Rudder Bearings Hunter 40 Legend 1988 Replacement

[Mike Crothers]

My steering quadrant is rubbing on the stop angles I assume due to the slow wearing of the plastic collar that is bolted on the rudder shaft that I believe holds the rudder up.



The plastic wearing surface is also greatly out of line with the shaft support bearing, not sure if that is wear or was just installed that way. It has lasted 30 years.



When the boat was out of the water I didn't sense any play in the rudder so I believe the other bearing in the rudder tube is still OK. The rudder does have a 1/2" gap between the top of the rudder and the hull which I assume is the settlement of the bearing.



Does anyone have words of advice on sourcing and performing this type of work, I would think other production boats from the late 80's would be built in a similar fashion.

[tkeithlu]

Spade rudder, shaft appoximately vertical, hull rises substantially to the stern, so forward is to the right in your photographs, right?

Then, I've got to think that there is considerable undetected wear involved, with the rudder shifting aft in the stock and the top cap getting well out of alignment. How much is due to use and how much might be due to a possible impact is not clear. The bruising of the cap on the forward side looks suspiciously like impact damage. It would not surprise me to find that the shaft is bent.

The next question is whether it matters at this point, if the wear does exist. With no leak, no observed slop in the wheel, no banging as pressure on the sides of the rudder changes, and no circumnavigation planned, maybe you just keep track of it until your next major on-shore.

In the meantime, you might consult Marlow-Hunter regarding replacement parts, should disassembly at that time show that you really need to do something about it.

[tkeithlu]

Good morning, Mike.

What was the outcome on this? No one else spoke up, so you were limited to my frequently faulty advice and counsel. Is the rudder OK for now? Did it turn out to be impact damage?

[S/V Illusion]

Old post but if anyone still cares, these Delrin bearings wear and should be replaced as needed. Search for delrin sleeved bearings.

[bensolomon]

I have 1990 legend, but my quadrant looks nothing like that. My post is mounted completely vertical. I have a similar bushing supporting the quadrant.

[wingssail]

Mike Crothers, if you are still out there. This old thread just showed up today for me so I have just now looked at it. Perhaps you have already put this to bed. If not, I have some thoughts:

You mentioned that you found no play in the rudder when the boat was out of the water. This implies to me that the "out of alignment" is not caused by slop in the bearings. Being that far out of alignment would only happen with a lot of slop in the bearings which assumedly you would feel. There would be steering issues as well. I suspect that the bearings have only normal wear.

Next, since the rudder shaft is vertical but appears angled in the photos, your photos were not taken with the camera horizontal.

I think what happened here occurred at the factory or at such time after that when the rudder was removed and new bearings and surfaces were installed. In any case this is an old problem.

The causative issue is that the delrin wedge upon which the plastic collar rests is not properly shaped. The top surface of that wedge should be perpendicular to the rudder shaft so that the collar rests on it all the way around. Because of the improper shape of the wedge only the front part of the collar is resting on the flat wedge surface. The only solution is removal of the wedges and installation of new one cut to fit, and installation a new collar although since it appears to have been working with only a small percentage of contact, probably it would work just fine with the remaining, unworn, portion if it was all flat against the wedge. But I would replace the collar.

Any machine shop can make these parts if you can provide the exact dimensions.

Of course the rudder has to be removed and these wedges (is that the bearing itself? I think not.) removed. Not rocket science; you could do it yourself, or any yard worker with a brain

[Mike Crothers]

Thanks for the great replies and sorry I was not better at seeing them.

I replaced the bolts on the quadrant provide complements of Edson, I rotated the top collar bearing 180 degrees and reinstalled to move the wear point.

It was obvious when I had taken the steering cables off that the reason for the out of plumb was the bearing was worn allowing some forward movement of the rudder shaft. The cables held the shaft forward and the play was not observable until the cables were removed.
At this point I have it all back together with new steering cables and chain and it seems to be fine. Replacing the bearing at the base of the rudder post sounds like a big project that I will have to face some day but the bearing material wears very slowly so it may last a long time.

If anyone has replaced the bearings I would love to hear of your experience.