Yamaha Trim Tilt Seal Removal

[Andrew93]

I decided to tackle the seals on both trim tilt units. Out of the 6 seals, 3 were leaking. 2 were obviously replaced by previous owner and one looked fine. I decided to only go after the ones that needed attention in case this did not go well. I watched all the youtube videos and methods avoiding buying the special tool. What ended up working great was that our neighbor had a flat faced pin spanner wrench, but the pins were a little too big. We drilled out two of the pin holes no the dust caps and with a breaker bar they came right off. The slightly drilled out holes look fine and no compromise to the cap.

I did have to partially remove the whole unit to get the cap and piston out for the tilt piston. I got one side reassembled today and it looks good. I am waiting on a new dust cap in the mail since the one we tried using the punch to remove got pretty mauled up, although it is still functional I am going to put the new one in.

I went to the local GW dealer to get all of the seals, I can not believe this is not a kit, the poor parts women had to individually pick each seal! I think I have given them a plug before but Cataumet Boats is great, always willing to help and lend advice to us do-it-yourselfers! I was worried tackling this project, but it was not that bad so far, and hopefully the leaks stop! Below is a link to a similar tool that my neighbor let me use.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ARMSTRONG-TOOLS ... SwiYFXK85-

 

[max366]

Ambitious project! I agree with you about Cataumet Marine- they are very helpful and well-stocked. I'm in Falmouth near Bosuns and I usually wind up going to Cataumet since they have the parts I need.

Did you have any issues getting out the pins that secure the top & bottom of the tilt cylinder? That looks to be the toughest part of the job, at least to me. My stbd F225 has a tiny tilt cylinder leak but I tried using Lucas PS sealer in with the fluid and so far, it seems to be working but it's a patch. I will tackle the seal replacement in the fall.

Good tip on the wrench.

 

[Tucker]

I keep grease on my ram. After awhile it just congeals around the cylinder dust seal, and I just slather more on. Also, dirt may be causing the leak. It may help to take a piece of film negative and slip that down between the piston rod and seal and rotate it around the piston rod. Sometimes it will loosen the dirt and stop the leak, worth a try.

 

[max366]

Great idea on using grease. I'm trying it and launching tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

 

[wavetamer]

is there any where else you can get the pin wrench besides ebay, need to get a few , trim tilt on my Yamaha and also seastar steering cylinder