Hi H33 owners.
Just to let you know that I changed the rudder bearings on my H33 2004 #208 last week. It was a much easier job than I thought and the whole operation took less than a couple of hours.
The rudder had been very sloppy from new but I could not get a sensible answer as to what the tolerances should be, so for the sake of a couple of hundred dollars I decided to fit new bearings. Interestingly the new ones from Hunter were different from the original ones. The originals were a white nylon material and the new ones some sort of black composite material. Additionally the new ones had vertical grooves (like a cutlass bearing) presumably for lubrication purposes whereas the old ones had a smooth bore.
For the record here is the procedure which of course you won't find in the manual !
1. Make sure that you have enough clearance under the rudder to be able to remove it by measuring the height of the rudder stock from inside the rear storage area and have the boat blocked up with this amount of space plus a few inches beneath the rudder.
2. Remove the cockpit floor cover over the rudder. Note there are six screws two of which are hidden from sight on the vertical surface at the rear of the cover.
3. Unbolt the steering ball joint (just a through bolt with multiple washers) and lift it off the spigot.
4. Put some packing under the base of the rudder to support it in its normal position
5. Remove the retaining clips from the rudder retaining spigot and slightly loosen the four bolts holding the aluminium rudder retaining assembly.
6. Apply some WD40 to the spigot and drive it out with a hammer. You will need to turn the rudder to the right angle to get the spigot completetly out.
7. Unbolt the Al rudder retaining assembly and then go underneath the boat and have one guy hold the rudder and another remove the support packing, then out she comes.
8. Get a hacksaw and carefully cut a vertical slot in each bearing so it can collapse on itself and then with a combination of some initial leverage with a long screwdriver between the stock and the bearing, and a hammer and suitable drifter knock out the old bearings. They came out quite easily.
9. Clean out the inside surface of the stock, apply a generous amount of epoxy to the outside of the new bearings and push them into position.
10 When the epoxy is starting to cure make sure you clean off any surplus and smooth it around the ends of the bearings ensuring none ges on the bearing surface.
11. Clean off the SS rudder beariing surface with some fine wet and dry.
12. Leave the epoxy to cure overnight, smear the bearing surface with waterproof grease and then just pop the rudder back the same way as it came out!
As I said apart from the curing time the whole operation only took a couple of hours and best of all the rudder now has no horizontal movement in it.
Other points of note are that this haul out was 23 months and 5000 NM since the last one and the Micron Extra antifoul had lasted the distance and pretty much worn off but there was no appreciable growth. (The boat gets used most weeks 12 months of the year). The Prop Speed treatment on the propeller (brilliant stuff) had also lasted the distance.
As has been the case previously the rudder was full of water and I did the usual trick of drillling a hole in the bottom and letting it drain out. No matter what sealing you try between the SS bearing surface and the rudder stock it still leaks through (It is subjected to enormous forces so I appreciate it is hard to seal off). But why try ? I think they should fill up the rudder with some sort of foam to keep the water out.
There were no other problems,so we will be back on the social racing scene on Wednesday!
Just to let you know that I changed the rudder bearings on my H33 2004 #208 last week. It was a much easier job than I thought and the whole operation took less than a couple of hours.
The rudder had been very sloppy from new but I could not get a sensible answer as to what the tolerances should be, so for the sake of a couple of hundred dollars I decided to fit new bearings. Interestingly the new ones from Hunter were different from the original ones. The originals were a white nylon material and the new ones some sort of black composite material. Additionally the new ones had vertical grooves (like a cutlass bearing) presumably for lubrication purposes whereas the old ones had a smooth bore.
For the record here is the procedure which of course you won't find in the manual !
1. Make sure that you have enough clearance under the rudder to be able to remove it by measuring the height of the rudder stock from inside the rear storage area and have the boat blocked up with this amount of space plus a few inches beneath the rudder.
2. Remove the cockpit floor cover over the rudder. Note there are six screws two of which are hidden from sight on the vertical surface at the rear of the cover.
3. Unbolt the steering ball joint (just a through bolt with multiple washers) and lift it off the spigot.
4. Put some packing under the base of the rudder to support it in its normal position
5. Remove the retaining clips from the rudder retaining spigot and slightly loosen the four bolts holding the aluminium rudder retaining assembly.
6. Apply some WD40 to the spigot and drive it out with a hammer. You will need to turn the rudder to the right angle to get the spigot completetly out.
7. Unbolt the Al rudder retaining assembly and then go underneath the boat and have one guy hold the rudder and another remove the support packing, then out she comes.
8. Get a hacksaw and carefully cut a vertical slot in each bearing so it can collapse on itself and then with a combination of some initial leverage with a long screwdriver between the stock and the bearing, and a hammer and suitable drifter knock out the old bearings. They came out quite easily.
9. Clean out the inside surface of the stock, apply a generous amount of epoxy to the outside of the new bearings and push them into position.
10 When the epoxy is starting to cure make sure you clean off any surplus and smooth it around the ends of the bearings ensuring none ges on the bearing surface.
11. Clean off the SS rudder beariing surface with some fine wet and dry.
12. Leave the epoxy to cure overnight, smear the bearing surface with waterproof grease and then just pop the rudder back the same way as it came out!
As I said apart from the curing time the whole operation only took a couple of hours and best of all the rudder now has no horizontal movement in it.
Other points of note are that this haul out was 23 months and 5000 NM since the last one and the Micron Extra antifoul had lasted the distance and pretty much worn off but there was no appreciable growth. (The boat gets used most weeks 12 months of the year). The Prop Speed treatment on the propeller (brilliant stuff) had also lasted the distance.
As has been the case previously the rudder was full of water and I did the usual trick of drillling a hole in the bottom and letting it drain out. No matter what sealing you try between the SS bearing surface and the rudder stock it still leaks through (It is subjected to enormous forces so I appreciate it is hard to seal off). But why try ? I think they should fill up the rudder with some sort of foam to keep the water out.
There were no other problems,so we will be back on the social racing scene on Wednesday!
