rudder post housing play

[mark berry]

I have excessive play in my tiller of my Columbia 22. I think the rudder post housing is worn out. I have heard of people installing bearings to fix this. Any suggestions?

 

[Ed Allen]

sure

I had a col 26 i think the bearings are the same. i took pvc pipe and cut it in a spiral and flexed it to fill the gap between rudder, there was originally a plastic or nylon insert that did the same thing. i greased it every couple of years and it workded fine for about 10 years when i sold it.maybe still there. miss my ole columbia. fun boats!

 

[Steve Dion]

Had a similar problem on a H'25

Mark:We had a similar problem on a H'25. We got a sheet of teflon that we wrapped around the post which took most of the play out.I don't know about your setup, but the Hunter had a tube that the post rode in.

 

[S. Sauer]

Cast a new Bearing Surface

West System Epoxy has a paperback manual available which shows how to mix graphite with their epoxy and inject it in the stern tube to form a new bearing surface around the rudder shaft. I've done this on the lower portion of the rudder post on my twenty eight five and have no play at all now.

 

[Alan]

Did the same..

..on my old H34. Follow the book, it works great. use plenty of mold release wax. Eight years after doing the job there was still no play in the shaft.