www.iFourWinns.com

Just wondering if anyone here has tried one of these trim ram rebuild kits? Starting to see a little oil come out when trimming up at the beach along with nochy operation so I was thinking about tackling this project over the winter.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VOLVO-PENTA-SX-A-DPS-A-Outdrive-Trim-Cylinder-Ram-Rebuild-Kit-SHIP-WORLDWIDE-/330782324786?pt=Boat_Parts_Accessories_Gear&hash=item4d0429b832&vxp=mtr

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Hey I was thinking of rebuilding mine as well. Why don't I just take mine off and ship them to you since you'll already know how to do them. I love it when a plan comes together!

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2008 Vista 278 Volvo Penta 8.1 Gi 375 hp
1999 Horizon 220 5.7 GSi

Lol! Glad I could help...I guess. Why don't we meet in the middle with some beer and rebuild them together?

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

I had my marina send mine out. They failed miserably the first time. They found the pump wasn't relieving the pressure properly and it blew the seals out again.... So the next repair was on them, not to mention the oil changes all season in the hydraulic pump to keep looking somewhat like oil

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2001 328 Vista "Nauta Dream 2"
AB Inflatable 10AL "Little Dreamer"
2000 248 Vista
1997 225 Sundowner


Mike

I used that repair kit a few years ago! I rebuilt one ram and had to totally replace the other ram because the arm was "pitted". So, the ram leaked when the pitted areas would move past the gaskets. The rebuilt ram is working great!

Not hard to do at all. You'll have some folks that'll tell you go down to a local hydraulic shop and pick up the necessary gaskets. I opted to buy the kit from eBay.

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-Tony
2016 Robalo R200 w/Yahama 200!

Previous boats:
2003 Four Winns 248 Vista - sold
1994 Sunbird Corsair 200 - sold
1980 Checkmate Predictor - sold

I know Ill be the buzzkill here, but you do not need that ebay kit at all.

I almost bought it myself, I wrote the seller and asked what was so good about his kit that it costs $139, when the OEM seal kit from VP costs ~$35. His reply was his seals were better. Hmmm really, would they last 17 years in dirty water like my VP originals??

I ended up buying the Volvo Penta seal kit (in my case, the part # is 985060, also available on ebay). I bought a used spanner wrench on ebay for $7 and did it myself in less than 30 minutes.

Paying somebody to do this job is pretty silly. If you can change engine oil, you can put new seals on the ram. Its that easy.

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Not a buzzkill at all...actually that's great news! I thought those seals weren't available from Volvo and you had to buy the complete trim rams for big $$.

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Is yours a OMC/King Cobra /290?
I think it's diff. then the DPS-A rams. The DpS-A doesn't use a spanner wrench. There is a spring clip holding everything together. Just looked at mine yesterday

I think that for the first few years of the SX (joint venture years) the trim
Cylinders were just like the OMC Cobra ones with the removable cap on the end and the plastic cover over the metal trim line on top. A some point they changed to a slightly different style of cylinder.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Not sure about DPS-A rams, but my Vista is a 97 with VP SX drives.

Trust me, bring those rams to a cylinder shop, they can be rebuilt. Im fortunate to have a cylinder shop nearby that twice now, when Im rebuilding the rams, I bring the rod up there and they remove the end knuckle. One time they did it free, the other time they charged me $20. While I was there, I saw several tilt cylinders on the shelf for customer pick up - Mercs and Volvo's.

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Good to know that. Mine still works fine, the original 26 year old ones, but I bet that since they were in salt water so much, that end cap probably is not coming off, lol, if I ever need to fix them. I do have a spare set of rams that I was able to get from a guy who was repowering a Cobra to a Merc...The originals, when you could get them, were over $500, EACH.....

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Lou - you might be surprised about those end caps!

My rams are HEAVILY pitted, as is my outdrive. The previous owner(s) never changed the sacrificial anodes from the factory zincs (we need magnesium here in freshwasher, zinc offers little/no protection from stray current/galvanic corrosion). Of course, when I bought the boat and saw the damage - both of my skegs are at least 25% eaten away , you can "imagine" what my trim rams look like and the end caps. I just figured I'd be replacing the outdrives AND the rams one day anyways.....

Well, when I rebuilt the first ram after the seals went bad, I had my propane torch, 2 pipes to put over the end of the spanner wrench for addtl torque and leverage, and liquid wrench on hand for what I was certain was going to be a b*tch of a job.....

Imagine the look on my face, when the end cap came right off with just a little muscle! I was VERY surprised, esp. seeing that the end of the trim ram where the end cap threads in is severely pitted and corroded. I did spray the end cap with liquid wrench and let it sit overnight, thats the only thing in my arsenal of tools that I really ended up using, lol.

Oh and in my closing sentence.. regarding your seals being 26 years old and working good - "They dont make 'em like that anymore". The 91 Sundowner that I owned 2010-2012, the original 22 year old seals never leaked, but my 99 Vista 258 that I used to own from 2006-2009 did have leaky rams. And it seems every season I am rebuilding another ram on my 97 Vista 278 because they start leaving oil slicks

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

You may be right about that. The rams on mine are in pretty good shape; one has no pitting at all and the other has some but not enough to cause a leak as of yet. The drive/transom mount has surface corrosion but no bad pitting. The only spots that show real corrosion are the aluminum pieces at the end of the trim rams. Fortunately I have a spare set of rams on good shape that were used in salt but not left in the water..

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Update: Ordered the Ebay reseal kit and rebuilt both trim rams. I dreaded this job all winter but found it to be very easy to do. So far no leaks and the notchy operation is gone. Also flushed the entire system with fresh fluid so hopefully I get some long life out of these seals. The real test will be the rams under load of the boat, so I will have to report back in about 6 months

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Good to hear things went well.

Did you get your hands on the cheaper seals? That kit for $140 didnt make sense.

Also, if you have run your pump and had no leaks you should be good to go. There is a considerable amount of pressure in the system when you run the pump regardless of the load.

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2004 - 288 Vista
Twin - 5.0 Volvo Penta GXi DP