How much play should the rudder have inside its housing. What is this plastic washer you can make out of milk jugs. My 5.2 has about a 1/4 inch play. I have my ruuders off to paint the transom and now is a good time to fix them.
There shoudl be little or no side to side play once you have tightened the bushing in place. You can make plastic washers using milk jugs and scissors or use nylon washers from the local hardware store to shim the boards in the castings. Delrin or UHMW would probably be even better but the other two are easily obtainable and work fine.
Remove as much play as possible without restricting the up/down pivoting of hte boards.
I need to do the same with mine as soon as I get the opportunity.
edited by: Wolfman, Jul 03, 2010 - 09:40 PM
These are for Hobie but should work for Nacras
i did mine with stainless steele fender washers(same size,@.30cents ea.)from lowes...it only took 1 on each side to take out much slop. tighten the nut until the rudder won't swing down on its own weight then loosen a little until rudder drops on its own weight. now you can adjust tow and rake properly. i would put the rudders back on to work on, then you can make all the adjustments at one time(easier to fool with while hanging on the boat). it makes a huge difference when those rudders are right!
edited by: coastrat, Jul 04, 2010 - 09:52 AM
By using stainless washers aren't you transferring the wear from the plastic washer to the rudder or the housing?
SS also means you have to watch out for corrosion on the castings.
Corrosion is a consideration, but I think the 'wearing washer sized indentations in my rudders and castings' problem is where its at. I'm not sure it's the best idea even if grease the heck out of them.
But then if it works for you, what the hey. I'm not 100% sure how the bearing surfaces work inside the castings (since I haven't pulled them appart yet), for all I know the washers could mate perfectly against the bushing and never really touch the rudders at all.
D.
If they did not touch the rudder, they would not take the slack out of the system. In Florida grease and sand make a good abrasive. The plastic washer are soft and slippery compared to the rudder and housing.
edited by: skarr1, Jul 04, 2010 - 02:47 PM
the rudders don't move that much, just up and down a 1/4 turn at a time and they don't turn fast. corrosion hasn't happend on mine yet nor any visible signs of wear. the big 1 1/2" fender washers dispurse the load across a bigger surface reducing friction. there is not much tension on the washers at all, almost none, they act as a shim more than anything. mine work great with no side affects.
the idea of having two plastic washers is so they slip on each other instead of your rudders & castings while takn up slop,but a nice smooth stainless washer sounds good to me as well, just service w/ a dry lube b-4 installing if your worried about sand & corrosion.