Tight steering gear

[tony_brighton]

The 10-month old steering gear on our Bav34 seems to keep tightening up making it very stiff and producing unwholesome squealing and vibration from the rudder bearings.

The arrangement is a lower bearing in a gaiter (positive buoyancy rudder) which is not 'user maintained'. Adjustment is via the top bearing which has a collar tightened onto the threaded rudder post via a grub screw. This collar has a saw-cut through it which is pinched by the grub screw which applies pressure to the thread and in theory stops it rotating.

I've backed the collar off twice but it keeps tightening. I've called out Opal's (turned up last week after 4 weeks) who did pretty much the same thing but tightened the collar some more. This weekend - still squealing and vibrating although its not obvious that the collar tightened.

My obvious concerns are that its wearing the lower bearing and possible gear failure (twanging noises from the cables on the quadrant aren't reassuring when under load).

Anyone had a similar problem? Or got any ideas? We're off to the West Country in a couple of weeks and need it to be fixed.

 

[chippie]

Would it be possible to get two nuts of the same thread as your rudder post, and have them lock against each other. If there is not much room you could try to get two thin ones or have a machine shop cut one in half.

good luck.

 

[chrisc]

there is room to wirelock the nut on the bavaria, to the square shaft (also means you cannot
use emergency tiller) but if you did this and problem recurred it would mean that the nut is not
tightening and the problem is in the bearings. or vice-versa

 

[robp]

Although you note that the top bearing collar seems to be tightening, are you sure it's this? Had the same problem, (not Bav) and it was (and probably still will be), the cables. If they put enough, or sharp, bends in the sheaths, the inner will in time start binding through friction. In order to stop slippage on the chain/sprocket, they tend to put a fair amount of pressure on the cables, which exacerbates the problem. Try slackening the cables a little and see what effect.

 

[tony_brighton]

thanks for these - useful food for thought

 

[LadyInBed]

Re: Tight cables

My wheel was stiff when I got my boat. Dribbling some engine oil down the cable tubes worked wonders.