excessive rudder play ranger 26

[sea monkey]

I have a ranger 26 with excessive rudder play. Does anyone have a good solution for this problem. Does anyone know whether the ranger 26 (1973) has a rudder bearing, or is it simply a post surrounded by a tube without a bearing, or some other design? Must the boat be out of the water for this type of repair?thanks.

 

[Mark Mayer]

Rudder post repair

I don't know about your rudder post tube but I used to own a Catalina 30 and the rudder had a lot of play. The way we fixed it was to put a really thin piece of Mylar sheeting that fit once around the rudder post and was the length of the rudder tube. We had to do this out of the water but it did fix the problem.

 

[xownner]

the fix

out of the water, drop rudder, no bearings, mix epoxy with a little grease, let set on post for a bit, and push up, move back and forth so nothing fuses, make sure you don't let them fuse. works like a charm.