A Hunter sloppy rudder post question

[Richard Marble]

A couple questions# 1 Does anyone know how a rudder post is set up on a Hunter Is there a packing  gland?# 2 Has anyone used the rebuild kit that uses epoxy (West system I think)to fix the slop in their rudder  on a Hunter? If so how much of a job is it? What do you have to do?Just so you know I have a 1981 Hunter 27

 

[Jay Eaton]

Foss Foam

Most of the rudders are manufactured by Foss Foam. Contact them for help. Check their website: http://www.newrudders.com/index.html

 

[Steve Dion]

Shim material.

Richard:The rudder on our 1977 H'25 was loose from the factory. At the time they had a fix for that by taking a piece of Teflon Plastic Sheeting and wrapping it around the rudder post. I would imagine that you could lay up multiple layers if it is still loose.

 

[Stu Sauer]

Rudder Post Clearances

The last post was a good suggestion. I dropped out the rudder and post on my 1978 Hunter 25, sanded and solvent cleaned the fiberglas tube cavity and inserted a 12" long piece of mylar/dacron sail cloth with the mylar side facing in toward the rudder post and some epoxy on the dacron face. I used a piece of PVC electrical conduit of similar size to the rudder post to smooth out the sail cloth and compress the epoxy, then reinserted the rudder post. After curing, it was a tight fit but it loosened to be just perfect with a little teflon grease lubrication.More recently, I also used the West System epoxy with graphite mixed in to create a new lower bushing in my 28.5. The upper bushing was a large teflon collar and rebolting that took some of the wobble out of the system that probably induced the wear on the lower bushing. Check out the West System book for the exact directions.