Bronze rudder heel fitting -where to buy

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ColinR

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 Oct 2001
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583
www.victoriashadow.co.uk
I'm trying to get off the bronze fitting on the back of my long keel that suports the bottom rudder bearing as it need a new bearing. Its well stuck on and having removed the bolts,bashing it is mangling the bronze but not shifting it at all. Unless anyone can suggest a better way I think I will resort to an angle grinder and cut it off. But where can I get a new one? Does anyone know of a supplier of this type of fitting? Many thanks, Colin
 
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its a new casting by the sound of it.
you will need to find a foundry

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That could get quite expensive and you will need to provide a pattern. IMO it would be well worth while contacting Northshore, who, I believe, were the builders.
BTW; are you absolutely sure that all of the mechanical fastenings are removed. My last boat had a cast bronze heel fitting retained by csk bronze machine screws, they were hard to see until the casting was "polished" with a flap wheel or similar, but once out the casting came away easily. It must be quite hard to glue metal to GRP as strongly as you seem to be experiencing.
 
try a hot air gun to warm the metal and use a soft metal drift (brass?) with a 4lb club hammer. Also, if you can, support the long keel under the bearing with a solid prop - quite a lot of the hammers energy is lost in slight flexing of the fibre glass structure if unsupported.
 
Treat the existing with kid gloves - you'll probably not be able to afford a replacement if you could find it.

Polish it thoroughly, to check you have removed all the fixings (look underneath).

If you can heat it with a hot-air gun and get sufficient continuous pressure (I've used jacks or even a tackle) it will probably come off.

Repeat - go easy on the hammer - it's easy enough to fill and re-machine the bearing, but getting an as-new replacement is most unlikely.

Your real problem is if someone in the past has fixed it with a PU sealant. If so only continuous force will move it.
 
Thanks for the advise. I cant see what to use to really get some pressure on it as I need to push down on it and there is nothing to use as a fulcrum for a lever or to set a jack up against. I'll try and think of something but I fear it has been put on with sikaflex or similar. Colin
 
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. I'll try and think of something

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One suggestion. Can you get something like a railway sleeper or steel RSJ directly under the fitting? If so, load it down with as much weight, eg sand-bags, as you can manage and pull or lever on that. Some sort of attachment will be required. Very solid support to the keel, close to the fitting, is necessary.
 
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I cant see what to use to really get some pressure on it as I need to push down on it and there is nothing to use as a fulcrum for a lever

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Think upside-down.
Can you set up a long lever underneath the fitting?
One end of the lever butts up against the bottom of the keel, forward of the fitting. Attach the fitting to the part of the lever that is now beneath it (chain, wire strop, flat bars and bolts, etc). Bear down on the outer end of the lever.
 
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