Need advice on removing rudders

[Sultans_Kapitein]

Hi all, anyone have any experience with dismounting the rudder shown in this photo

The boat is steel and of dutch construction, there are two rudders and they need dismounting and cleaning up. The 'peg' on top is a rather crude 'key' to prevent the actuator arm slipping. Any help most gratefully accepted.

Mal

 

[1955patric]

Looking at the photo I would think the procedure should go somthing like this:
1) place a support under the rudder to take it weight when it is released.
2) Remove tiller arm
3) Slaken the gland nut right off
4) remove grub screws or grooved pin from collar below tiller arm ( its hard to tell which from the photo) and remove collar.
5) Lower rudder from outside the boat.

It would be beneficial to clean all the paint off the rudder stock above the gland so that it will slide through without too much resitance. Not sure how much your rudder weighs, but you should be cautious if it weighs more than you can comfortably lower to the ground. Try lifting the rudder from the top to get an idea of the weight. If it is heavy then you may need to use some kind of tackle or jacking arrangement to lower it to the ground.

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly but I would renew the gland packing before the boat goes back in the water.

 

[Sultans_Kapitein]

Thanks for that. I had a feeling that this would be the way to do it but thought I would ask advice before starting on the job, just in case I had completely miss read the construction. I had been lead to believe that because of they way in which they are installed ther would not be any glands or packing, other than grease that is.
Thanks once again, I shall make a start on this tomorrow.

Mal

 

[wotayottie]

there may well not be any packing glands if the rudder tube top is well above the water line.

 

[1955patric]

Looking at the arrangement below the pedestal I would say this is a gland. Top nut is the gland follower and the grease cup will probably inject grease into the top bearing. May be wrong. Let us know how you get on.

 

[rogerthebodger]

It look like the peg is a kind of key to attach the tiller arm to the rudder shaft.

This needs to be pulled out, several ways come to mind.

1) weld a threaded bolt to the top and jack it out with spacer tube and nut.

2) get a taper lock bush and pulley boss to grip peg to pull out.

3) if those don't work drill out the peg.

Once the peg is removed the rudder and tiller arm can be twisted off or pulled of with pulley extractors.