It all started with a little drip... (stern tube repairs- Summer 2019)
Last spring it all started with a little drip... Fig. 1 In the spring of 2019 I was checking on the boat and found this little surprise waiting for me. It was wet, but not water wet, It was hydraulic fluid wet! and on a Morgan Out Island Hydraulic fluid can only come from one place, the steering system! When we got the boat in 2015 the steering system had not had any fluid in it for a number of years. We filled the system in 2016 to get her home and the system held fluid (and seemed to work well). After our initial fixes to get the boat up and running to bring her home to Whitby Ontario we discovered over the winter that the helm pump needed new seals, so that was rebuilt. Over the years We suspect that the original fabrication of the stern tube left a little to be desired in terms of quality and completeness. On the inside of the keel there was a section of "deadwood" that was made up of a small plywood bulkhead, fiberglass stern tube, foam an