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replacement of chains in steering system |
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Pzucchel 
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Joined: 13 March 2020 Location: floating Status: Offline Points: 659 |
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 Topic: replacement of chains in steering systemPosted: 17 June 2025 at 20:41 |
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after 17 days , I finally received the material to repair the chains that broke on the helm side . the material comes directly from Jefa , 6m of TRP 50ss stainless steel chain, replacing the "spanish" chain that hanse had installed in my boat. The installation was easy, and I used a tool to open the links that I bought on amazon: it worked flawlessly. At the end , I replaced all four chains despite the fact the bottom chains , always lubrificated by me , didn't show any signs of cracks . However , the helm chains had at least three more cracks each waiting to break ...beyond the cracks that broke, on each chain !!! Jefa is professional as usual: see in attachment the maintenance instructions that come with the bulk chain. If hanse would have provided the same information on the boat manuals , I would have probably avoided a pan pan situation ...and that's why I report it here. A little surprise: while the top chains had 47 elements each , plus masterlinks, my bottom chains were respectively 39 and 35 elements for port/starboard. The official jefa design is symmetrical...the reason why the chains had been replaced? In any case , the quality was not good enough , showing extended corrosion and rust ... Read also the interesting information for testing and tensioning by jefa: what a company of sailors for sailors ...    Edited by Pzucchel - 17 June 2025 at 21:02 |
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Hanse588#55
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marsella
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Joined: 21 June 2022 Location: Antigua Jolly H Status: Offline Points: 592 |
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Posted: 17 June 2025 at 22:13 |
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Hope TRP50SS is a better quality chain. Mine broke with similar condition and it was made-in-china Donghua 50SS, all supplied by Jefa. Either they have changed their supplier or randomly send their stuff around with whatever they got in their warehouse. My own experience with Jefa was much less satisfactory. After multiple back-and-forth emai exchange and complaints about the quality, Jefa was very defensive and only said "grease regularly". I then found their location on Google Maps in Denmark and posted one-star review with the picture of my broken chain marked Donghua
 Hope they have listened. I ordered new chain from Lewmar but it came marked "Spain", I suspect this is exacly what you broke on your boat
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Pzucchel
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Joined: 13 March 2020 Location: floating Status: Offline Points: 659 |
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Posted: 18 June 2025 at 07:01 |
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you're right: my previous chain was marked "spain". useless to say , now I know exactly what to inspect regularly. on 2022 for the autopilot chain jefa had provided me a tsubaki chain...
tsubaki is surely good , but they also have many models and the neptune series is almost impossible to procure here in Europe if you're a private individual. concerning donghua or Spain or trp, there may be multiple qualities and I don't necessarily believe the equation china=bad quality . also , I have noticed a dramatic difference between the two chains I greased regularly and those I didn't (my own ignorance , combined with the fact that Hanse didn't provide enough documentation/information). Edited by Pzucchel - 18 June 2025 at 08:51 |
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Hanse588#55
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Arcadia
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Joined: 27 November 2017 Location: Sag Harbor, USA Status: Offline Points: 1112 |
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Posted: 18 June 2025 at 12:50 |
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Piero, Im happy you’re all sorted out finally after a rough couple of weeks. But there are worse places to be stranded than a port in Sicily !! Once I heard about your chains breaking, I quickly inspected and greased mine…so thank you for that 😁
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Leon / ARCADIA
2018 Hanse 588 Sag Harbor, NY |
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Pzucchel
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Joined: 13 March 2020 Location: floating Status: Offline Points: 659 |
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Posted: 18 June 2025 at 17:06 |
better greased than not ...admittedly , my second chain broke after having been greased. If I would have extracted it from the hub , I would have seen cracks ON THE INNER SIDE that were already formed ...now i have 3+ meters of chain , in few years I will take them out for inspection again... have you noticed the test suggested by Jefa of applying 20kg at the helm every season, in all directions and for all helms? what do you think? I admit I....tried, but 20kg is really a very strong force and I was worried of breaking something...
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Hanse588#55
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Arcadia
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Joined: 27 November 2017 Location: Sag Harbor, USA Status: Offline Points: 1112 |
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Posted: 18 June 2025 at 17:22 |
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Yes I have periodically used the Jefa method for adjusting tension but I agree that 20 kg was too much. The cables were very tight and actually increased the friction in the system. I chose 10 kg which is plenty in order to remove slack and looseness in the system.
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Leon / ARCADIA
2018 Hanse 588 Sag Harbor, NY |
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Pzucchel
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Joined: 13 March 2020 Location: floating Status: Offline Points: 659 |
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Posted: 18 June 2025 at 22:15 |
I've seen your post on Jefa Steering on Google maps . if your check my post here "pan pan", you will see that my Spanish chains that weren't greased were in the same state. I don't want to defend neither Jefa nor chain manufacturers, but I conclude it's the reality of things . these chains are designed for loads in excess of 6 tons, and mine broke with much less load...the greased chains , as said before, were immaculate. on some boats you have an inspection port to check them and grease them...but not on mine. on the 588, the only approach possible is to unscrew the full panel containing the electronics , open the chains at the bottom , and lift them up. it's time consuming and not easy....the panel screws are a separate disaster: I guess they have aluminum threads, and in my case quite a few broke inside making the opening of the control panels delicate and time consuming ...I always try to avoid it because, despite the maximum care , it degrades over time ...
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Hanse588#55
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marsella
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Joined: 21 June 2022 Location: Antigua Jolly H Status: Offline Points: 592 |
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Posted: 19 June 2025 at 02:50 |
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I was just generally questioning JEFA why their supposedly made SS316 chains degrade so quickly. I have a lot of SS316 fixtures, brackets, and the like which are exposed to salt water a lot more than those chains hidden in steering pedestrals and everything still looks like new and I dont grease anything. Maybe I dont understand something about those chains but once I replaced them I did put a lot of grease since I dont want to experience lost of steering
 Those panel screws...I also broke a lot of them and I also broke the threads. I eventually found plastic rivet type screws of the same size, those are frequently used in cars, and one time use only, but they are cheap,dont need any threads and easily removable
 Edited by marsella - 19 June 2025 at 02:50 |
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Arcadia
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Joined: 27 November 2017 Location: Sag Harbor, USA Status: Offline Points: 1112 |
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Posted: 19 June 2025 at 04:36 |
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I also have had problems with those screws. They are stainless and I believe that are tapped into the fiberglass yet they bind up. After my first broken screw a few years ago I removed them all and used teflon grease on the threads. No problems since then.
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Leon / ARCADIA
2018 Hanse 588 Sag Harbor, NY |
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Pzucchel
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Joined: 13 March 2020 Location: floating Status: Offline Points: 659 |
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Posted: 22 June 2025 at 08:35 |
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one more consideration: the top chains surrounding the helm hubs had been installed in 2017, and both broke after 8 years, within a 48h distance. Given the lack of original lubrification and subsequent absence of grease, I think this pattern may repeat for other boats produced more or less in the same period.
Also, after having reinstalled the chains and greased them with a brush , following the Jefa instructions, the movement of the helms is silky smooth. I admit it wasn't the case before , when you could often hear /feel some dishomogeneity in the movement that I thought it was "normal" or better acceptable .
All this to say: if you feel/hear ANY dishomogeneity in the movement of your helms and you've not done maintenance since a few years, it's probably not normal: extract the chains and the cables completely for inspection. I couldn't see any cracks just inspecting the outer side of the chain while on the hub , but it broke 24h later ...and I could see afterwards the cracks when the chain was extracted.
Edited by Pzucchel - 22 June 2025 at 12:12 |
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Hanse588#55
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Arcadia wrote: