Rudder Alignment

Milky Way · Post by **Milky Way** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:36 pm

I pulled Milky Way out of the water at our home last Monday. Found the rudders tipped to the outside about 5 degrees. This explains why the rooster tails behind the boat were to the outside instead of directly to the rear. I did the rudder alignment as per the mamual but did not correct the problem. I was thinking of alligning the rudder posts from the inside by loosening the arm which attaches to the piston rod, and twisting the rudders from the outside. This problem could have a negative impact on performace. Your comments please. Armin Quickert Milky Way MV34/78

duetto · Post by **duetto** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:33 am

hi,

did you do the alignment both ways? i've made a practice of doing correction for both toe-in and out. we just checked alignment out of water lastweek and procedure worked. rudders came out dead on.

btw, we do it every 2 weeks when were travelling a lot. i think it gets out of alignment more than we think.

Gadzooks! · Post by **Gadzooks!** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:17 pm

Obviously, if the boat is out of the water, the rudders can be aligned visually. In water, one way is to use the procedure described in the manual. If you have a Raymarine autopilot, there is another way: The autopilot display shows a "rudder position" (hash marks at the bottom). This is based on one rudder (the port one, if I remember correctly). On the theory that, if the autopilot indicates the port rudder is steering either to port or starboard when the boat is travelling straight ahead, it must be doing so to compensate for the opposite misalignment in the starboard rudder. To correct this, (1) turn the lever in the starboard engine compartment to decouple the rudders, (2) turn the wheel a half turn or so -be sure to remember which direction you turned it, (3) re-couple the rudders by returning the lever to its original position, (4) drive the boat straight ahead and note the change in the rudder position as indicated by the autopilot. If the amount of "turn" indicated by the autopilot has decreased, you have turned the wheel in the right direction, and can repeat steps 1 thru 4 above until no misalignment is indicated. If it has increased, go back and turn it the other way.

All this assumes the autopilot accurately indicates the position of the port rudder. This is worth checking when the boat is out of the water.

Milky Way · Post by **Milky Way** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:02 pm

Here is how I fixed the problem. First go to the installation manual and make sure the installer followed the measurements suggested in the manual. 1. Using the equalising valve reset both port and stbd. settings. 2. Set the port rudder to north/south, making sure that you check visually the rudder is parallel to the bottom of the hull skeg. Simply clamp short pieces of pipe to the bottoms. 3. On the starboard rudder, remove the four piston mounting bolts and the Raymarine rudder indicator. 4. Using the steering manual move the piston mount by hand till the stbd rudder is pefectly aligned north/south using the pipe method. Mark the holes and drill new ones, rebolt piston mount. 5. Recalibrate Raymarine rudder indicator by repositioning the linkage and fine tuning the threaded rod till you read zero at the lower helm E80. My rudders are now parallel and make the same angle port and starboard.

duetto · Post by **duetto** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:30 am

hi,

i believe that you'll find that your rudders will get out of alignment periodically based on your miles traveled.