Getting rudder down required using a car jack to force it out of bearing. Very noisy and hard. Lower bearing is solidly imbedded in holding sleeve, not movable. Can I hone out the plastic of the bearing and re insert rudder for summer trip? Lube is not the answer. Should bearing be movable? Is this a part that must come from Germany? Any advice. Yard guys uncertain.
11th hour, Bavaria 41 rudder service in yard. what to do?
- Thread starter boaterbob
- Start date
Update. Rudder out with great effort. teflon bushing looks good. Will ream it out a bit and reinstall rudder. No parts available except in Germany. Remove bushing in two years and replace unless steering is fine.
What does the shaft look like? Is the shaft straight and was the binding only when you first started to remove the rudder or did you have to use the jack and force it all the way out? Was there any kind of "bend" in the rudder right where it passed through the bearing indicating that the problem was in the shaft, not the bearing? Any evidence of the "binding" that caused the difficulty in steering? I assume you are now "sure" which bearing caused the binding. I'd be inclined to "polish" the teflon bearing and meaure with a micrometer rather than hone it given that overdoing it might just result in excessive play. If it is hard to aquire a bearing from Germany and it will be diffiult to replace, I'd polish/hone, test fit to see if it will go in without excessive play, remove if not and polish some more, repeat as necessary to not overdo it. A little more labor of course, but the "cost" in lost time from ruining the bearing you have installed might be worth the cost. Just my opinion of course and worth about 3 cents (Inflation).
Shaft is true and straight as measured by straight edge and eye. Binding and noise of removal was something, revealing extreme over tightness. Used car jack between hull and top of rudder to force rudder down with loud cracking sound. Teflon bushing was dirty but in good shape. Honing it out makes it look new. Stainless shaft of rudder showed a disturbed spot that may reveal role of granular material in space. Big test will be Wed when boat will be raised enough to re insert rudder and see if it is movable or still tight. The Al housing that holds the Teflon bushing is corroded due to lack of grounding, which I will take care of. The bushing is not movable in the housing due to the accumulation of electrolytic deposits, which I tried to clear out. Alignment is not the problem, however as the rudder was free to self align when it was bound tight during pullout.
After all the above work, I discovered most of the rudder resistance was due to improper installation in past of rudder control mechanism in the stern, now raise to eliminate binding and rubbing. Rudder now free and very movable. removal and honing worthwhile in my view but possibly unnecessary. It went in to the teflon reamed out busing easily but not too easily.
