Stainless experts, please convene.

[Roger Long]

I got the steering gear back together and I now have the opposite problem. I can barely move the axle. I doubt it will steer at any speed below about 12 knots.

I noticed while putting the bearings on the shaft that they were a very tight fit over the end portion where the quadrant clamps on. I gave the running surfaces a good polish and the bearings were loose enough on those that I could feel the movement. Compression in the main tube has evidently reduced the diameter. I thought the resistance I was feeling was the area under the quadrant portion and it would free up once in final position. However, once assembled, it is very, very tight. It's so tight, in fact, that I'm not sure how I'm going to get it apart.

Groan.

 

[RichH]

Get yourself a cylinder brake cylinder hone and go at it to relieve the bearing ID clearance, using soapy WATER as the hone's 'lubricant' ... keep the hone running 'slow' so you dont overheat and smear the UHMWPE.
Precise measure the ID of the bearing housing, the bearing OD and ID will be necessary. The 'interference' of the bearing in the housing should be 0.002 ± 0.001" per inch of housing ID . for the installed bearing clearance ... and that interference will 'close down' the ID of the bearing when installed. Installed bearing - shaft clearance 0.001 - .003" per inch of shaft diameter (on a true/flat/non-wavy shaft surface). Do ALL the 'calculations' and verify measurements before you install.

 

[Roger Long]

Get yourself a cylinder brake cylinder hone...

My first thought as well. However, I was thinking of taking a bit off the inside of the S.S. tube the bearings press into. The forward bearing is free enough on the shaft to slide up and down under their own weight and the aft can be moved easily with a single finger. It's the drive fit into the main tube that is compressing them to reduce the I.D. critically.

Taking some off the O.D. of the plastic would also reduce the compression size reduction and be more tolerant of mistakes. However, I don't have the set up to do it easily. I can run a hone inside the mounting tube pretty easily with a drill. I'm not sure I want to reduce that thin wall tube very much though.

It's the usual conundrum. I'm sure Cape Horn will get this right if I give them time. I can have if right by Monday evening spending a couple hundred bucks or so at the machine shop down the street. I'm not going anywhere for a couple weeks anyway so I'll wait to see what Cape Horn says.

 

[Roger Long]

In the end, it came down, as it so often does, to careful hand work. Yves emailed back and suggested sandpaper glued to a dowel checked in a drill to hog out the inside of the bearings. Since I had such a perfect fit on the shaft, I was reluctant to do that.

I glued 220 and 150 grit sandpaper to each side of an oak block and spent a reasonably pleasant three hours sitting in the shade of the boat sanding around the outside of the bearings and trial fitting in the tube. When I got the bearings to where I could start them by hand and finish up with a light tapping, everything fit perfectly.

While I was doing this, the couple next door were installing a new shaft in their boat working inside and outside talking by cell phone and sending pictures back and forth to assist their explanations. Clever.