35-3 Steering Maintenance

[lbertran]

Hello All-
I've been spending a lot of time inside the cockpit locker and lazarette while replacing my badly cracked cockpit hoses. That project is done, but before I throw all my docklines, fenders, etc back in there, I want to lubricate and adjust the steering system, which is a little loose. I have a Yacht Specialties system.
I read the adjustment instructions in the 35-3 manual and saw that there are supposed to be two grease fittings in the rudder post tube. The tube on our boat is glassed over and I can't find any grease fittings. Is this normal or is it possible the P.O. made these disappear? I find that some entries in the 35-3 manual are actually from the 35-2 manual and I wonder if that's the case here.
Thanks,
Laura
Footloose, 1985 E35-3
Annapolis, MD

 

[Seth]

Yacht Specialties

IIRC, the reference to the grease fitting is in the YS manual, not the Ericson manual. Assuming this is true, I would say the instructions should read "add grease at the grease fittings, if fitted"...Many boats today have greaseless rudder bearings-using Delrin or some other plastic, and they are fine. Where you will address the slop in your steering is by adjusting the cables-usually at the Quadrant-this is where the slop occurs.

Hope this helps,

S

 

[Geoff Johnson]

When you say "loose", do you mean the cables are loose or there is play between the shaft of the rudder and the rudder tube? The latter occurs over time from wear and is repaired (as I did) by dropping the rudder and inserting a Delrin bearing.

 

[lbertran]

Geoff and Seth

Thanks for the info. From the look of things, I don't think I ever had the grease fittings described in the manual.

The looseness I referred to is in the cables, they seem almost loose enough to jump out of the sheaves. I think they just need a bit of tightening at the eye bolts. I'm also planning to follow Nigel Calders advice to lightly coat the cables with oil and to lube the sheaves.

Laura

 

[Seth]

That's the ticket!

Sounds like you are good to GO!!

Best of luck,
S

 

[cawinter]

The grease fiittlings on the Ericson Edson pedestal are hard to find. The top one is just between the deck and the top of the radial drive. Mine is on the stbd side. The grease nipple looks in good shape but I have never been able to get to it. The bottom one was facing aft about 12" above the floor in the aft 'hole'. It was partially glassed over but I Dremel-ed is free. Looks quite nasty and corroded. My plan was to pull it out (unscrew?) and replace. To date I have only greased to top through the emergency tiller fittling. Probably not too effient.

The manuals all have the same drawings for the rudder shaft layout. Some of it correct but the whole grease situation is not well described.

Just my two c...

 

[u079721]

Very hard to find

Just wanted to agree that the grease fittings can be VERY hard to find. In fact one of mine was buried under a layer of gel coat and had to be dug out with a knife to get the clearance to make it work. So keep looking!