seastar helm rebuild?

[Little Jon]

I'm having a problem with something in my steering, at speed I have to keep turning the wheel to the right until it finally turns and then is fine for a little while and then have to do it again. If there is less torque on the steering the better the steering is.

Seastar 1.7 helm, 5271 iirc.

[Onetime]

Have you bleed it?

Sounds like air in the lines.

If you've bleed it, could be a check valve in the helm is acting up.

[rkmirage]

Power bleed it.

[Little Jon]

I've bled it numerous times with no difference. Anyone know someone who rebuilds these or what exactly to look for when i tear it apart.

[Onetime]

All I've ever had to do to them was seals.

Maybe you can send it back to Teleflex or contact them about authorized repair facilities

[sheermagic65]

Looke up Rose marine they are an approve rebuilder they did one for me came out mint

[baja200merk]

Pull it apart, there are 2 small spring loaded check valves in there and they can get some junk or corrossion on them. When they are dirty they leak by and if they are bad enough they will actually cause it to free wheel under any load.

Check them out you might be able to order new ones from somewhere but I dont recommend running it in something with high engine height. They are too cheap to worry about.......

[Little Jon]

baja, are you talking about the screw head shafts on the rear of the helm? Or are they actually internal?

I also contacted florida rigging and hydraulics, supposedly they do good work as well.

[baja200merk]

I had my whole helm apart when I found them. Its been a while since I messed with it but im pretty sure you cant get to them without taking them apart. They are tiny.

[native2]

I saw these guys on Ship Shape TV. They only do boat steering. They looked pretty knowledgable.

http://www.boatsteeringrebuilders.com/

[Little Jon]

Thanks, i contacted Fl rigging and hydraulics, and they explained it could be air or the lock valve. I just emailed the place you said cawley. I know for sure i will be bleeding out all the seastar fluid and will be replacing it with Dexron trans fluid. I'll probably be using dexron 6 because i have plenty of it and is synthetic.

[Little Jon]

I called the boat steering rebuilders and they wanted 325 bucks to rebuild the helm. Granted they were extremely helpful at diagnosing the issue, but a new one is 375........ and a seastar pro is 490... So yeah. lol Im gonna tear this one apart, and if anything ill just buy a bigger helm probably go to 2.0 or 2.4 But if i tear it apart and clean it and all is well, that would be perfect.

[Little Jon]

FLRigging charges 140 for reseal and check ball service, then tests and makes sure all is well.. Think i'll be doing that.