Trojan Boat Forum

O.K. Boys, I need somehelp with this one.

This 10 Meter is lift kept.

When in the water, at the dock, the FWD bilge is the lowest of the three bilge compartments.

The aft bilge and forward bilge are connected via the keel

The A/C condensate dumps into the fwd bilge.

In summer with the AC on, the bilge pump handles the water.

I have been suspecting for some time now that the rudder seals have been getting worse and are allowing sea water intrusion.

one has a bit of "play" in it.

8 or 9 years ago I got a couple of bushings from John Leed at Marine Tech and it seems that this spring I will attempt this project on the lift via the dink.

Is there a "packing" in there?

There are two large "nuts" at the base of each rudder and a removable cover at each on the transom.

This is something I know NOTHING about and any advice or hand holding would be helpful.

RWS

Yes there is packing on the rudder shafts like on the prop shafts. Remove the packing like you would on the prop shafts, (dig it out). I will be doing mine in a month or so on my F36. I think yours are easier to do than mine. I have to remove my rudder port because its leaking around the base of it. Good luck. Sure wouldn't mind seeing a couple of pic's of your set up.

Is the packing installed from the top or thebottom?

Do the rudders/shafts need to be completely removed?

Doing this with the boat above the water and dropping "stuff" into the d rink is NOT a particularly exciting thought for me.

RWS

The packing should be on top. Yes you will probably have to remove the rudder to replace the bushing. I know what your saying about the drink! I replaced a gimbal bearing on a lift once and the guy helping me dropped one of the outdrive mounting nuts in the drink! We found it though! Do yourself a favor and put the gor-tex packing back in when you are done.

The components on the mid cabin are:

1) transom insert exposes the rudder shaft and nylon "collar"which rudder goes through. There isn't any packing in there. The only place that water can come through would be the bolts that attach at this point. I removed them when I had the rudders out and ran some 4200 around the head(s). You can see them inside the hull, two on each side if I recall. I beefed up the swim platform brackets while I was in there

2) Do the nylon (actually some other material) bushings look like a tophat.. without the top?

If so, those go under the tiller arms but have nothing to do with water instrusion as they sit up really high.

If you have a back and forth "clunk" when grabbing the top of the rudder and trying to and move it around, these will help a lot. In my case, one bushing wasn't quite enough so I slightly ground out the fiberglass and installed two on each.

The other area of play are the tiller arms to tie rod connections. These usually have a LOT of slop from what I've seen. I slightly overdrilled the tiller holes and used delrin bushings with a cotter pin on the top and the bottom. The guys at Algonquin said that's exactly the way to do it.

Between the two upgrades above, my steering has zero play. Email me for more details if you want.

If the Express rudder setup is completely different, than ignore all of the above

Bob

rdunne14@comcast.net

Ok so the meter set up is totally different from mine. My mistake. Would still like to see a pic of the set up.

I've never figured out why they don't make the top of the rudder shaft sit above the water line. Guess it needs the natural lubrication of the water, or the packing would dry out and not hold when underway.

Ross some boats are made that way, The boat next to me is and uses a different type of seal ( not packing ) , Even thought its above the water line , they can leak under way

My mid cabin is set up just like Bob described, mine were leaking through the bolts. I was convinced that someone did some creative work until I did some research and found out that is the way they were built.

I was told mine were above the water line. Really this in just an excuse to post a picture. My air also drains into my shower sump.

I had some water collecting in my forward bilge and remember looking at the rudders and found they would not leak because the connections are above the water line. I have diagrams of the rudder connections too. I can email them to you if you dont have them. I could be wrong, but that is why I scratched that one off my list while trying to determine where water was coming from.

I ended up finding a small stream from my strut backing plate. I loosened them up and put a seal of 4200 between plate and boat and in the bolt holes. Stopped the leaking.

I have past posts regarding my searches for the leaks on the forum.

We have the nylon washer if you need to replace them.

Bob -

Glad to see you on the board!

Bob,

I got these ten years ago and just haven't put them in.

Takes washers AND packing - correct?

How many washers per boat?

THANKS!

RWS

The 10 meter had a nylon block in the bottom 1 1/4 and also 1 3/8 The most common in 1983 was 1 3/8 it is 3M 5200 in place and it is a kind of nylon that swelled a little to make a seal. On the top was a nylon washer. There is no packing. The only reason for changing the nylon block or washer would be if the rudders were moving around. If you think the rudder are causing a leak it is not possible. Well anything is possible but I would look for another cause for the leak. We have the nylon block and nylon washers.