We had some slop between our rudder post and the tube. 2 seasons ago I did the West Systems procedure for epoxy/graphite bearing pads at the top and bottom of the tube. It worked great. If you do this:
1) Apply plenty of to the rudder shaft to keep the rudder post from bonding to the epoxy. I am at work right now and don’t recall what I used. Will update post with info.
2) You’ll need to drop the rudder to clean out the tube. I used rags soaked in acetone and a stick. Then roughened inside top an bottom of tube.
3) The quadrant cannot be on the rudder, but the safety bolt (the one the emergency tiller goes over) can be used to hold the rudder up.
4) I made little wedges to put around the top and bottom of the rudder post. This was to center it in the tube and keep it as vertical as possible.
5) Even with the anti-seize material applied to the post, you do have to turn the rudder to “break it free”.
6) We has to remove the rudder after doing this and reinstall it (won’t get into that). To get it out we had to turn the rudder back and forth while pulling it down. It was hard, and then I found the friction was heating up the post pretty well. I was freaking out because I was thinking the heat might screw up the new bearing pads! So we grab a third person. While he and I turned the rudder back and forth my wife poured cold water down the tube. That helped a lot. When reinstalling the rudder I did end up using a piston jack to push it up. If you don’t need to remove the rudder after the epoxy cures, and you used the safety bolt to hold it up, you ought to be able to turn it back and forth and push it up with some help (while someone pours cold water down the tube.
This West Systems process really worked well. In spite of heating up the epoxy when first trying to remove the rudder, no issues. The rudder does not “wiggle” around whatsoever. Also, one may think the work needed to remove the rudder after and reinstall was an indication the fit was too tight (making it hard to turn with wheel) - it isn’t. The rudder turns very well.
It was hard to tell from your picture how bad the top of the post is (where the quadrant bears/rotates on). Mine was not in great shape, but I made a spacer from some 1/4 UHMW I had, and it’s fine for now.