Issue fitting Sea Star Hydraulics to my outboard

[QSS_Ryan]

Hi Guys,

I recently upgraded my DF90 to a DF140- loving it.

The only issue however, is that the motor I got (second hand), does not appear to sit the same as my old 90!

What I mean, is that when the outboard trader fitted the sea star hydraulics from my old one to this one, the motor gets jammed against the front mounted hydraulic ram through the middle of the turning circle- ie when it's dead ahead.

Before I worry about booking in with the outboard guys, getting my boat down there and then being without it for god knows how long while they sort it out, is there anything I can adjust/move/refit to make it work?

I can take a photo or video if that helps?

Cheers!
Ryan

[Harper2]

Yes Ryan, pictures or vids will help a lot. Meanwhile, is it a balanced or unbalanced cylinder (ram out of one side of the cylinder, or rams out of both sides of the cylinder)?

[Harper2]

And I have two pubs in pdf form that might help you figure out what's causing your issues. This lousy website won't upload the one that's 3.7Mb, even though I should be able to upload over 14Mb. But the other one is here. It's only 699Kb, so it uploaded. I can email you the other if you want me to (it's the installation manual) or better yet go here to dowmload your copy
Hydraulic Steering Manuals | SeaStar Solutions

[Harper2]

Well this ##&(@^%%*$#!! website blocked my post for review, so maybe it'll show up in a couple years. Anyway, I was trying to point you to the seastar website www dot seastarsolutions dot com, click on the support tab and go to the installation manuals in the drop-down. You might find some helpful info there. Also here's another manual that could also help. If you have any trouble with getting the installation manual online, I can email you a pdf copy of the installation manual. I would have also incuded it here, but this ##$%&@(% website (can you tell how much I like the way this site is managed?) would not upload a 3.7MB pdf file (it's supposed to upload pdf files up to 14+MB).

[Harper]

Just checking to see if I'm still locked out on my original username.....

[Harper]

Guess not

[QSS_Ryan]

Haha interesting banter we have going on here between one person!

Cheers for the link Mike, unfortunately there is nothing in these manuals that helps my situation!

I'm going to attempt to upload a video of me turning lock to lock... you will notice that the steering tab jams against the steering unit

Ok... youtube was the easiest way- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65BlO4tSWBI

Hopefully someone has seen this before!

Cheers
Ryan

[Solarman]

Ryan that vid didn't help much. I did hear something scrapping in the turn. Maybe a couple of close up still pics where its binding/ scrapping might help.

Mike, I won't say a word, but I've had my share of this site not working. I don't ever log off anymore, because most of the time I have to sign on twenty or thirty times before maybe getting logged back in. always using the same id and pw. So I feel for your problems here - Ralph

Good luck Ryan.

[Moonlighter]

Bit hard to see Ryan, maybe a close-up might be needed.

Maybe you should have stuck with the locally made Hydrive hydraulic steering they never let you down!

Joking of course......

The best way to check if you have it set up right might be to go to a boat yard or two and compare yours to some others. It will most likely be something simple.

Don't worry about Mike, he likes talking to himself, or to Mike2, or any other Mike for that matter!

Ralph, yes, I selected the option to stay signed in, and rarely have too many problems. But attracting attention from mods here to get problems sorted can be a real issue!

Cheers

Grant

[Harper]

I would go outside and snap a picture, but it's 26° F outside, and I've been fighting some sort of crud with fever & chills & such. But I'll attach this picture that I copied from the installation manual to help explain my suggestions. My motor is a DF150, but that shouldn't matter. The bolt that attaches my steering bracket to the hydraulic cylinder is very loose, allowing some wiggle. There are a few washers involved if I remember correctly. I think it should be loose like that by design, which is why they use a nylock nut. In the attached picture, I'm referring to the bolt #2, and the nylock nut #1. If they are cinched down tight. you might want to try and loosen them a bit. You might also try removing them completely and detaching the steering bracket from the cylinder and see if the motor will turn back and forth freely when not attached to the cylinder. Likewise turn your steering wheel back and forth with everything detached to see if the cyinder moves freely when detached. That way you can determine whether the problem lies in the motor, the hydraulic cylinder, or in the way they are joined.

[Harper]

Btw ... Happy New Year, y'all

[artdf175]

Mike nice to have you back
you know that Harper2 guy was difficult to work with!!! lol

Here's to a great 2015..............

Art

[Moonlighter]

Btw ... Happy New Year, y'all

Thanks Mike, you too!

Art, hope you're feeling better soon. Right now, I would take your 26F in a split second! It's been 34C and 75% humidity here the past few days, just horrid, hot, and sticky.

But it has got the mackerel and marlin going, so planning a attack maybe Saturday to target them.

[artdf175]

Grant
kind of took over this post
yeah it's aboout the same temp here that Mike is having -1C/ -3C
but it will be up to +3C in a few days
no mackrel or marlin thou

It sounds like Mike and wife have that horrid flu that is going around
so far so good have avoided it here even with my wife having a touch of it a number of weeks ago
my only problem is this useless left wrist for the next 2 months
the only advice is not to get too lax in where you plant a foot when hanging on the side of your boat!
can not do a damn thing like work on the boat or tackle all the things I should be doing in our off season -try tying your left hand behind your back and getting anything done!!!!
you will need to post pictures from time to time so we can live vicariously through your experiances
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL...
actually you are already in the new year we are still 3 hours away

Art

[Moonlighter]

Will do. I might start up a separate post for fishy pics and other banter!