallic seal sits in the same place all the time and vibrates a rough ring into the cylinder. Whatever I use, it is coming apart to inspect that seal before I install the thing. The seal guy I talked to yesterday said the metal-impregnated seals were fine for long travel cylinders, but not so good if the piston sits in one place most of the time, subject to a heavy load (which keeps the seal tight against the cylinder) and significant vibration (caused by motor running, plus prop slapping water, plus wave action, etc…Fortunately, for sea star cylinders, this is a standard high pressure 1.375 seal for hydraulic use, so they are really easy to find.
can you give the rest of us the place you speak of for seal replacements? I already have 2 that will be replaced soon I hope. thanks for the info
The place I use is in Fultondale, AL. Precision Seals. Odd looking place, looks like a house in a neighborhood of houses, but I have yet to stump them on seals. Only issue is a $10 minimum. But if you need more than simple o-rings, you wont have a problem. That being said, 1.25″ o-rings are 6 bucks for a bag of 35. So not a ripoff place.Note that we are talking seals, not glands here. They can provide you with the seals that fit inside the two screw-out glands if you want. MUCH cheaper than $100 youd pay to get genuine seastar end seals for the cylinder.
Kno the place well! Yes odd place for a establishment
thank you sirI ordered the seal kit already. it has an inner seal that is a flesh color and the outer is orange. I hope these are a new and improved seal?
Ran into something that REALLY leaves me disappointed in SeaStar. Ive been having a very minor issue with steering “creep”. Where the motor will slowly steer right without any wheel movement. Been going on a while but it was so slight I decided to take a look.First thing I run into is that SeaStar will NOT sell parts (other than the grossly over-priced end seal kits for the cylinder) to the end-user. Their only suggestion is to send it to them or take it to an authorized service to have it rebuilt or replaced. Cost between $350 and $500 depending on whether it can be repaired or has to be replaced. Bit over-priced IMHO. I decided to remove the steering ram to access the piston in the center. Sure enough the outer part of the seal appeared to be worn. I should add that this is commonly called a high-pressure seal where there is an o-ring on the bottom, then a plastic square o-ring on top. I called a local place that sells a zillion and one different types of seals and described it and they said “sure, we have that, bring yours over so that we can match the size. I took both of those pieces, plus the ram/piston and off I went.Second thing was that the seal guy asked “this outer seal appears to have a sort of bronze material imbedded in it, Ive seen these but we dont use em because they are hard on the cylinder, we prefer to use teflon for the top seal, it is smoother, doesnt wear the cylinder, and has less friction…” I bought two of the seals for $10 bucks, just to be sure I had a spare if I broke the first one (they are a tight stretch over the piston). When I got home, I took my bore scope and looked inside the steering cylinder, and sure enough, right in the middle, there is a rough ring worn, exactly where the motor is centered. My concern here is WHY is such a seal used? Certainly dont want bronze against stainless in a high-vibration hi-torque environment I would not think.So bottom line is, I have decided to replace this, and since SeaStar has developed a couple of questionable practices (IMHO) I am going to go the uFlex silver steer cylinder approach. I contacted them and asked about the seal and got the “nope, we dont use seals like that as this is the wrong application for them…” I would hope that SeaStar doesnt use those as a way of introducing “planned wear out”. But nobody can come up with any better explanation so far. Sea Star is, as usual, completely uninformative about service issues except for “send it back and well be glad to fix it.”Ive helped a family member work on his tractor multiple times. And I have bought at least two different hydraulic cylinders for him over the last 15 years. NEITHER was even 1/2 the cost of a steering cylinder (I just looked and found the last one I bought for him, currently online for $80. 2″ cylinder, 24″ stroke, quite a bit bigger than the 1.375 bore and 8” stroke of the seastar unit and well under 1/5 the price too). Pretty clear example of price gouging IMHO.My neighbor was over watching (new ranger). Was showing him the seal issue and he promptly asked me “can you replace mine while it is cold so that I dont take the chance of scoring the cylinder?” Guess I am going to do this seal replacement again. Not a hard job at all, hardest thing was shrinking the seal after installing it as they didnt give us much of a chamfer on the sea star cylinder bore.
The 6345 is a newer cylinder not available when your boat was made. The 5345 is fine and lacks a lock-in on the end arms that prevents premature bushing wear, which can happen with semi solid motor mounts you have. If you have play on the arms, then maybe, if not then reseal it.Eventually the seal will wear the ram slightly and you will get hydraulic fluid leak bypass again. We saw one replaced at the Owners Invitational and they said you could feel the worn rams have less resistance in the straight ahead area. If there’s no play reseal it.
I had lots of play – takes me 1 1/2 to 2 turns before motor turns. Bleed cylinder and added fluid. That seemed to help but still have a little play, just want to fix it nowSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That’s not play, that’s lack of motion from low fluid. Play is areas of worn materials that allows slop in the assembly, not motion on the wheel. Also, some of those clip on motor parts to keep the engine straight can cause premature damage to the seals.
🙂 Boy do I agree. 🙂 1.5 to 2 turns before motor moves means you are not steering, you are just sort of urging the boat to go one way or another. Sounds beyond dangerous to me if that is a real number…
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