My rudder has needed an overhaul for a long time. Almost on the first day I nearly cut one of the control lines off by dropping the blade and catching it between the blade and stock. Perfect guillotine. I have had a knot in the line ever since. There is also a nasty notch in the trailing edge where it has hit the transom when raised.
The whole rudder head also moves back and forth too much. It swings on two machine screws. Each only moves only slightly, but they move in opposite directions, which doubles the effect. For a long time I have wanted to replace them with a single threaded rod, acting as a long pintle through both fittings. I have now done this, with less effort than I feared.
I have used nyloc nuts on an 8mm threaded stainless steel rod. Getting it up through the bottom fitting was straight forward. Lining up everything to get it on through the upper one was much harder, as everything had to be perfectly in line and the rod tapped through with a mallet. Initially I just could not line everything up. Then had a brain wave. Fitted the upper screw back in place, from above. That held the top parts in line. Then I tapped the rod gently upwards. It pushed the screw up and, as hoped, it followed the screw through and popped out at the top. One more tap sent it up far enough to get a second nut on top. All now swings nicely, with much less play. Rudder blade next.
Proper job! Good improvement... in the second and last picture is that rust from that bolt head??
ReplyDeleteYes, odd bits of stainless steel do seen to rust. I don't really understand it. On the bolt that the rudder blade ivot on, the bolt is fine, but the nut is quite rusty. But it all seems pretty superficial so I hope it is OK
ReplyDeleteIf it's sound no need to worry.... someone told me once (so may be a pile..) that stainless steel can have microscopic particles of normal steel in it, it's probably that which is causing the rust in this case .... apparently it's also common in newish s/s rigging....
ReplyDeleteIf some of the stainless steel is rusting then the problem is more than likely that there has been an unintentional use of different grades of steel. The only stainless steel suitable for marine use is the steel labelled as 316 stainless or sometimes labelled A4 stainless or 316/A4 stainless. Sometimes a nut or bolt from A2 stainless can get mixed in and after a while will certainly rust.
ReplyDeleteI think I have noticed that sometimes the nut gets rusty whilst the bolt stays clean. I suspect it is due to the nut being the wrong grade of stainless, or possibly not stainless at all.
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