Looking to see if anyone has ever rebuilt an older Bear Linear Actuator? Due to salt water, the cylinder shaft seal got ate up and allowed the tube assembly to lock on the worm gear. After teardown, a lot of heat, and a real good cleaning, I put it all back together and tested it on the bench. Works great retracting, clutch works fine, but extending the tube disconnects from the worm gear and clutch never catches. Something may have broke and I just missed it but I'm not sure. My question is, has anyone ever welded the tube to the nut that rides on the worm gear? I understand that this would be aggrivating to disassemble in the future but it can be done. Thanks in advance for the help! Installed on MB HD 7000

I had 2 of those trim actuators. Threw them in da long grass and put the mercury hydraulic trim and problems solved


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Can't recall if it was the Bear or Thompson unit but a guy posted some rebuild info yrs ago on the mb site. Might search there.

Thanks for your time guys. I may try to weld the nut to the rod soon, it will be worth a shot. If it works I will let yall know.

Bear is the 2nd gen unit, Thompson was slightly more reliable and can be replaced on your existing frame. You can still get a Thompson actuator unit to swap out. I personally wouldn't spend any time on that old Bear actuator and swap out with a Thompson. People have put grease zerks on the Thompson unit (believe there was a thread on the MB forum about this) to help make them last a little longer.

Merc Trim upgrade involves swapping frame parts along with the actuator but is the most reliable trim unit to date. Its expensive though and you can install 3 Thompson units before you get to the price range of the Merc Trim upgrade.

Glad ya got it worked out