Remove shaft without dropping rudder on C30?
- Thread starter Project_Mayhem
- Start date
I had a 1987 C30 with a M-25 engine. To remove the shaft for general maintenance and strut bearing replacement, I had to drop the rudder.
My rudder quadrant was located under a deck plate in the cockpit. I am not sure if your model is the same.
It was not difficult to disassemble the steering cables and quadrant in order to remove the rudder on my model. The rudder post itself was not that long so it was easy to drop out.
I braced the rudder from underneath prior to disassembly of course.
The rudder was not that heavy. I dropped the rudder down and out and replaced it later all by myself. Of course, it would be easier if two people did the work.
Needless to say I consider myself more than the average boat maintenance person as I have worked on boats for over 40 years.
Good luck with your project.
My rudder quadrant was located under a deck plate in the cockpit. I am not sure if your model is the same.
It was not difficult to disassemble the steering cables and quadrant in order to remove the rudder on my model. The rudder post itself was not that long so it was easy to drop out.
I braced the rudder from underneath prior to disassembly of course.
The rudder was not that heavy. I dropped the rudder down and out and replaced it later all by myself. Of course, it would be easier if two people did the work.
Needless to say I consider myself more than the average boat maintenance person as I have worked on boats for over 40 years.
Good luck with your project.
Thank you! Another member has been kind enough to let me borrow a custom fabbed tool to remove the cutlass without removing the shaft. I read that if there's no cutlass, there's just enough room to slip by the rudder. Hopefully this works!
I had an 83 Catalina 30 and had to replace the shaft and cutless bearing. I did not have to remove the rudder or mess with it at all. In this case really straight forward job. New machined shaft was $300 cdn and bearing was 45$ cdn. I had a machine shop make a stainless cylinder just under the diameter of the new bearing and used it to push out the old bearing. It went forward then I cut it a Dremel tool. Greased up the new bearing and pushed that into place. All done worked great.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,290
Is your new boat coming out of the water for winter? Look at the rudder / shaft alignment. You may get lucky. Turn the rudder as an angle, and the shaft (minus the prop) might pass by the rudder.
A second option might be to approach shaft removal from the other end. It may be easier to lift the engine than remove the rudder.
A second option might be to approach shaft removal from the other end. It may be easier to lift the engine than remove the rudder.
The shaft is on the centre line. The reason it was bent and vibrating and noisy was that earlier in its life a lifting strap was incorrectly positioned. There was just enough distance from the aft end of the keel to the prop shaft hull entry for a 12 in wide lifting strap. One day before I got the boat the yard placed the strap too far aft, bending the shaft and ensuring machinists had work. Nothing against machinists by the way.
It's on the hard already. I did read about lifting the engine up and will definitely consider it if necessary. We're going to remove the prop, see if its still vibrating, which I suspect it will be and then go from there
We suspect that's what happened. The boat was put on the hard a year ago so it's a little hard to go after the yard now, especially with a new owner of the boat
