RUDDER

[Greg Fiegelist]

My tiller has slop in it. Looks like I need new gudgeon bushings. But will that stop the lateral and longitudinal play i'm having?

Thanks, Greg

[LarryE-old]

Get bushings from Stef!!

I always keep a spare set around.

[Stef]

If you have slop in the gudgeons, vertical or horizontal, I have bushings. You need to determine where it is. It could be between the blade and cheek plates. If it is inspect both and she if the holes in the plates are worn or if it the fixed bushing in the blade.

[Greg Fiegelist]

will do, thanks

greg

[Greg Fiegelist]

Finally got the rudder from the boatyard to my basement, the slop is coming from between the cheekplates. one plates hole is oblong and the rudder hole is oblong too. No bushing in rudder at all. Thinking of using cd's to shim up on both sides. What do you think??

[Stef]

Greg, you can try that, but I have a feeling it won't be enough. Not sure if early rudders had the bushing in the head. My bushing was loose when I purchased hull 146. I epoxied it in place, no problems since. You can get a new bronze bushing from McMaster-Carr.
My new cheekplates have a replaceable delrin bushing for the pivot hole. You can do the same with your plates and use brass or bronze. There used to be a posting on using some plumbing parts for this problem.
I also add .010" teflon pads on each side, but that's kind of fine tuning.

[Tom Elsen]

Stef and Greg -

Here's the link to the posting on how to fix the rudder head if the pivot hole is elongated:
http://www.sail79s.org/board/viewtopic. ... r+fix#p587

It's often the case that if the cheek plates have an problem, the rudder head does as well.

One possible improvement to the method outlined in the post is this : Mark centering lines for the axis on both sides of the rudder head. Overdrill then fill the old hole with something like VC Underwater or the similar 3M product. Drill centered pilot holes from each side. Then drill out the final diameter. Set the brass pipe with 5200 or similar.

Good luck guys. It's a pretty easy project.

Best wishes
Tom

[Greg Fiegelist]

Got that idea on rudder hole but also have oblong hole problem on plate. Thinking of redrilling plates and rudder head oversize and inserting some kind of stock brass bushing threw all three pieces and then a bolt. Greg

[Jeff Bonvallet]

That's what I did greg, and it's held up well. I have to replace the bushings every 3 or 4 years, but that's it.