Wheel Bent Any ideas?

[PGIJon]

While tying to install the raymarine wheel pilot on my h34, I have discovered that the wheel is lopsided. It's seriously bent. At one point it is bent out by 1/2 an inch and at the opposite point the wheel it is bent in by a 1/2 inch. One full inch deviation which make the install of the wheel autopilot impossible.

Any ideas how to straighten it. I tried to manually do it whiile on the pedestel. I had my son hold the pedestel while I was pulling. All that to no avail. Any ideas other than a new wheel?

Thanks
Jon

 

[Benny17441]

No experience with such a situation but the likely reason it probably got bent is that someone ran into it with a force exceeding his weight. Wether he weighed 175 lbs or 200 lbs the force probably was in a magnitude exceeding 250 lbs. Its no wonder you could not produce enough force to straighten it out. I would remove it and take it to a machine shop and ask them to do it. With a good press or jig to hold it down and a good pry bar and the application of heat it shoulod go back into the place. Go ahead and price a new destroyer wheel of the same size to determine if the quote you may get from a machine shop is reasonable.

 

[Steve Dion]

Jon: You may want to try a salvage yard. It may be cheaper than trying to restore the existring one.

 

[Dan Johnson]

Jon...

Take it off and to a "prop shop" near your location. They have experience in dealing with stainless metal bent into unusual shapes so trueing up a wheel should be within their capability.