[C320-list] Steering "clunk"

[clburti at gmail.com]

There is no bearing. Your boat isn’t really old enough to be that worn unless you leave your wheel brake loose and the tide/wave/wake action at your slip causes your rudder to constantly move back and forth in response. There is a nut and bolt (4” x 5/8”?) going through the top of the rudder to hold it in place. If the nut is loose or missing, the post might make noise.


Elliptical wear of the rudder tube and post was a common problem for those of us that had 30+ year old boats built in the 1970’s with tillers. The best solution short of a rebuild was to cut strips from plastic milk bottles and slip them down the tube until the shaft was shimmed sufficiently to stop ‘clunking’. The PE plastic is slick and self lubricating and when it wears down, you just add more.


Do not let some idiot talk you into pouring epoxy down the tube to ‘rebuild’ it. The concept was to make a dam around the rudder post near the top with waxed line or tape, wax the post with mold release wax so that the epoxy wouldn’t bond to the post, re-insert the rudder into the tube and pour epoxy into the top of the tube so that when it cures it creates a bushing. While it sounds logical, the shafts wear elliptically, not evenly round as you might suppose. Thus, when the epoxy cures, the egg shaped cross section of the rudder shaft becomes almost impossible to turn even though it isn’t bonded to the epoxy bushing.



Fair Winds
Chris Burti
Commitment
Catalina 320, #867



From: Kaare Wold
Sent: ‎Friday‎, ‎August‎ ‎16‎, ‎2013 ‎12‎:‎39‎ ‎AM
To: C320-List at Catalina320.com

Skippers,  This is our first season with our C320.  2003 #945.  We are 
experiencing a noticible "clunking" noise when moving the wheel from left to 
right or visa versa.   Inspecting the steering cables, sheave on the rudder 
post did not show any abnormal condition.  Further troubleshooting had us 
remove the emergency tiller access plate that clearly revealed the problem. 
The metal rudder shaft appears to have excessive play at the top that 
results in the shaft striking the rudder tube when the steering wheel 
direction is changed.  Surprisingly, there does not appear to be any sort of 
bearing (or maybe mine is totally worn out) at the top of the shaft.  I may 
add that this clunking noise is not noticible if steering gently or slowly. 
However, a rapid change in wheel direction results in this noise.
Has anybody else experienced this noise and have any suggestions for a 
remedy.  Thanks for your comments.
Kaare Wold   Sheet Music, #945