Stiff Steering Wheel

[balbontin]

Hi - Any idea why the steering wheel is so stiff on the 411 after a while. Planning to take the boat out of the water in 2 weeks and would love to fix this problem. Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[NYSail]

Check cables, pulleys, grease, make sure break pads are clean, Quadra wires are not over-tight....... last boat I bought a rebuild kit and changed out everything.

Greg

 

[Capt jgw]

Check the stuffing box, it's similar to a prop shaft box. I had one seize to the shaft once, when I turned the wheel it was very stiff, I found the only movement i was getting was twisting the hose and then spinning the box in the hose. That would have ended very badly of I let it go long enough to split or tear the hose.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

When checking cables also check sheaves to make sure everything is running properly

 

[Ron20324]

Hi - Any idea why the steering wheel is so stiff on the 411 after a while. Planning to take the boat out of the water in 2 weeks and would love to fix this problem. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Did you release the wheel brake?

 

[jssailem]

Your boat has that beautiful deep rudder hanging on the stern. Did a previous owner back into a sandbar and put a kink in the rudder shaft?

Might only be able to assess with boat out of water. And then only by wiggling and climbing into inaccessible voids to inspect.

 

[Bluenose]

Is the wheel attached to the auto helm?

 

[arf145]

Did you release the wheel brake?

When I first sailed my 331 away from the previous owner's dock, I experienced this phenomenon. In my case it was indeed the wheel brake.

 

[balbontin]

Is the wheel attached to the auto helm?

Hi. No, not attached to auto helm.

 

[balbontin]

Did you release the wheel brake?

Yes, wheel brake fully released.

 

[Kings Gambit]

Read Mike Hollingsworth’s post #1 from April, 2007 in the Bavaria Owners Forum. It might apply to your Beneteau as well.

Rudder bearing

Recently I had a problem with my sterring being very difficult to turn the wheel due to resistance. This, I assumed to be a bearing issue because it came on gradually over last summers season. Over the winter I replaced the top rudder bearing (not cheap from Bavaria)only to find that the problem...

forums.sailboatowners.com

 

[SFS]

You said it is not connected to the autohelm. We encountered a situation on our H#! where the autohelm was off, electrically, and the wheel brake was disengaged, but turning the wheel became difficult rather suddenly. The drive belt inside the unit was creating friction. Took us an hour or so to find the problem, as we started with the more logical suspects - cables, pulleys, sheaves, connections, and grease.

 

[Bluenose]

Yes, that was what I was referring to. I had to get rid of the autohelm as it could not be repaired.

 

[BrianRobin]

Your boat has that beautiful deep rudder hanging on the stern. Did a previous owner back into a sandbar and put a kink in the rudder shaft?

Might only be able to assess with boat out of water. And then only by wiggling and climbing into inaccessible voids to inspect.

That model should have a solid glass rudder post, don't think that would kink, but likely would break

 

[SCFoster]

This is what Tides Marine sent me today for a stiff helm in this thread:

The rudder is composite with carbon fiber running through it and through the post.
The rudder post is square both top and bottom.
Where the bearings are the post is sleeved with another two sections of carbon fiber going square to round top and bottom.

The bearings are in the rudder tube. Note: leave them be do not remove.

What you are describing is deteriorating of the lower sleeve. Is my guess based on what you have said and no photo of the rudder out of the boat.

The repair is to “carefully grind down the lower sleeve until you are clear of the voids-and the expansion.” Sometimes looks like osmosis.

Then carefully build back up with epoxy maybe some S glass if really deep. No easy task as it needs to be as round as possible. Often takes several dry fits-and you don’t want it too tight or it will bind under higher loads.

The final epoxy coat is best to finish out with very fine paper so very smooth is what you are after. The bearing surfaces are this sleeve and the UHMW bearing in the tube. I don’t recommend you replace the bearing.

 

[balbontin]

Check cables, pulleys, grease, make sure break pads are clean, Quadra wires are not over-tight....... last boat I bought a rebuild kit and changed out everything.

Greg

Thanks for your reply. removed the pins and the quadrant and the units still will not come down. Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jefffors]

My 1999 411 was stiff, too. We had to take the boat out of the water for a day and we dropped the rudder and cleaned and sanded the drum on the rudder shaft. We also thoroughly cleaned all surfaces the shaft and drum ride in. The wheel movement is easy now. The cockpit drains flow through the area where the rudder is mounted and dirty water is always flowing there, so it's important to keep it clean.