Steering Lube 41s5
- Thread starter georgetheleo
- Start date
What makes you think lubricating something is going to make it easier? Are you familiar with the cable steering system parts?
Just partially thru my stiff steering process. We have B411 1999. Not sure the steering is an exact match. Here's what I did/found:
1. Loosened the quadrant steering cables to determine if the problem is in the rudder or the steering/wheel system.
2. I determined that my steering was uniformly stiff thru the whole rotation.
3. Confirmed that my rudder was a carbon fiber Tides system.
4. Removed the quadrant bolt and carefully pried under the quadrant close to the rudder post taking care to use a piece of wood against the quadrant underside (since mine is carbon fiber and didn't want to damage it)
5. tied a rope thru the rudder/quadrant bolt hole to keep control of the rudder.
6. removed the rudder thrust bearing bolt taking care to retain the two SS metal sleeves in the bearing bolt holes
7. Lifted the thrust bearing to inspect - mine was improperly distorted probably by a previous (PO) rudder repair attempt
8. Used the emergency tiller to determine that the stiffness was still present.
9. We were hauling the boat for the winter so I dropped the rudder as it was hauled.
I moved the rudder back and forth with a wood block on the ground under the rudder in case the rudder dropped.
The rudder was stiff coming out until the upper bearing parts were disengaged.
The lower bearing is plastic inside the rudder housing and FRP on the rudder. The FRP showed only a relatively small contact area - it was not uniform - I am still assessing this issue.
The Upper bearing is "plastic" on both the rudder housing and the rudder post. There was a fair amount of crud in the bearing. After cleaning, both the housing bearing and the rudder post bearing surfaces were scored and raised.
My conclusion is that the dirt accumulated in the upper bearing and scored the surfaces. The raised ridges closesd the bearing clearances and resulted in stiffness.
That's all for now. More to come I posted my reply with pics as a new thread also.
1. Loosened the quadrant steering cables to determine if the problem is in the rudder or the steering/wheel system.
2. I determined that my steering was uniformly stiff thru the whole rotation.
3. Confirmed that my rudder was a carbon fiber Tides system.
4. Removed the quadrant bolt and carefully pried under the quadrant close to the rudder post taking care to use a piece of wood against the quadrant underside (since mine is carbon fiber and didn't want to damage it)
5. tied a rope thru the rudder/quadrant bolt hole to keep control of the rudder.
6. removed the rudder thrust bearing bolt taking care to retain the two SS metal sleeves in the bearing bolt holes
7. Lifted the thrust bearing to inspect - mine was improperly distorted probably by a previous (PO) rudder repair attempt
8. Used the emergency tiller to determine that the stiffness was still present.
9. We were hauling the boat for the winter so I dropped the rudder as it was hauled.
I moved the rudder back and forth with a wood block on the ground under the rudder in case the rudder dropped.
The rudder was stiff coming out until the upper bearing parts were disengaged.
The lower bearing is plastic inside the rudder housing and FRP on the rudder. The FRP showed only a relatively small contact area - it was not uniform - I am still assessing this issue.
The Upper bearing is "plastic" on both the rudder housing and the rudder post. There was a fair amount of crud in the bearing. After cleaning, both the housing bearing and the rudder post bearing surfaces were scored and raised.
My conclusion is that the dirt accumulated in the upper bearing and scored the surfaces. The raised ridges closesd the bearing clearances and resulted in stiffness.
That's all for now. More to come I posted my reply with pics as a new thread also.