Lavezzi 40: Rudder Bearing Wear and Replacement

[Dragon Lady]

Does anyone have experience with replacing the rudder bearing on a Lavezzi 40?
My surveyor recommended replacing one but the vendor has said it is not warranted although they replaced the one on the other side.
As the boat is going to do a Pacific crossing I want everything to be right so I just want to know how big a job it is and what sort of wear limits apply?

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by Dragon Lady;My surveyor recommended replacing one but the vendor has said it is not warranted although they replaced the one on the other side.[/FONT

[/COLOR]

Understand that you paid the surveyor for the survey - follow what he recommends. Get a price from a yard to replace the rudder bearing - and deduct the amount from your final offer.

[stacy]

If its the same bearing as the JP3 bearing on our Leopard then it is not that difficult of a job. The bearing and housing are made in France so they need to be delivered. That was the most difficult part of the whole process. We replaced both of ours due to corrosion in the housing and swelling of the bearing that was so bad that it made steering difficult. This is on a 2007 boat. The manufacture actually recommends regular inspection and maintenence of these bearing and I think recommends replacement after so many yrs. I have the info somewhere and will try to locate it. It is also available on their web site. Do a google search on JP3 bearings

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Dragon Lady

... My surveyor recommended replacing one but the vendor has said it is not warranted although they replaced the one on the other side ...

The "vendor" who replaced (under warranty) the other bearing should be able to tell you exactly how big a job it is.

[Dragon Lady]

Thanks for the info, yes the vendor can give me the info I was just seeking a second opinion.

[muskoka]

Replacing the bearings is pretty easy - probably a half day while the boat is up on the hard. One thing to remember is that you'll need a fair amount of blocking under the keels to make sure the boat is sitting high enough to let you drop out the rudders and stocks. The two are about 2.5 meters long!

FP can send you a drawing if there isn't one in the owners manual. And don't forget to order the bearing well in advance.

[imagine2frolic]

What about dropping the rudder while in the water? Helped a man in Panama do that, and it took about 15 minutes........i2f

[Dragon Lady]

Thanks I've asked the vendor and JP3 if they can supply one to me.
Just waiting for a reply which should only take 2 weeks if past experience is anything to go on.

[imagine2frolic]

What about having it made local? Same man did that too. Where is the boat?........i2f

[Dragon Lady]

Finally got a reply from JP3 looks like you can just replace the inner race which sould be a much quicker job.
I think it could be made local but a bit of a tricky job to machine the outer radius so I think I'll just buy one.
The rudder makes quite a loud clunking noise at anchor so I think it's worth changing.

[imagine2frolic]

2 MONTHS TO FIND OUT YOU CAN GET ONE? Now that's the kind of service that makes me happy. Are you with the boat in St. Maarten? I would get a second one while you have the chance. If one is worn the chances are the second isn't far behind it.........i2f

[Dragon Lady]

Yeah to be fair I didn't chase them but it was second email saying I had a part number that got a response.
And now I'm still waiting for the follow up.
Sadly no longer in St Martin with boat and the other side was recently changed but it may be prudent to order 2 spares for next time as they don't seem to last that long despite the company's claims of superior design, blah blah blah.

[muskoka]

When we ordered our rudder bearing they got it to Hong Kong in about 10 days. They also sent a PDF of the design for the rudder stock so we could calculate how high the stern needed to be raised to drop out the whole assembly.

If it's taken 2 months then someone has dropped the ball - get on the phone to FP. Rudder bearings are relatively easy and cheap to fix and you shouldn't put this problem on the back burner. It'll only get more expensive and complicated to fix if you end up seizing something in your steering assembly.

[Dragon Lady]

Thanks muskoka, I've sent a follow up email asking for prices.
I've already replaced my steering cables with Dyneema as someone had fitted ordinary poly twin braid which was chaffing nicely.
I know it should be Vectran but I couldn't find any at the time and I believe the stretch factor is 0.7% vs 0.5% so I think I can live with that.
When the boat gets to Australia I'm going to move the blocks so the cables don't rub when they cross over, quite an amazing oversight in design that appears to have been around for some time.

[muskoka]

Dyneema should be fine. I installed rope leads where the cables cross over to prevent chaff. It was a 1 hour job. But this should have been done by the factory.