damaged tilt trim seal when installing

[TexasSkeeter]

I replaced all 3 ram seals. One sprang a leak 2 months later. Dangit! I'm thinking I damaged it when reinstalling the ram though the seal. Very tight squeeze and I ended up forcing it pretty good.

Is there a trick or tip to avoid this? I'm thinking about making a tapered guide and adding alot of grease to get it thru....

[rodbolt17]

dunno, there are 2 trim rams and one tilt ram.
which is leaking?

[TexasSkeeter]

The port trim ram. I installed the seals in the screw-on cap, then tried to slide it down on the ram. I apparently damaged the seal in the process. The ram would not go thru the seal and I forced it pretty good to get it through. I had ground off the mushroomed edges on the ram tip and slightly tapered it but it still seemed too tight to penetrate the seal easily.

I figure marine shops must have some trick or tool to help get the ram to penetrate the seal without damaging them. I bought a funnel, which I plan to cut the bottom off and use it as a tapered guide on the ram end to get it thru the seal.....with some grease.

Any tips would be appreciated! New seal and dust cap ordered.

[rodbolt17]

now we need to know which unit your dealing with.
if the cap has a single wiper seal with no internal oring and back up ring your most likly dealing with a piston oring issue.
usually the showa unit has the mushrooming problem.

[Texas Yamaha Guy]

If the trim pistons are mushroomed, replacing the Trim Piston Sub-Assembly would be the way to go. You deal with a lot more headaches grinding and forcing and breaking new seals. It costs more, but you know the job will be done and you won't have to worry about it.

[TexasSkeeter]

It's a 2001 VX225. Yamaha part 64E-4384J-00-00 is the seal under the dust "wiper". That's the seal that's leaking.

When I replaced the seals on the hydraulic steering rams, the seals came with a bullet-shaped guide that you placed on the end of the ram before you push it through the seal. That's what I'm going to try to fabricate for my trim ram. This seems like something Yamaha shops would have. How do you Yamaha techs do it? Or do you replace the whole sub-assembly when the seal goes out? (I'm trying to spend $20 instead of $126 per trim ram.)