Lower Rudder Bearing:

Has anyone replaced the lower rudder post bearing (where the shoe is) on a
Baba? I understand that two bronze pins have to be knocked out and the shoe
lowered. How difficult is this to do and what kind of bearing should I find
at the bottom of the rudder post? The reason I'm looking into this bearing
replacement is because there is a significant amount of resistance to
turning the rudder from this bearing alone. I removed the upper bearing,
quadrant and flax packing in the rudder stuffing box so any resistance is
now only from the lower bearing.

 

Upper Rudder Bearing:

When the upper bearing was removed it was hard to turn the inner race by
hand. I thought this was normal until I brought the bearing to the supplier
and had him look at it. He said, in his opinion, this bearing is just about
seized and brought out a new one to show the difference. The new bearing was
free, smooth and easy turning compared to the 17 year old one I took out of
Gray Eagle. The counter guy said part of the problem was using the wrong
grease to lub the bearing over the years and part of the problem was age.
Grease gets dried out and hardens making the bearing difficult to turn. The
dried out grease is almost impossible to clean out but can be done. A new
upper rudder post bearing with the "pillow block" cost $53 so I decided to
just install a new one.

 

Richard Cassano

S/V Gray Eagle, Tashiba 40




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Received on Tue Jan 03 09:30:08 2006