Hey Tom! Hope all is well at Honeapath. My A&P did the same as Ed’s and it has worked flawlessly for 4 years. The prior owner and I were plagued by our step. At one point before I purchased the plane the step actuator was disconnected and the door sealed up. That A&P recommended that it not be repaired. I bought the plane with the step inop. I don’t like stuff not working on my plane. Former owner had had the actuator rebuilt at a hydraulic shop and it was in a box. They even resurfaced the piston rod but never installed. I had my A&P install it. Went out to hangar one morning a few months later to a stinky red puddle under my girl. A&P questioned that there might still be a bad spot on the piston rod after resurfacing and adjusted the throw of the rod so that it would land at a different spot. Great thought for others to consider, but on mine it was only another few months until I got a second nasty puddle. A&P ripped it apart for rebuild and 4 years later still working great. I helped him and it took us about 15 mins to change out the o rings.
Was having so much trouble prior to rebuild that I did a lot of research. Found that our M200 step actuator is also used as the master brake cylinders of certain Beech Bonanzas. They had some new ones available through beech, but would require a loan from the bank to purchase. I located a couple of used ones on eBay that I was going to have rebuilt. Didn’t ever pull trigger since working now. (hopefully didn’t just jinx my plane) If someone’s rebuild does not work I could try to go and find my old research data and locate a core for them. The ones I found were “removed working” and were like $200.00. You don’t want to know the new Beech price. Good luck.