TAPS Leaking Fluid

[The Black Widow]

Hey everyone! So this last weekend we pulled to boat out of the water and discovered that our plate had detached from the piston. There was a pinkish foamy fluid on the base where it connects to the boat. I am assuming that is water being mixed with the ATF from the TAPS?

We are able to secure the plate back to the piston but want to see what where we need to look for the leaking fluid. We have a 2006 24Ve

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[foxfam312]

See if you can post some pics

[SPBFAN]

Defiantly send some pictures. Their can be so many places you have a leak.

[The Black Widow]

Ok I will take some photos when I get home. It was leaking on the outside of the boat. Is that where you need photos or should I try and take some of the inside as well?

[The Black Widow]

Here are some photos of the outside. The fluid was leaking out the area in the second picture.

photo(1).jpgphoto.jpg

[The Black Widow]

Ok update....We pulled out the actuator so we could try and find the leak. We saw some fluid coming from the tube to where it connects to the bolt. Not sure if there is a leak in the tube or the bolt needs to be replaced.

IMAG0154.jpgIMAG0157.jpg

[Ruger761]

Without fully seeing it, Im betting the leak is between the tubing and the ferrel/nut. Cycle the actator see if you can see it leaking now that you have it pulled off. I havent had a leaky trim system, but the connections are the same as any tubing connection. Sometimes you can tighten the nut up and it will put more pressure on the ferrel/tubing connection stopping the leak. Other times you have to cut the tubing off and get a new nut/ferrel set to get it to stop leaking.

[The Black Widow]

Ok makes sense. We did cycle the actuator multiple times and saw nothing coming out but if we wiggled it a little we could see it was coming from inside that nut. We will try tightening it and adding some more fluid. We have a long trip coming up in a few days so we will probably not have a chance to replace the parts. Do you think we will be ok running the way it is for 5 days and replacing later? The unit still moves up and down all the way.

[Ruger761]

If you can acutate it and did not see a huge leak, but it only is a little leak when you wiggle it, Id start by tightening it some. More than likely that will fix it and you wont have to do anything else. It doenst look like a big leak even as without doing anything to it, so I bet you will be fine on your trip. You might take a little extra fluid with you or at least top it off before you go and tighten it some, just dont strong arm it and over tighten it though.

[SPBFAN]

I had this exact same problem with my 24V exact same location. I tightened the feral nut with and compression fitting and put it all back together. It never had the problem again as long as I owned the boat. It is an easy fix. Your over half way there by pulling it off like you did in the pictures.

[loudelectronics]

SO the new actuators are hydraulic driven? The Lenco on my 24V is Electric but I see the Z3 has a different actuator.

[Ruger761]

Some have the Lenco (electric) and some have the Bennett (hydraulic) systems. Not sure what all years/models have which, but others on here probably know which have what system. The older ones typically all had Bennett systems.

[The Black Widow]

Great, thanks for all the responses. We got a couple new parts but I think we will just try to tighten it and watch it over the weekend. If it still leaks we can replace the ferrel/nut.

Thanks again!