Hey guys, Just wanted to confess something that went wrong and I'm still learning. Had a major "fail" today trying to rebuild a hydraulic ram for my backstay. Moral of the story: take it to a qualified service company.
Background: My local hydraulic repair shop that rebuilt my ram fifteen years ago, was very busy, short workers, and needed three or four weeks before getting to look at my leaking ram. A friend of mine said I might be able to replace the seals myself. I checked YouTube and learned a few tricks and found the drawings and operation manual for Navtec rams, ordered the seal kit online and carefully disassembled the ram and installed the new seals, o-rings, bearings, etc but hit a wall trying to put it all back together. I couldn't get one of the seals onto the piston and I couldn't get that whole assembly to go into the cylinder. It takes special tools and skills, I don't have. Good news: I took my kit to my local repair shop today, and explained my problem, and they looked it over, said most of it looked good, but I nicked one of the seals, and feeling sorry for me, they ordered me a new part, and put me ahead on their schedule. I hate having systems on my boat I can't service myself but I guess some things are best left to the professional. Chuck S
