Loosing oil in helm of upper station.

[jozieb]

Hi,

Carver 3207, year 1987. Still a beauty and I still love her

I lost all oil through he helm on the upper bridge. Is there a seal that can be changed or do I have to change the whole Hynautic System attached to the helm.

I found a lot of information on this site on how to refill and re-pressure, but I need to fix the leak. FYI - I looked behind the dash and there is no leak - it is definitely in the front part of the helm.

Thanks for helping me out.

Cheers

Jozie B.

[waybomb]

Yes, you can buy a kit.
I believe yours is a Hynautic H-50.
There are sellers on ebay.
There are some great videos on youtube on how to do it.
There are also some very good instructions out there - do an internet search.
Failrly easy to do. The hard part, or tedious part, is getting the air out. If I recall, once you get it all refilled and pressurinzed, you have to turn the wheel something on the order fo 75 rotations in one direct and then another 75 the other way.

When we bought our boat, our system was disassmbled and took alot of work to purge the air. Later, I gad to rebuild the helm , and the purge procedure only took 10 or 15 rotations each way. I was very careful with the hoses once disconnected from the helm, keeping them from leaking.
Then I put a bit of air to the reservoir and pumped oil up to helm and then tightened the fitting down.

[jozieb]

Fred, Thank you so much for this information. Do you know if we can change only a seal or if I have no choice in changing the whole kit?

Thank you

Jozie

[waybomb]

The kit is really just seals.
The seal is the shaft seal. It is installed from the inside. You have to disassemble the thing to get to the seal.
There's balls and springs in there. I think about 8 or 9 sets.
You have to mark the aluminum piece so you can reassemble in the same orientation.
There is s guy on ebay selling reman units for 500. If I remember correctly, the kit was less than 50 bucks.
If your unit is still charged with hynautic oil. It's expensive, so don't lose much.

[Viper]

Welcome to the forum Jozie. Try to get some numbers off the helm and call Seastar in British Columbia 604-248-3858. They'll tell you exactly what you need and can steer you to a dealer near you that might have the seal kit in stock.