Seized rudder really tight

[paulieraw]

Looking at the pics, are you not better putting the tiller back on and trying to work the thing loose by applying force to the tiller? I'm not familiar with the boat, but I'm assuming you have a tube up top and a bearing at the bottom. Now the bottom bearing is off, any force applied to the rudder itself is just going to "jam" the shaft in the tube anyway surely?

I had considered this but the fitting is ally and I am nervous of shattering it. I have thought of fitting a square on a pipe but I don’t want to cause damage to the hull.

 

[paulieraw]

Well I have plenty of that. I will make a cup to hold the fluid and seal it on fill it and leave for a week.

Any idea if the top fitting is screwed on?

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

As someone else has said, diesel oil is equally as good for penetrating. I suggest that you install the tiller and try moving the shaft using the rudder and the tiller at the same time. its only held by two plastic bearings, top and bottom, but you can also get a lot of mud/rubbish between the two bearings sometimes if the bottom bearing had failed.

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

24 hours if it's a real problem area. Mainly because I'm old enough to be bone idle and would rather leave it to work than break a sweat.