replacement of chains in steering system
Printed From: myHanse.com
Category: Hints & Tips
Forum Name: 575/588
Forum Description: 575/588 Hints, Tips and News
URL: https://www.myhanse.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=15193
Printed Date: 27 March 2026 at 03:41
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.06 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: replacement of chains in steering system
Posted By: Pzucchel
Subject: replacement of chains in steering system
Date Posted: 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 ...    ------------- Hanse588#55 |
Replies:
Posted By: marsella
Date Posted: 17 June 2025 at 22:13
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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Posted By: Pzucchel
Date 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). ------------- Hanse588#55 |
Posted By: Arcadia
Date 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 😁 ------------- Leon / ARCADIA 2018 Hanse 588 Sag Harbor, NY |
Posted By: Pzucchel
Date 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... ------------- Hanse588#55 |
Arcadia wrote:Posted By: Arcadia
Date 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. ------------- Leon / ARCADIA 2018 Hanse 588 Sag Harbor, NY |
Posted By: Pzucchel
Date 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 ... ------------- Hanse588#55 |
Posted By: marsella
Date Posted: 19 June 2025 at 02:50
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
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Posted By: Arcadia
Date 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. ------------- Leon / ARCADIA 2018 Hanse 588 Sag Harbor, NY |
Posted By: Pzucchel
Date 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.
------------- Hanse588#55 |
Posted By: Wayne's World
Date Posted: 29 June 2025 at 20:34
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We are about to sail from Bora Bora to Samoa (1400nm) and then to Fiji (600nm) and with all this discussion on steering chain problems I thought it a good idea to re-grease our chains. It appears I greased them sometime ago although I can't remember but maybe about 6 years ago. I had the upper steering sprocket opened up previously because I had put Tefgel on the SS screws which now made these allen key head screws come out easily. I firstly slackened the adjusting barrel bolt on the portside near the steering gear. Whilst I was there I greased the chain for the port steering and the autopilot drive sprocket and chain. By loosening the chain/cable I was then able to remove the steering wheel (24mm socket) and then remove the 6 x 4mm allen key machine screws from the hub. This allowed the hub to be pulled down so I could access part of the chain and greased same. Then we moved the other steering wheel to get "fresh" chain on the port side to grease. Once this was done I reapplied Tefgel to the machine screws and secured the hub. I also applied some Tefgel to the shaft to stop the aluminum hub growing on the SS drive shaft. Refitted the wheel and returned to the steering flat to tighten the steering cables. We use our stbd aft cabin as a storage area so instead of using the normal access into the stbd side of the steering flat I removed the access to the transom door pump access in the garage and attacked the chain from within the steering flat. It took some doing and a certain amount of contortion but I managed to slacked the cable and chain which allowed the greasing of the stbd upper steering cog and chain as per the port side. Replaced the stbd steering wheel and then re-tensioned the stbd steering cable/chain. Because of the cramped space I had to use a long handled 25mm wide paint brush to apply the grease to the lower chains (steering and autopilot) and the sprockets. The complete job only took about two hours. A second person is needed to turn the steering wheel whilst the greasing takes place. The steering felt smoother after. Job done for another few years. Note - I applied a medium Locktite to the steering tensioning barrel bolt and locking nut because we had these come loose in the first month of using the boat. ------------- Wayne W Cruising, currently in the Pacific until the end of 2026. |
Posted By: Pzucchel
Date Posted: 30 June 2025 at 06:31
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I am learning something here...do I understand correctly you have removed the steering wheel axes and hubs ? how did you do it ? I was unsure how to release it, and admittedly my screws were very tight , I suspected an aluminum thread and I was scared of damaging the parts ... One thing I don't understand: on the starboard side , I was able to completely remove the polymer renvoy and this allowed to extract the full chain and wire assembly completely from the top (I could unscrew the bolt fixing the ball bearing from the deck storage container below the seat in front of the steering wheel on the starboard side). for the port side I couldn't remove it because my hands /keys couldn't access the rear bolt of the same renvoy, but once the barrel/bolt was released I could definitely lift all the upper chain out of the system , and grease it easily. why did you have to remove the steering wheel hub? I am trying to understand the details of the installation , as you know it's not clear from the jefa drawings. Thanks for the comment on the barrel bolt getting loose , I will check both in the next hour ... ------------- Hanse588#55 |
Posted By: Wayne's World
Date Posted: 30 June 2025 at 08:21
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Piero, With the steering cable/chain loosened and once the wheel is removed and the 6 screws are removed the hub assembly can be pulled partly out and angled down slightly you can see the cogs and steering chain and you can grease about 25% of the cog and chain. By rotating the other steering wheel the chain and cog on the unit you have loose will also rotate allowing you to grease the next 25%. Then just repeat until process until you grease all the chain and cogs. The hub will not come completely out of the assembly because the chain is only loose not disconnected. Once you remove the wheel and the hub mounting screws and loosened the steering cable/chain it will become obvious. ------------- Wayne W Cruising, currently in the Pacific until the end of 2026. |
Posted By: Pzucchel
Date Posted: 30 June 2025 at 08:32
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I understand now. you didn't need to open the consoles by removing the hub , right? removing the consoles you can lift up the chain completely, and even replace the chain. I personally prefer it , because I had multiple cracks that I couldn't see when the chain was still on the hub , and it was probably one of those cracks that eventually failed. anyway , my situation was probably extreme and some greasing would have avoided the situation at all ... ------------- Hanse588#55 |
Posted By: Wayne's World
Date Posted: 30 June 2025 at 18:09
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Piero, Correct, you do not need to open the consoles. ------------- Wayne W Cruising, currently in the Pacific until the end of 2026. |