Trojan Boat Forum

Howdy good people.

My better half and I have been enjoying the boat almost every weekend now. One issue that was annoying was the steering slop of at least 1/2 a turn on the steering. No issue for docking but at anything above 1000 RPM. I looked drunk at the wheel... Anyhow, last weekend, I decided to tackle the job...

After investigation, I determined that the slop came from the linkage between the 2 rudders. the connecting shaft was so rusted that it was bending and twisting instead of synchronizing the 2 rudders. last Sunday, I dismantled the system to bring back home and work on it during the week. I was dreading the job because of the rust but in the end, I guess all the grease helped because taking the linkage off took all of 1 hour.
You can see in the picture below the state of the long connecting shaft. a good 50% was rusted out and bent out of shape
For the shorter shaft, I decided to keep it as it was not in bad shape apart for some surface rust.
Removing the ball joints took a little more time. I nursed them for 2 days spraying PB blaster as often as I could. Finally the 36" pipe wrench and the vise got the best of it...

Both ball joints were in good shape except for some surface rust. Now to rebuild the shaft. I considered getting a threaded rod and using that but after measuring the threads on the end, I came up with a thread of 13/16-14 UNS. UNS is a special thread not very common at all and, as per the Machinery's Handbook, to be avoided... Crap!
OK Plan "B" I am lucky to own a lathe and a milling machine. I'll just have to make it from scratch. I went to Metal Supermarket and got a length of 15/16" 316 Stainless Steel. For our American friends and others, Metal Supermarket supplies small quantities of raw material. Perfect for the hobbyist .

Space is a bit limited in my garage! with the lathe and the sand blasting cabinet close together, I had to be creative with the shaft going through the headstock straight through the blasting cabinet
Here is a picture of the thread outside diameter.

After machining the OD, I proceeded to machine the threads.

Once I was satisfied that the ball joints screwed on properly, I TIG welded the ball that connects the steering arm to the shaft. I finally cleaned the ball joints, chased the set screw threads, replaced the grease nipples and re-assembled everything using grease and anti-seize as required. Last night I finally got to the boat and re-installed everything back greasing everything liberally with a grease gun.

In this is the final result looking at the starboards side. The slop is much much better but I will have to wait for this weekend to try it out
If any of you need additional details, let me know. I will be happy to answer any question.

Cheers,

Christian

Great fix Christian, once again better then new! You've got to be handy with these old boats

Thanks Barrie! When are you going to post new pictures? I cant wait to see your progress.

Cheers,

I haven’t got to do much to the boat lately, we have a rental house and the tenant moved out “in the night” and we’ve been fixing so we can get someone back in.
I have been gathering parts and met a fellow Tri Fly owner in Ile Perrot Quebec, got a new flydeck canvass from her.

Just for fun, this is the last thing I built in my lathe
.50 BMG

LOL Of course...

Nice job! How did you do the rifling? Used a button?

Ha ha! the barrel is a surplus M2 machine gun barrel, re profiled and new chamber cut.
she is loud https://youtu.be/77cOzjAezYo
sorry for the hijack

Its always nice to have the proper tools! It looks like you did a great job and should not have to work on that for a long time.

I need to do some work on our steering, but for a different reason. I need to add a linear drive and rudder position sensor so that I can get the autopilot installed. Hopefully, I won't need to do quite that much work, but I will have to remove the shaft between the rudders and add a tab to it. And of course, I need to make a mount for the linear drive and position sensor. Since I will be removing a lot of stuff in the way, I guess I should also repack the rudders as I suspect that was last done in 1975.

I know this is an older topic but you can also check your chain tensioners in the lower helm. Mine were loose after minute gear wear and chain stretch.

Hi Misty,

I did check that. No issues found. However, I did notice that the rubber "coupling" is getting dry. I will have to fix this sooner rather than later. Ill have to figure out what its made out of. Looks like some sort of rubber. it should not be too difficult to repair. Famous last words...