How do you remove JP3 laminated bearing housing

[Hasta_Luego]

I have a catamaran on which the lower rudder bearings are locking up. They are JP3 type 1 laminated into the hull. The aluminium utimately corrodes putting pressure on the bearing which then locks onto the rudder shaft. I previously cleaned the housings up and swapped out the plastic bearings but it only bought me 18 months.

I've purchased new parts but do not know how to remove the old housings.
Does anyone have any experience of having done this?

the part should be shown above

[tkeithlu]

Hmmmm. The builder laminated the bearing in place rather than using the bolt on version. I'm assuming that you have a rudder tube to bring the bearing above the waterline.

Can you see how the bearing case sits on the tube, such that you know where to cut the fiberglass, removing the bearing but leaving all the hull that it sat on? That's your goal. Cut it off, erring to hitting the bearing case rather than removing hull that you need to preserve. Clean it up, making a new foundation for the new bearing. Then build fiberglass layers around the case, one layer at a time, until you approximate the blanket the builder used around the original.

[tkeithlu]

Oops. Lower rudder bearing. Damn. That's going to mean more surgery.

Down at the bottom of this JP3 page is a link to a PDF on installation. It's informative, but the process seems to be the same - cut it off, and start over. You might find that you have effectively destroyed the tube or half tube in the process of removal, in which case JP3 does offer tubes.

Good luck with it.

https://www.jp3steering.com/en/rudde.../type-1and-15/