cutlass bearing

[Tantallon]

I want to replace the cutlass bearing on my 31 O'day. Do you have to remove the rudder and if you do, any hints. Does anyone know if the plastic head module walls can be removed to access the head waste lines? We have a very bad odor problem that we haven't been able to cure with many bleach wash downs. We would like to replace all the waste lines with solid PVC plumbing. We would use flexible connectors at the ends in exposed areas. Any thoughts?

 

[David Hirtle]

Happy ThanksGiving We replaced all the original sanitation feed and discharge hose in our 31' a couple of years ago. We did not have to remove the liner into the "V" area. We simply pulled the discharge hose through and put the new hose in it's place. The most difficult part was replacing the water feed line from the main cabin...patience! With regard to replacing the cutlass, I did that when the rudder was out. There are those that say the've attempted this by removing the prop, sliding the old cutlass forward and out and them replacing with new. Frankly, I can't see how they do it. Dropping the rudder is the easy part; support the rudder with blocking from the bottom. Loosen both cable ajustment bolts on the quadrant until the cable is loose, back out the bolt through the center of the rudder. The most difficult part of this is to dig the hole (about 4') to drop the rudder into; remember, the rudder only has to be lowered past the shaft line. Pull the shaft out and back out the hex head srews that hold the cutlass in place. Hope this helps!

 

[Tantallon]

One thing leads to another

Thankyou for the info on removing the rudder. We ended up digging a 2 foot hole. We got the shaft out with the prop still attached. Will work on the prop removal at home. We stopped working on the cutlass bearing when we found that the strut had some movement in it. Further investigating indicated that the strut was under the tank, which we recently filled up for the winter.After some careful cutting away of the forward tank bulkhead, and we were able to slide the tank forward enough to reveal the strut enclosure. Here is where I hope you can help us. There is a fiberglas mound, for lack of a better discription, covering the strut. Since nothing is visable we were hoping you might know how it is fastened to the hull. The structure is quite robust yet the strut moves within it. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[RAD]

Strut removal

I had to remove my strut to remove the shaft last august,It look like it was going to be easy (never thought to remove rudder) The fasteners are machine bolts with nuts fiberglassed over. I had to use an inpact driver to remove the screws and one out of four did not come out with out a fight. the head came off and I end up drilling out the bolt and putting a longer one with a nut in the bilge,which BTW is very acsessable on the 32,sounds like your cutlass bearing might be ok if you got movement on the strut. We're neighbors give me a call and I,ll tell you more 516 315 0666 cell

 

[Tantallon]

No more strut wiggle

We think we have solved the problem of the moving strut. After conversing with Rudy and David Hirtle we found out that the strut on our 31 has only a blade stuck into the fiberglas mound I mentioned previously. The movement we had was only about 1/8" side to side and fore and aft. We belt sanded the top off the mound until we exposed the top of the strut's blade imbedded in the mound. We expected to find an appreciable bit of space on either side of the strut, which would explain the wiggle. There was hardly any room at all. We expected to put epoxy down the sides of the strut to fill and lock it in place. We took another tack and decided to cross bolt it and squeeze the sides of the fiberglas mound around the strut. We cross drilled the assembly and used 2- 3/8" silicon bronze bolts. It worked-- the strut doesn't move at all. Next step is to fiberglas the whole structure together to seal it and encapsulate the bolts. I will try to provide photos soon.