Steering Hose Replacement

[DonLINY]

The copper or brass hydraulic steering tubing on my 1989 Gufstream finaly crorrided through. It is tubing all the way from the helm unit through a chase under the floor into the transom areas of the boat were it is connected to hoses going out to the outboards.
My question is, can I replace the tubing with one piece hoses going from the helm unit directly to the outboards? Has anyone pulled that old tubing out of the chase? Will hose snake back through the chase? Should I abandon the tubing and run the hoses in a PVC pipe I can mount under the gunwales?

 

[Finest Kind]

Quick and easy fix, I did this on my boat this past spring.
On my boat, the original pipes ran under the gunnels, I am sure you can run the new hoses under the gunnels on your rig without any issues. Just zip-tie everything nice and neat under there.

Measure the length from the helm to the steering tube and confirm which set of hoses you need here:
http://ww2.seastarsteering.com/OUTBOARD/oboard.htm

(for my Trophy Pro I think we bought the HO5120)

Then buy the new hoses at your local authorized teleflex dealer, which you can find here:
http://www.teleflexmarine.com/cgi-bin/f ... link2=1060

Cut out the old copper tubing with a pipe cutter, remove the fittings from the helm and the steering tube, and bolt on the new hoses.

Refill and purge the helm with fresh fluid and you are good to go.

 

[toolguy73]

Hoses will work, and are easier to install. Teleflex does say that copper is better, though. I replaced my 20+ year old copper lines last year with with new 3/8" soft copper. You can run them under the gunnel. It's not that bad of a job. Remove the bilge vent at the gunnell corner, then feed them forward before you route them down and back to the the transom. Use a springed tube type hose bender to keep them from kinking. I fabricated a block out of starboard to hold them in place inside the transom.

Degree of difficulty = 4
PIA factor = 11

 

[Curmudgeon]

Make sure you know what brand steering you currently have. My '86 had Hynautics steering, which was not compatible with Teleflex. What started out as a simple seal replacement eventually turned into a complete system replacement. :cry:

 

[gw204]

If your 232 has the outboards on a bracket, DO NOT run lines from the helm all the way to the engines. Put bulkhead fittings in the transom. That way if the lines outside of the boat ever get damaged, all you have to replace are one or two short pieces.