87 MK2 with standard Edson wheel pedestal.
I noticed recently during the past couple of trips that very occasionally I would hear a small creaking noise in the floor just under the pedestal while motor sailing with autopilot. It didn't correspond directly with any of the wheel movements. The bothersome part is that I don't ever remember hearing it before, so this is going to drive me crazy.
I climbed underneath the pedestal in the qtr berth and could hear it clearly in the lower square part of the pedstal housing. I also popped open the emergency tiller cover and it appeared that the creaking may have corresponded to tiny side-to-side movements of the rudder post with whatever small amount of play there was. But, I'm not 100% sure. It looked really dirty and gunky in there, so between trips I opened the cockpit rudder cover and cleaned out that area and the rudder pulley really well, so it's clean now, but on my next trip I heard it again.
I'm not convinced it's the rudder post still. The sound seemed to be coming more forward from under the base of the pedestal than anything else.
There was nothing I figure out to recreate the sound by moving the wheel or pushing/pulling on the pedestal, so I'm assuming it's coming from something in the lower area of the pedestal. Curious if anybody has any ideas?
I noticed recently during the past couple of trips that very occasionally I would hear a small creaking noise in the floor just under the pedestal while motor sailing with autopilot. It didn't correspond directly with any of the wheel movements. The bothersome part is that I don't ever remember hearing it before, so this is going to drive me crazy.
I climbed underneath the pedestal in the qtr berth and could hear it clearly in the lower square part of the pedstal housing. I also popped open the emergency tiller cover and it appeared that the creaking may have corresponded to tiny side-to-side movements of the rudder post with whatever small amount of play there was. But, I'm not 100% sure. It looked really dirty and gunky in there, so between trips I opened the cockpit rudder cover and cleaned out that area and the rudder pulley really well, so it's clean now, but on my next trip I heard it again.
I'm not convinced it's the rudder post still. The sound seemed to be coming more forward from under the base of the pedestal than anything else.
There was nothing I figure out to recreate the sound by moving the wheel or pushing/pulling on the pedestal, so I'm assuming it's coming from something in the lower area of the pedestal. Curious if anybody has any ideas?