Steering wheel leaking fluid

Give us a little more info on what you have. Duel station Hynautic? What's the air pressure in the reservoir? is there a vent on your helm pump unit? Custom power assist off of a main engine etc. Sea water coolers on the system? When was it last serviced / topped off and or a filter change? does it have a filter down by the reservoir ? Does your steering at the upper helm (if a duel station) feel correct and not sucking air?
Thanks

Check from behind the helm or you may need to pull the wheel. Obviously you have a leak there. Could be a hose, could be a seal, could be the vent if you have one. Doesn't sound like a bad one yet, but it won't get better. Seek and you will find. Diagnosis shouldn't be hard.

It will have a sticker or logo on the reservoir. Single station you will either have a fill / vent cap on your helm pump facing the bow of the vessel. if you have a shaft seal failure its not a expensive repair. Even if you have an internal issue it can be rebuilt and under warranty again. I just had two Hynautic rams rebuilt after being told by the Teleflex/ Hynautic dealer that no spares were available and the rams were outmoded ( 70 '2004 built vessel) a company called Boat Steering Rebuilders out of Frost Proof Fl. was recommended and the rams were rebuild with new mod. updates on the servos and not only look new but have a two year warranty . If your looking at a rebuild give them a call as you wont be disappointed .

It sounds like you have the Sea Star power steering system CSkipR, helm is on the low pressure side and is the same as any other Sea Star system on that side. Your helm shaft seal is very likely the culprit and it's pretty common for those to weep fluid. Good news is the replacement lip seal is only about $10 and is very easy to swap out with a dental pick. Biggest problem is usually removing the steering wheel, if it hasn't been off in a while you may need a flywheel puller to get it off, also if the stock plain steel shaft nylock nut wasn't thrown in the trash during installation and a stainless one put in it's place, you'll likely have to split that nut to get it off. Hopefully the builder/installer knew about that though.

This is my guess as well.

I had never heard of Frostproof and had to go look it up. Their mission statement is:

What happens in Frostproof makes you want to stay in Frostproof!

Sorry for going off topic but the name hit me. Now, I will never forget where to get steering rebuilt.

More misinformation provided by me on the 12th... BSR is located in Safety Harbor Fl. & not Frost Proof. Gotta get my semantics correct! Sounds like the Sea Star helm has a smart approach to replace the shaft seal.

If it's leaking down the dashboard from the wheel, it's the shaft seal. Lap the shaft a tiny bit with fine emory cloth lubricated with steering oil before installing the new seal. Pulling the steering wheel will be the hardest part by far.

You most likely will have to bleed it a little. Now would be a good time to change all of the steering fluid anyways though. Rather than spending the money on Seastar a lot of times you can use 32w hydraulic fluid. With 2 people it's a pretty easy procedure, put a tube on the one bleed valve on the ram and put it into a container have one person crack the bleed valve at the ram and the other turn to lock in the one direction, close bleed valve, open other one, same routine, just make sure do about 3x in each direction, make sure you don't run out of fluid or pressure in the resevoir while you're doing it.

You will have to depressurize the system first. Unless the helm is tilted horizontally you probably won't lose too much fluid changing the seal but it is a good idea to go ahead and do a full system bleed and a fluid change wouldn't hurt either. I've worked on several lately that the helms were pretty crudded up inside from old/contaminated fluid and required rebuilding.

Bleeding that power system is a two stage process and Teleflex has a detailed procedure on their website you can download, for a single helm like yours it's not too complicated, helm side first then power side. Two people required and keep an eye on the reservoir to make sure you don't run out during the bleed or you'll have to start all over.

Should work just fine!