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Rudder Bearing Replacement F-30

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:59 pm
by mike cunningham
When I had the boat briefly out of the water six weeks ago I did a quick check of bottom and rudder. The rudder play was on the order of 1/8 to 1/4 inch forward and aft and port to starboard with the rudder centered amidships. I called the boatyard owner over to take a look. He though this was too much play, quite a bit too much according to him. On the Transpac I had some issues with rudder tightness about 500 nm out. I attributed this to lubrication but never completely convinced myself that was the real problem. I sailed another 1700 miles out and the delivery crew sailed 2700 miles back so it certainly was not critical. I recounted this to the boatyard guy and he felt tightness could very well be symptomatic of excessively worn bearings as the rudder began to get out of column. Of course he has a bit of a conflict of interest because he would love to do the replacement job for me for around $3000!!

I used to have a detailed bearing replacement procedure from TPI (Mark Edwards sent me a copy back in the day). Like a complete idiot I seem to have lost it. Many house moves since I got the document.

So three questions

What do you think about the amount of play? Is it too much?

Does anyone have the TPI bearing replacement procedure?

If I do replace the bearings I was thinking of going with the Jefa roller bearings which look bulletproof albeit expensive. Any thoughts on these?