> What was the source of the leak and what did you do to fix > it? There's a 3 or 4 inch long hex "cap nut" about 1.25" diameter that sits on top of an adjustment (for "center" position). The cap nut is sealed with an O-ring. But the nut came loose. Of course, we didn't figure this out right away. Our initial reaction was that the oil appeared to be coming directly from the piston shaft where it exitted the hydraulic cylinder. Of course we don't carry spares for this. And when I called the Naiad service rep (Maiers Marine, in Seal Beach California - really nice people since they'd never heard of me before, but that's another "good service" story!) they couldn't even tell me what I needed until I could figure out which of two different models of hydraulic rams was installed! But the nice guy at Maiers suggested trying to bypass the faulty ram by reconnecting some of the hydraulic lines. It sounded good, so we tried that. Sure enough, that ram was bypassed, and we still had about 60% stabilization, but the oil leak continued. Obviously, we had just eliminated that hydraulic ram as the problem. Fumble-fingers (ME!) got down on hands and knees to feel around for where the oil was coming from and lo and behold! I found the loose cap nut - "why the h*#$@ is this darned thing so loose?" :) I tightened it up and the leak stopped! I called Maiers Marine back and told them what I'd found and they said "Oh, yeah, that was our 2nd guess." And tightening the cap nut is exactly the right thing to do.

Thank you, Paul. Frustrating, but funny to those of us sitting in our slips. I thought that they were FEDEXing you some "O" rings? Enjoy your adventure, Ron ----- Original Message ----- From: <paul@whooppee.com> To: <rcrogers6@kennett.net>; <passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 5:02 PM Subject: Re: [PUP] Gentle Wind | | | | > What was the source of the leak and what did you do to fix | > it? | | There's a 3 or 4 inch long hex "cap nut" about 1.25" | diameter | that sits on top of an adjustment (for "center" position). | The | cap nut is sealed with an O-ring. But the nut came loose. | | Of course, we didn't figure this out right away. Our | initial | reaction was that the oil appeared to be coming directly | from | the piston shaft where it exitted the hydraulic cylinder. | Of | course we don't carry spares for this. And when I called | the | Naiad service rep (Maiers Marine, in Seal Beach California - | really nice people since they'd never heard of me before, | but that's another "good service" story!) they couldn't even | tell me what I needed until I could figure out which of two | different models of hydraulic rams was installed! | | But the nice guy at Maiers suggested trying to bypass the | faulty ram by reconnecting some of the hydraulic lines. It | sounded good, so we tried that. Sure enough, that ram | was bypassed, and we still had about 60% stabilization, | but the oil leak continued. Obviously, we had just | eliminated | that hydraulic ram as the problem. | | Fumble-fingers (ME!) got down on hands and knees to feel | around for where the oil was coming from and lo and behold! | I found the loose cap nut - "why the h*#$@ is this darned | thing so loose?" :) I tightened it up and the leak | stopped! | | I called Maiers Marine back and told them what I'd found and | they said "Oh, yeah, that was our 2nd guess." And | tightening | the cap nut is exactly the right thing to do. |