'06 df150 trim/tilt rebuild

[Bay Country]

Hope someone on here can give me some help.

My ptt is leaking at the shafts. My mechanic is saying that you cannot just replace the O-rings, but that for this unit you have to purchase the two caps and center piston assembly! $500 in parts....unit is 10 yrs old.

Anyone with experience on this issue?? Thanks

[Lunchmoney]

I have an 03 DF140 and I just replaced the ram seals, o-rings that go around the cap and the rod wipers. Your mechanic is right to an extent... the rod wipers are sold with the caps. Aside from that, he's incorrect. Go to Boats.net and look at the schematics. You can buy the O-rings that go around the caps and the seals that go around the rams are included in the O-ring kit. It's less than $6 for 2 new o-rings and the seals. In my case the rod wipers were shot so I attempted to purchase them solely without the caps (over $50 each for the caps), no dice. I was able to read the part # off the rod wiper, it's a NOK brand. I contacted a couple of NOK seal dealers in my area with the part #, no dice. Proprietary meaning in order to purchase that exact wiper, I had to get it from a dealer which meant buying the caps too. Well I have twin engines so that meant 4 new caps pushing the total to around $200 for $5 worth of rod wipers! Not to be deterred, I took the rod wiper to a local seal shop and they had some that were identical to the naked eye. They ended up giving 4 to me as free samples because their cost was pennies. They snapped right in and work fine. Now I did have to invest in the pin wrench tool to remove the caps which was around $90 but I'm still saving some cash by doing it all myself. It's pretty simple. I would suggest you go on ebay and purchase a downloadable version of the factory service manual. I did for like $2.75 and got in an emailed pdf. The cap torque specs are in there as well as some info on disassembly and reassembly. Best $3 I ever spent.

[Bay Country]

Lunchmoney,
Super helpful response....many thanks. But, what about the center piston assembly? How can i replace the whiper seal on the cap when the cap cant be removed from the shaft?? Thats was the big stinger in the info from the mechanic. In johnson and evinrude, you can remove the piston from the end of the shaft(its bolted) with suzuki apparently it is welded on.... Thanks again!

[Lunchmoney]

I see what you're saying now. If the piston and eye are both welded on, I can't think of anything offhand to suggest except bite the bullet and get the whole assembly, it's #2 on the schematic and depending on your serial # it's either $202 or $269. Suzuki put a good screwing on their customers with this arrangement. Having to spend $200+ to replace $5 worth of seals and a wiper is just a plain ripoff. If it were me, I'd buy the factory service manual off ebay for $3, the tool needed to remove the cap, the parts from Boats.net and do it myself. If your mechanic will do it for $500 that's not too bad either, but if he's telling you $500 in parts plus his labor it may turn into an $800 bill. Sorry I can't help more.

[Lunchmoney]

Will also add that there are O rings around the piston that can be replaced but it you're seeing oil come out around the wiper area, the rod seal is bad. When the wiper fails, the rod seal is not far behind. The Orings around the piston are probably still good.

[wilbur1]

Just a thought, If the ram sticks out some when bottomed out you could cut the shaft below the eye about a 1/2 to 3/4 in. and drill and tap each end. Then put together with a threaded stud. All depends how far it sticks out when all the way down. Would need to be done on a Lathe though. Shouldnt cost much at a machine shop.

[catacom225]

seals

BC The wiper only clean the ram its not a seal, If your seals are leaking then oil will leak through the wiper, just replace the main seals

[Bay Country]

Guys i sure appreciate the responses. Called another shop i trust, got pretty much the same answer. For lack of time to chase this thing down anymore i let the shop proceed. Gonna be about $650 to replace the two caps and shaft assembly. My boat (Glacier Bay) has twins and the other unit is fine for now. Im going to take the parts that come from the unit currently getting rebuilt and source the rings for them elsewhere, so that im prepared if the other unit fails.

BTW: I do believe the original reason i had a problem in the first place is due to lack of preventative mx with keeping the shafts greased/lubed. Admittedly, i have owned multiple outboards and never lubed those components before, but never had a problem.

[Bay Country]

I see what you're saying now. If the piston and eye are both welded on, I can't think of anything offhand to suggest except bite the bullet and get the whole assembly, it's #2 on the schematic and depending on your serial # it's either $202 or $269. Suzuki put a good screwing on their customers with this arrangement. Having to spend $200+ to replace $5 worth of seals and a wiper is just a plain ripoff. If it were me, I'd buy the factory service manual off ebay for $3, the tool needed to remove the cap, the parts from Boats.net and do it myself. If your mechanic will do it for $500 that's not too bad either, but if he's telling you $500 in parts plus his labor it may turn into an $800 bill. Sorry I can't help more.

Also: regarding the screwjob by Suzuki. The mechanic showed me a schematic of a trim assembly for my 90hp Johnson. That center shaft assembly has a removable piston, so that you may replace the seals on the cap.