Stiff Tiller

[petalponk]

So yeah I'm going to the IWA festival next week and my tiller is very stiff and moves in jerks rather than a smooth movement.

 

So apart from dousing it in WD40 (which is my prefered method so far)

 

Is there anything i can do to free it up or is there any common problems that could be causing this?

 

Thanks all

[Purple Fairie]

Hi, has it always been stiff or is it a 'new' thing?

Last year we had this problem as 'someone' wasn't watching where the Fairy was while in a lock and we ended up perched on the cill, thus bending the skeg (sp?) and trapping the rudder making it a 2 handed job to steer

Unfortunately the only way to rectify this was to have the boat taken out of the water so we could get to the problem and sort it - not an ideal way to spend the holiday money but hey-ho, another thing 'we've' learned

[journeyperson]

So yeah I'm going to the IWA festival next week and my tiller is very stiff and moves in jerks rather than a smooth movement.

 

So apart from dousing it in WD40 (which is my prefered method so far)

 

Is there anything i can do to free it up or is there any common problems that could be causing this?

 

Thanks all

 

 

Have you checked to see if there is a grease nipple for the bearing where it goes into the transom?

 

On my boat it is central, you can just make it out in this pic, half hidden by the whatsit - swans neck?

 

Edited July 22, 2011 by journeyperson

[bottle]

It may have been lifted out of its cup on the skeg.

[petalponk]

ok i don't know what cups or skegs are... (goes off to google it)

 

I have so much to learn.

 

There is no grease nipple though. It has been like that since i can remember.

 

The boat's being taken out of the water later this year for blacking so i'll probably have a look and do something about it then and just put up with it for now.

[bottle]

 

 

 

Skeg and cup. The bit on the left is welded to the bottom of the boat at the stern, the cup on the right is where the rudder sits.

[petalponk]

Ah I see, so if that's been bent upwards somehow, then it'll be trapping the rudder making it stiff.

 

And if the rudder is out of the cup would it just be sitting on the skeg then? Or flapping about around the side of it maybe? which would mean it was being pulled down by gravity making it stiff?

 

I am learning things and it didn't make my head hurt, this is good.

 

Thanks all

Edited July 22, 2011 by petalponk

[twbm]

Depending on the design, if you can lift the whole thing up a few inches and that seems to free it up, then the possibility that it's out of the cup sounds likely. I'd like to give you a neat way of reseating it, but it boils down to getting the 'feel' of what's under water and buggering about 'til it sits back again. That assumes it was a relatively loose fit in the first place, if it's been lifted out of some sort of bush you may well have to wait until she's out of the water.

[RLWP]

A rudder post out of a cup isn't stiff, it's really very hard to use. You may get more movement one way than the other

 

If it has always been like this, and you've had the boat out of the water in the meantime, it's not this

 

My guess is you've bent the rudder shaft

 

Richard

Edited July 22, 2011 by RLWP

[WotEver]

I think you may have misread something Richard. OP said that the boat was due to come out of the water later in the year, so she'd take a look then

 

Tony

[RLWP]

I think you may have misread something Richard. OP said that the boat was due to come out of the water later in the year, so she'd take a look then

 

Tony

 

You're right, I did misread that bit

 

However, a rudder post out of it's cup is practically unusable. I reseated one a couple of years back in Knowle locks for a boat

 

Richard

[bottle]

Why would you seat a rudder in Knowle locks, surely it would have been better in the cup................................................................................Oh! no wait a minute, I see what you mean.

[RLWP]

Why would you seat a rudder in Knowle locks, surely it would have been better in the cup................................................................................Oh! no wait a minute, I see what you mean.

 

 

Richard

[NBDensie]

Does it just need greasing? My boat looks the same as Journeyperson's (See previously).

I find just putting a thick layer of waterproof grease directly on the bearing keeps the tiller moving easily.

The one in the picture looks rather dry to me.

Edited July 23, 2011 by NBDensie