Rudder removal and repair on hunter 340

[HD74]

the Top of my rudder on my 1999 hunter 340 is touching the bottom of the boat. The last time I checked there was no side to side play, a little forward play but a lot of up and down. I contacted hunter parts and was told it probably was a spacer between the hull and two of rudder shaft That needed replacing. Has anyone else experienced this? Also can anyone please explain how to remove the rudder thanks

 

[jssailem]

Your going to want to start with an exploded parts diagram. There are a lot of parts associated with the steering of the boat that will need to be released. Your going to need to have the boat high enough in the air so that when you have loosened all of the steering hardware, the rudder can slide down out of it's shaft and be caught by you or our crew on the ground. It is a multi person task. Take pictures because there are a lot of steps that you will want to follow in reverse to reinstall the rudder.

Before I got to excited I would want to take a careful look at all "spacers".
Did you by chance back the boat up onto a sand bar? Could the shaft be bent?

 

[Bill19233]

Wish I could offer advice, but I've been lucky and haven't had any rudder issues come up on my 340. I'll be following this thread and I hope you post photos as you investigate and repair. There is a 336/340 group on Facebook, if you're not already a member of it, someone may have had a similar problem and maybe have helpful advice.

 

[Capn Vinny]

I recently pulled the rudder off my Legend 37.5 to do some fiberglass repairs. Mine does indeed have a couple of plastic disc spacers on top of the rudder shaft that controls the gap between the rudder and the hull. My rudder had almost neutral buoyancy and as such, I’d have a hard time believing that they would wear significantly being that they are lightly loaded and always lubricated with water. I actually had to sand one of my spacers down a bit as I added a few plys of glass to the top of the rudder and if I hadn’t reduced the lower spacer, the bolt at the top through the quadrant would not have aligned with the hole in the shaft. I did my rudder R&R (remove and reinstall) in the water. Simply make sure you have enough depth for the shaft to clear the boat and that you’ve retained the rudder in some manner. I had a strap around the rudder stock and a rope attached to a block of wood secured inside the top of the post so when the rudder dropped, I had essentially a messenger line going through the rudder tube for reinstallation. To get it back in without anyone going in the water, I built a small frame out of 2X4s that captured the rudder and allowed me to maneuver the rudder upright and into the tube from a dinghy. It was pretty fiddley work but we finally got it aligned and pulled back up into the boat. I was shocked had how HEAVY the rudder was out of the water!!! The quadrant and cable installation is pretty straightforward. I took a lot of pictures to help get it back together.
I don’t know if this helps but I suspect our boats are pretty similar in design.