Rudder Repairs

[Brian S]

I have a 1980 Catalina 30
The rudder post is sloppy. I have researched repairs and it looks like Catalina Direct sales a epoxy product to fill space between post and housing.
Has anyone tried this product or know if this is correct repair?
The boat is in Mexico so I need the correct repair product for this. Any help would be very welcome. Brian

[coopec43]

I'm not sure what you mean by "The rudder post is sloppy" But while researching the problem I came across these links. (I suppose you've seen them already?

Is the ss rudder post sloppy in the bearings or is it the tube that holds the bearings that is the problem?

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ost-45728.html


https://www.google.com.au/search?q=1...h=528&dpr=1.65

https://shop.sailboatowners.com/prod...5/Foam+Rudders

Clive

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Brian S

I have a 1980 Catalina 30
The rudder post is sloppy. I have researched repairs and it looks like Catalina Direct sales a epoxy product to fill space between post and housing.
Has anyone tried this product or know if this is correct repair?
The boat is in Mexico so I need the correct repair product for this. Any help would be very welcome. Brian

Brian--

We had a similar problem with our prior boat. The fix involved dropping the rudder so that the shaft can be coated with a bond breaker and, while it's lowered, drilling a series of holes in the rudder stock shaft gallery. One then repositions the rudder, makes a "Tinker's Dam" around the bottom of the shaft/gallery with plastic modeling clay--the kind kids play with--and then injecting very slightly thickened epoxy into the shaft gallery which flows around the shaft, filling the voids. Depending upon the length of your shaft gallery, you may need to do the procedure in several "lifts". In our case, I used West Epoxy as the metering pumps made getting the proportions correct and the West light weight "micro balloon" filler allowed us to get the mix to a suitable thickness for injection with West nylon syringes. The holes drilled in the shaft gallery are, of course, filled and sealed by the epoxy. When the stuff starts to "leak out" of the weep holes, cover them with a blob of the modeling clay used for the Tinker's Dam. The fixed worked a treat and I understand the boat is still going strong 20 years later.

FWIW...

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

...West light weight "micro balloon" filler allowed us to get the mix to a suitable thickness for injection...

Do NOT use microballoons for thickening! It creates an extremely weak, lightweight, non-structural mix suitable only for fairing small imperfections prior to painting.

Use a high strength filler for any load bearing application.

[john61ct]

Such as?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

Do NOT use microballoons for thickening! It creates an extremely weak, lightweight, non-structural mix suitable only for fairing small imperfections prior to painting.

Use a high strength filler for any load bearing application.

This varies a lot. Depends entirely on how much microballoons, silica, high density filler or glass fibers you mix in.

Also depends on the exact application.

In this case, he's filling in a rudder bearing or sleeve to take up slop. A microballoon mix is ok to add some gap filling in this situation where the actual structural work is being done by the existing bearing/sleeve. It's nice and slippery too.

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by Chotu

This varies a lot. Depends...

What part of "Do NOT use microballoons" don't you understand?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

What part of "Do NOT use microballoons" don't you understand?

The part where you don't know exactly what you're taking about since you aren't taking the application into account, tough guy.

Fillers are a spectrum. A mix of many. Your blanket statement doesn't cover every application.

Microballoons can be used as part of a mix on almost anything.

[Thumbs Up]

Cabo sil (west 406), you can also add some graphite powder (west 423) to that mix for its lubricating properties.