Rebuild idler?

[Stephen Trapani]

As you can hopefully see from these pics, the plate on my Edson steering idler, under the base of the pedestal, corroded apart. The bronze wheels are in good shape. I thought I might get a plate at the scrapyard and fashion a new one with the old wheels instead of springing the $300 for a new one.

Has anyone else done this? Bad idea?

Ignore the last two pictures, repeat of the first one.

 

[Ross]

poor choice of material for the application. Correct the deficits and rebuild it if you have the skills.

 

[kloudie1]

Stainless if ya don't want it to corrode, but the original steel lasted 34 years.. That one has swiveling idlers, but you don't have to duplicate that as long as you are precise with getting the angles and positions of the idlers set for a fair lead to the rudder shaft pulley. Fab it of steel and paint it with coal tar epoxy .. it'll be there a while !

 

[capta]

Looking at your pics, I had to go into the engine room to check, and yes, my unit is solid bronze. Yours seems to be some on the cheap steel fabrication. I would not recommend repeating that mistake; bite the bullet and go for the proper unit from Edson in bronze.

 

[Stephen Trapani]

Capta, is yours original or refit? Apparently the replacement units from Edson are largely anodized aluminum:

http://www.edsonmarine.com/marinestore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=244

I have a great scrapyard nearby so could find a sheet of most any metal. I was also thinking of using plastic or fiberglass. - I can probably make a pattern from the old one so getting the angles right shouldn't be an issue...

 

[Gunni]

You can get them with bronze base plates, but anodized aluminum should be fine for a 33ft. boat.

 

[redhead78]

1/4" alum plate will work, double up if you want. Its easy to work with and cheap, and plenty strong. ...Red

 

[Chris Patterson]

Plastic or fiberglass would not last one minute. Tremendous loads on those sheaves. Mine are Edsom bronze as well, but last I looked, they ARE now aluminum. Fairly pitiful considering Edsons pricing. Yeah, if you can save the sheaves, I can see a man building one in a GOOD fab shop, but your jigs would need to be right..