FYI, Hynautic Steering components

[O C Diver]

A number of years ago Seastar bought Hynautic Steering systems. They continued to produce components and rebuild kits.

Dometic purchased Seastar. As of the 1st of the year, everything Hynautic has been scrubbed from the website. The pages use to include comments, rebuild kits, and most importantly, authorized 3rd party competent rebuilders of these components. While rebuilders and kits are still available, it's unclear for how long, and if generic kits will be available.

For those who own these systems, it may be worth rebuilding them now while parts are still available. Typical rebuilds of cylinders and helm pumps range from $250 to $350 per component and usually last decades.

I really hate when large companies like Dometic, buy other companies, sell their products that have been around for several decades, and then scrub all information from their website, like the product never existed. If you're not going to support what you sell, I don't need to buy new products from you.

Ted

 

[Gdavid]

Thank you for the heads up, I just ordered a rebuild kit for my H50 helm pump at my lower station. My upper helm required a rebuild in 2021 and the lower helm will be due eventually. I don't care for the hynautic olive style connections for the plastic lines and am considering replumbing the entire system after the headache chasing leaks after installing a AP pump this past season.

 

[rslifkin]

Aw crap. Other than having the lines replaced, the original Hynautic steering in my boat has never needed anything. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the better hydraulic steering setups on the market. So if parts and support for it might be gone, that's a huge issue.

Use of alternate steering cylinders if needed wouldn't be too big a deal, but my big concern would be around helm pumps. There are other 3 line helm pumps out there, but I'm not confident any would work with the pressurized remote reservoir setup, so the whole system would have to be re-designed at that point. It might be possible to use one of the Seastar helms though, as they appear to have an "R" port where the 3rd Hynautic line would go, provided the helm pump could handle the pressure and the fill port could be adequately sealed.

Fortunately, I'd expect seals and such for rebuild to be standard enough that as long as worn (and discontinued) hard parts aren't an issue, existing stuff should still be rebuildable.

From looking around, other vendors are starting to list the Hynautic helms, etc. as discontinued.

Personally, I've come to really hate Dometic and basically refuse to use any of their products on my boat. Partly because of poor support and partly because of them buying other brands and turning the quality to absolute crap.

If I were to end up having to replace my whole steering system at some point due to this mess, I'd have to put some real thought into what to buy. My first inclination would be Kobelt, but I still like the hydraulic design of the Hynautic system better than the Kobelt setup (although I trust the quality of Kobelt's components). And nothing with the Kobelt name is cheap.

 

[ancora]

We bought two helm seal kits #HS-05 from Jamestown Distributors for $37.59 each, yeah, it was a long time ago. Mostly o-rings but the two shaft seals appear to be proprietary.

 

[Portage_Bay]

OC Diver, thank you for the heads up. Fortunately I had my entire system overhauled 2 yrs ago. Maybe it's a good idea to purchase a helm rebuild kit or two to keep in the spares locker before they become an eBay overprpiced hard to find item. I've got enough of that going on trying to keep an old Onan running.

Gdavid, when I had my system overhauled 2 yrs ago I also replaced the aging copper lines. Running new copper would have been a nightmare, I swear the boat was built around those copper lines. I don't like the idea of the plastic lines so I used two wire hydraulic hoses with swivel ends. Two wire is important bedause it is more stable under pressure. Not cheap but much simplier to install. At that time it was possible to speak to a knowledgable Hynautics tech at Dometic who confirmed that it would work well. And it has. He advised against the plastic lines for my system which uses one of the higher capacity helms, sorry don't remember the helm pump number, because the plastic can work loose at the fittings.

One of the consierations for copper is that Hynautic recommends the coppeer be secured every 15" to prevent work hardening from vibration. That would not have been possible for much of the run. The only problem I ran into was that the hoses being larger diameter I had to get creative in some of the tight places.

 

[rslifkin]

Based on what's described here, it looks like it's possible to use an alternate pump in the pressurized system by installing it with a non-vented fill plug: https://www.seatechmarineproducts.com/hynautic-h-50-hydraulic-helm-pump-seastar-replacement-kit.html


So that's good news, as it means substitution of discontinued helm pumps and cylinders should be possible without changing the rest of the system if a failure occurs and the parts are non-rebuildable or rebuild parts are unavailable. The only things that would force hunting down used parts or total replacement would be a failure of the reservoir or the relief valve block.

 

[DDW]

Dometic is one of those conglomerates, like Garmin, which buys companies and then ruins them. Both have a long history of doing so.

 

[Gdavid]

Aw crap. Other than having the lines replaced, the original Hynautic steering in my boat has never needed anything. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the better hydraulic steering setups on the market. So if parts and support for it might be gone, that's a huge issue.

Use of alternate steering cylinders if needed wouldn't be too big a deal, but my big concern would be around helm pumps. There are other 3 line helm pumps out there, but I'm not confident any would work with the pressurized remote reservoir setup, so the whole system would have to be re-designed at that point. It might be possible to use one of the Seastar helms though, as they appear to have an "R" port where the 3rd Hynautic line would go, provided the helm pump could handle the pressure and the fill port could be adequately sealed.

Replacing the seals in the pump was quite simple, just keep everything in the same orientation and very clean. There are a couple youtube videos covering it. There was a variation of the helm pump at some point but the last kit I used came with the shaft seal (or bushing) for either style. My upper helm was deteriorated due to exposure, UV light, salt, dirt getting to that shaft seal, the lower helm is doing fine but at some point is bound to fail.

As you read, the sea star helms can be used as a replacement and keeping the pressurized reservoir and only non-vented caps but I would stay with the hynautic helm as long as you can.

 

[ancora]

Rebuilt my Wagner pump replacing one shaft seal and two o-rings, neither being proprietary.

 

[SIBERNUT]

I have either "Sitten" or "Sillen" on the steering ram. Searched here, nothing. Anybody give me some help here?
1984 Lien Hwa w/ 2 stations, need to bleed or whatever after sitting 10 yrs. I have tried nothing yet, too busy with on-land sinking damage.

 

[C lectric]

I would suggest that you closely examine the actual steering pump the steering wheel is attached to.
Likely you will need a decent small flashlight, a mirror on an extendable shaft.
The mfgr. name and model number should be there.

Then post and ask and maybe someone can help.

The ram or hydraulic cylinder often only has the cylinder mfgr. name and specs., NOT the system it came with.

 

[SIBERNUT]

Tks! The helm looks like sea star with the fill on top. Will have access behind it soon.