Leak through Hydro gate control cable

[wickedones]

I have a 2010 Nautique 200CB ski boat that has developed a leak through the fitting for the Hydro gate cable on the stern of the boat. There is a small but steady stream running forward into the bilge when the boat is at rest in the water; there is a noticeably larger stream when underway especially with the Hydro gate in the down position. The shape of the Hydro gate is such that water shoots up behind the boat and into the fitting when the gate is down - no surprise the leak is worse under this condition.

The leak is not enough to endanger the craft but it is enough at rest to trigger the mid-board bilge every 20-30 minutes.

The fitting consists of a tube with a large nut on the inside which evidently is supposed to compress some kind of O ring or rubber bushing around the cable to create a water-tight seal. The nut is accessible (barely) after taking out the back seat and reaching around to the back side of the gas tank although I cannot see it. I put a wrench on it in an attempt to tighten it but it is already very tight and I was not able to move the nut much or reduce the leak volume.

I see that several people have issues with the Hydro gate control getting hard to move - mine moves freely although we leave it in the down position nearly 100% of the time as we are exclusively skiers. I have never lubricated the cable or fitting and have had not problems until now.

I will have to remove the gas tank to get a look at the Hydro gate stern fitting - before I go to that length I would like to hear from anyone who has had or has solved a similar leak issue. Has anyone dealt with this?

Thanks!

[AirTool]

I will have to remove the gas tank to get a look at the Hydro gate stern fitting - before I go to that length I would like to hear from anyone who has had or has solved a similar leak issue. Has anyone dealt with this?

No problems with mine hopefully someone can comment.

But you can study the pics in the following thread:

http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/sh...-SN-206-please!

http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/at...1&d=1366201848

[Pjoachim]

I think I may have the same problem on my 200V. My mid pump runs all the time.

[Yiger]

I'll check mine this week! Glad to have another idea to follow- the bilge pump on my 200v runs far too often. The water I'm taking on doesn't amount to much but it's enough to run the pump and it drives me crazy for some reason. I ran it on a hose the other day to check the cooling system fittings but didn't find anything.

[wickedones]

A follow up to my first post about the water leak through the hydro gate control cable fitting:

As I mentioned in my original post we are skiers and run the Hydro gate in "skier" mode 100% of the time. However this Summer in one boating session I experimented by running with the gate in the up or "trick" position and in doing that I moved the gate up and down a number of times with the boat in the water. I noticed after I had done this the first time that the volume of water leaking through the the gate control fitting was essentially eliminated! I can only guess that the gasket around the cable was somehow misplaced and by moving the cable and running with the gate in the up position I re-set the gasket. It's also possible, of course, that this is just a startling coincidence... Whatever happened, the leak has not returned.

This is not a very satisfying way to "solve" my leak problem as I'm not sure why it worked but I'm not complaining! It's now been several months and we have been in and out of the water a number of times and the leak is staying "fixed".

I'm posting this as a suggestion to anyone else who has run into this issue.