Page 1 of 1

Check your rudder assembly

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:00 am
by Old PDQ Message Board
Check your rudder assembly

Posted by Mike - s/v Footloose on December 12, 2000 at 14:54:00:

The area where the rudder assembly is located is sometimes almost
submerged when sailing, making it a wet area. I had problems last year
with the starboard side quadrant with corrosion. The Julian Whitlock
company who made the quadrant, said this type of corrosion will occur
between stainless and aluminum components when they are exposed to
water. I had to replace the quadrant because of galvanic corrosion. I
recently inspected of my rudder area on my PDQ 36. I notice a lot of
aluminum oxide, which is a white powdery substance near the stainless
bolts on the port side. Because of the problems that I had on the
quadrant I decided to take the port assembly apart. Stainless steel
bolts used on aluminum assemblies causes galvanic corrosion. I found
that area of corrosion had nearly eaten all the aluminum around the bolt
holes. I had to take the aluminum assemblies to a welding shop for
repairs. Upon completion of repairs I used aluminum etch kit from West
System to prepare the assembly. Then primed it with an epoxy primer and
painted it with a two part polyurethane paint. I applied a coat of Tef-
Gel, a corrosion eliminator to all areas where aluminum and stainless
come together. Hopefully this will take care of corrosion problem for a
while. One other thing if you decide to your aluminum steering system
apart there is a pin in the back of the assembly that lines up the
rudders. It too is made of stainless and was a bugger to get out. Also
don't forget to tie off the rudder because once you remove the aluminum
assembly there is nothing to prevent the rudder from falling out

Mike
S/V Footloose
email wch8487@sailmail.com
==================================================
This email was delivered by an HF private coast station
in the Maritime Mobile Radio Service, operated by the
SailMail Association, a non-profit association of yacht
owners. Replies can be sent via SailMail, but please
be brief; it is a very low speed radio link

The most concise way to reply is not to use your reply
button, but instead to send a NEW message to:[/i]

WCH8487@sailmail.com
If you DO use your reply button, be sure to
delete the original message text and these
instructions from your reply

Replies should not contain attachments and should be less
than 5 kBytes (2 text pages) in length

For more information on this service or on the
SailMail Association, please see the web site at:[/i]

http://www.sailmail.com