Tilt / Trim Complete Seal & O-ring Pro Tip

[scotti509]

I bought all the seals, dust seals, and o-rings for my Showa tilt/trim unit on my 04' Yamaha V Max as it was leaking. Everything came apart nicely. Both trim & the tilt cylinders were pristine with no wear or pitting. On the tilt cylinder cap there is an o-ring that goes on the inside groove and a wiper seal that you press into the top of the trim cylinder cap. The wiper seal went in with pressing around the outer edge until it bottoms out into the groove. The problem was when I went to put the tilt cap onto the tilt cylinder, the wiper lip caught on the machined edge just after the threaded end of the bottom of the cylinder, chipping the lip of the wiper seal even after generously lubricating it!
PRO TIP:
After getting a new dust wiper seal, took my Dremil and a fine stone bit and smoothed that sharp machined edge a little bit, lubed the new seal and put only the seal onto the cylinder shaft sliding it on a ways. Then I put the cap onto the shaft and from there worked the seal into the groove. I'm assuming that sharp machined edge is that way on all of then, so I wanted to pass on what to do as waiting for the replacement seal kept the boat down for an extra week. I just wasn't going to take a chance that using the seal that got chipped up wouldn't cause premature failure and it's a fairly lengthy job! Oh, and only put in Yamaha seals!!! I've heard the cheap aftermarket ones don't last.

[WarEagle24]

Thanks for posting. Good information.