Leaking power steering actuator

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lonewolf41

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While trying to troubleshoot my overheating, I noticed power steering fluid in the bilge. I finally found it dripping from the actuator. The drops were coming from the area circled in the photo. Seemed to be dripping off the pin or cotter pin in that area. All the hoses and fitting were dry...just some fluid on the bottom where circled. Seemed to drip about once every second or two so not a river, but still a lot of fluid loss in a short amount of time. I assume this will take a rebuild of some kind to fix. Does such a kit exist?

Thanks.
 

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dhardest

dhardest

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Just repaired mine. Your leak is not really coming from those bolts, but from the seal on the steel rod just to the right of the bolts. I bought a similar kit and did the repair just this past weekend. Put it back in the boat but I'm waiting for a new manifold gasket before I can test it to make sure the leak is gone. Hardest part of the whole job is getting access to everywhere you need to in order to remove the actuator. I had to remove my riser and attached exhaust elbow and rubber hoses. Lots of links on this forum from those who have also done this repair and posted their hints/tips.
 
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lonewolf41

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dhardest said:
Just repaired mine. Your leak is not really coming from those bolts, but from the seal on the steel rod just to the right of the bolts. I bought a similar kit and did the repair just this past weekend. Put it back in the boat but I'm waiting for a new manifold gasket before I can test it to make sure the leak is gone. Hardest part of the whole job is getting access to everywhere you need to in order to remove the actuator. I had to remove my riser and attached exhaust elbow and rubber hoses. Lots of links on this forum from those who have also done this repair and posted their hints/tips.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. Did you order a "kit", or source the seals individually? It looks like there are only a couple of seals involved. I saw one post that looks like about $20 in parts.

Thanks again.
 
dhardest

dhardest

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I ordered a kit. I agree that for the location where mine was leaking, I only really needed two seals, and I also saw posts where the parts for those two seals alone only totaled slighty over $20. But I wasn't sure enough in my research skills to ensure that I would have ordered the exact right seals and get the dimensions and materials right, and so for a few extra bucks I bought the whole kit. Paid for the seller's research and my peace of mind. In addition to the two seals for the piston rod, the kit came with an o-ring for the blue cover on the end, and also two for the piston plunger (white plastic attachment on the piston rod), but I didn't end up using those. (See my question in a similarly titled post from a few days ago). I only used the rod seal and the wiper seal.
 
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lonewolf41

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dhardest said:
I ordered a kit. I agree that for the location where mine was leaking, I only really needed two seals, and I also saw posts where the parts for those two seals alone only totaled slighty over $20. But I wasn't sure enough in my research skills to ensure that I would have ordered the exact right seals and get the dimensions and materials right, and so for a few extra bucks I bought the whole kit. Paid for the seller's research and my peace of mind. In addition to the two seals for the piston rod, the kit came with an o-ring for the blue cover on the end, and also two for the piston plunger (white plastic attachment on the piston rod), but I didn't end up using those. (See my question in a similarly titled post from a few days ago). I only used the rod seal and the wiper seal.
Click to expand...

Roger that. That's what I was thinking, just wanted to verify. Thanks for the info. I'll take it apart tonight and see what it looks like. The metric seals place where people talk about getting the seals from is a couple hours from me so I may just take the seals to them and have them find replacements.

Thanks again.
 
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lonewolf41

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I got everything disassembled except the lower pin connecting the actuator to the steering arm on the transom. I got all the cotter pins out and the upper pin was hard (I used a c-clamp to press it out). Have a clamp and penetrating oil on the lower pin hoping it frees up tonight. I went ahead and ordered the seal so it will be here when I get it apart.

Thanks again for the feedback.
 
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dannyual767

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I'm one of the ones who spent about $20 successfully rebuilding my leaking Volvo steering actuator. $27 to be exact and $10 of that was shipping! The actual rod seal was about $11 and the wiper seal (that I didn't end up using) was about $6.

That being said, my new rod seal was supposedly the correct size but was extremely difficult for the piston rod to go through. Here is my thread if you care to read a little bit more and get the details of another rebuild experience:

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/engin...stingray-200lx

My boat's steering is working perfectly and there has been no power steering fluid leaks whatsoever. I've had it out maybe half a dozen times since the repair.
 
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lonewolf41

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I got the cotter pins out without much problem, but thanks for the link. Will have to check those out. It was the lower connecting pin itself that gave me the most trouble. I cranked the heck out of a C-clamp to finally get it pushed out. Sounded like a bomb going off when it finally gave, but I got the actuator out last night. Sure enough, the rod seal just crumbled when trying to get it out. Almost like it was wax. Surprised it wasn't leaking worse than it was.

I am getting the rod seal today. I am having trouble finding the wiper. Mine is OK, so I could probably reuse it. I found one that is 1mm wider (16x24x5) that should work. I also found a wiper 2mm smaller OD so I may go ahead and get one of those and print a 2mm spacer and see how that goes together. Honda also used a similar seal (91253-HN8-003), but no one close to me caries it. It would have to be ordered and I would like to get this done this weekend so will go the other route first.

Thanks again for the help.
 
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dannyual767

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lonewolf, I ended up reusing my original wiper seal because the new one I purchased didn't fit properly on the end of the actuator. It works perfectly fine to wipe the rod nice and clean and keep debris out of the actuator. I bet your original would do the same.
 
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lonewolf41

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I got it back together and works fine...no more leaks. I will mention a couple of things. The original wiper Volvo used is not an actual wiper, it is just a rod seal installed backwards. Metric Seals had these in 16 x 24 x 4. Part # was WAO-16. SKF makes a double lip oil seal that would work as well. It is part # 6287. It is 16 x 24 x 5 so it is 1mm wider, but does not hurt anything as there is nothing for it to interfere with on the outside. I got the polyurethane rod seal (UHS16-E9625) from metric seals.

One other item of note, I could not get the toothpick method to work installing the seal. What I ended up doing was using a 5/8" wooden dowel and sliding it in the piston side until the end was flush with the bottom of the seal groove. This kept the seal from sliding or popping down the shaft. It didn't leave any room for it to go anywhere but into the groove. I still used some fishing line to make a figure 8, but once I had that done, I could bend the seal over into a "C" (like explained in the toothpick method) by hand and put it into the end of the actuator. The dowel kept it located in the hole and it slid into the groove. Once I cut the line, it expanded and I was able to finish pushing it into the groove. I probably struggled for 20 minutes with the toothpick. Took me 2 tries with using the dowel and had it installed in about 3 minutes.

Anyway, thanks for the assistance and maybe this will help others with the same issue.

-Keith
 
dhardest

dhardest

Seaman
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Lonewolf, since you just did this (like me), do you remember if there was anything more than one black rubber o-ring around your piston assembly (around the white plastic piece on the piston rod)? The kit I bought came with an extra red "bi-directional" ring, but mine didn't have that when I took it out so I didn't use it. I kept the original ring on the piston since it seems just fine. Just checking with you on what you remember being on yours when you took it out of the actuator.
 
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lonewolf41

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dhardest, I did not take a picture of mine, but my actuator piston (2006 vintage) had a 2-piece seal, not just an o-ring. I did not replace it as it looked to be in good shape and it is more complicated to replace. I had the guy at metric seals look at it when I brought it in to see what all I needed in the way of correct seals. I called him back today to find out about that seal and he said it was a 2-piece with an o-ring under another seal. Basically, this:

http://forums.iboats.com/filedata/fetch?photoid=10444877

Mine was light tan colored where this one was red. He did say that the best way to replace that seal was to heat it in water first to make it softer and more pliable so it goes on easier.

Anyway, hope that helps some. If you have more questions, let me know. If you post a picture of what you have, I can see if it looks like mine if you want.

Thanks,
-Keith
 
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lazywater

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Aug 16, 2021
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lonewolf41 said:
While trying to troubleshoot my overheating, I noticed power steering fluid in the bilge. I finally found it dripping from the actuator. The drops were coming from the area circled in the photo. Seemed to be dripping off the pin or cotter pin in that area. All the hoses and fitting were dry...just some fluid on the bottom where circled. Seemed to drip about once every second or two so not a river, but still a lot of fluid loss in a short amount of time. I assume this will take a rebuild of some kind to fix. Does such a kit exist?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
My actuator has a leak on the larger lower cylinder (outer seal below the letter P in PENTA). Does anyone else have seepage or a leak there? How much is tolerable? My fluid was at the bottom of the dipstick fill range. I often manually push the out drive to one side when backing into the garage to keep the prop from hitting sheet rock. Would this cause enough back pressure to cause a leak out of an otherwise good seal? My understanding is that the rebuild services can only address leaks on the smaller upper rod. In may case, the only fix is a new $1000 actuator. Any advice would be appreciated. My boat is a 2017 with 120 miles. The 2+3 warranty expired last month. Penta 21910902 Steering Cylinder
SKU: VOL-21910902.
 
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