Lewmar steering wheel Woodruff key corrosion

Halo

Halo

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I had a struggle to remove my Lewmar folding steering wheel yesterday. With a help from two friends it finally came off and I found that the Woodruff key had rusted badly.
I now have a dilemma because I don’t want to fit another ferrous one and I don’t want to fit one that will shear off easily.
Has anyone had a similar problem and come up with a solution?
 
It seems a stainless 316/A4 one seems sensible. I could just cover a ferrous one with white grease or lanolin but it goes against the grain to fit an unstable material on a boat's steering.
Over the years I have developed a saying which I quote to myself when facing a dilema over a job - this is "if a jobs worth doing its worth doing in stainless" this refers not only to the material but to doing the best job I can.
 
Halo said:
It seems a stainless 316/A4 one seems sensible. I could just cover a ferrous one with white grease or lanolin but it goes against the grain to fit an unstable material on a boat's steering.
Over the years I have developed a saying which I quote to myself when facing a dilema over a job - this is "if a jobs worth doing its worth doing in stainless" this refers not only to the material but to doing the best job I can.
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Stainless steel can corrode in the absence of oxygen, and there's not a lot of oxygen inside a tight steering wheel hub. An ordinary ferrous Woodruff key with a smear of grease should be fine for much longer than you'll ever own the boat. There's virtually no stress on a steering wheel hub.
 
pvb said:
Stainless steel can corrode in the absence of oxygen, and there's not a lot of oxygen inside a tight steering wheel hub.
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That's quite an interesting statement but misleading. Yes it can corrode but in this application it is very very unlikely to a point of no consideration is necessary.

On Mai Mel thread when he was trying to remove a coupling from his stainless steel shaft is under the same conditions as a steering wheel hub and the shaft.

index.php


This is his shaft and shows very little corrosion if any.

The corrosion you get with stainless steel with the absence of oxygen is mainly you have a tight fitting joint in an oxygen starved sea water environment.

The corrosion prevention on stainless is due to the chromium oxide which develops in the presence of oxygen , so if either the chromium oxide layer must be broken at the same time the no oxygen is available to recreate the chromium oxide protective layer. This protection layer is created very quickly.

The other way is if an electrolytic corrosive action takes.

The joint of a prop and its shaft submerged in seawater is one place.
A stainless steel screw in a sea water environment

Vyv has experienced crevice corrosion on his PSS stainless steel rotor. I also have the same type of seal/rotor without any issues in operation for over 10 years.
 
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Rogershaw said:
That's quite an interesting statement but misleading. Yes it can corrode but in this application it is very very unlikely to a point of no consideration is necessary.
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In what way is it misleading? I basically said exactly the same as you, no consideration is necessary. Just as with steel keys.
 
Thanks for the information guys.

On reflection oxygen must be present for the old one to rust so badly. This means that a Stainless one will not corrode.

On the other hand stainless steel is likely to gall - that is stick to other s s . I have suffered from this in the past and don’t want the wheel stuck on for that reason either. Does anyone know what the shaft is made of ?
 
Halo said:
Thanks for the information guys.

On reflection oxygen must be present for the old one to rust so badly. This means that a Stainless one will not corrode.

On the other hand stainless steel is likely to gall - that is stick to other s s . I have suffered from this in the past and don’t want the wheel stuck on for that reason either. Does anyone know what the shaft is made of ?
Click to expand...

Is there any reason to think it is not stainless steel? (My Whitlock Constellation certainly is)
 
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Halo said:
Thanks for the information guys.

On reflection oxygen must be present for the old one to rust so badly. This means that a Stainless one will not corrode.

On the other hand stainless steel is likely to gall - that is stick to other s s . I have suffered from this in the past and don’t want the wheel stuck on for that reason either. Does anyone know what the shaft is made of ?
Click to expand...

We all has seen galling of stainless as I have but mainly on screw threads where the thread is dry and the pressure is high and the connected items move in relation to each other under the high pressure

Thi is unlikely in the fitting of the steering onto a shaft with a wood ruff key.

The point you need to be careful with guling id the a stainless steel nut on the stainless steel shaft when tightening the steel wheel on.

On my internal steering wheel I drilled a hole through the nut and put a rod through the hole so the nut is tightened by hand and no spanner is needed.

A smear of of vaseline or wool fat would prevent any galling of the nut and the shaft thread.
 
pvb said:
In what way is it misleading? I basically said exactly the same as you, no consideration is necessary. Just as with steel keys.
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Misleading by stating that stainless corrodes in the application the OP stated.

A very close fitting were the close fitting is subject to a oxygen depleted water inside the joint.

As Halo stated if the joint in question was oxygen depelter the carbon steel key would not rust.

This is a classic case of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing as posted by coopec referring to the dunning kruger syndrome
 
Halo,
I found your question after a Google search, and the YBW forum has valuable sailing info so I joined.
Last weekend my wheel broke off in my hands. The reason was obvious and was the problem you mention. My brass or bronze allow steering tapered shaft on my Uflex T71FC box was destroyed exactly at the location at the end of the iron woodruff key. Visual evidence is attached. The damage was hidden from me because it was under the bezel. When I removed the bezel 1/2 cup of rust fell to the deck.
A stainless key or maybe brass would have lasted forever. Thanks for posting this topic.
Opie in Wilmington, NC.
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[url=https://ibb.co/hgmyDGf][/URL]


 
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