I have an E39 that I bought a year and a half ago and I'm suspicious of the play in the lower gudgeon. At the time that I bought it I had to re-install the rudder and just about everything else... but after getting the rudder on I noticed that it has enough play in it to clunk back and forth while sailing in sloppy weather or even sitting tied up at the dock with some weather. I noticed that the pintle (Stainless steel) is tapered with the widest point at the bottom and the gudgeon is also tapered inside (Bronze). Is this due to wear and is there a fix besides a new rudder stock and/or gudgeon. I may have pictures somewhere but i'm afraid i'm stuck at work for another month before I can search for them.
Does my pintle or my gudgeon on my E39 need to be repaired?
- Thread starter belafonte
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Pintle gudgeon question
I read your post (above), and wonder how you resolved the clunking within your pintle and gudgeon. I face a similar problem on the lower gudgeon of an Ericson 30-2 that I want to purchase. Thanks....Evan Koch
I read your post (above), and wonder how you resolved the clunking within your pintle and gudgeon. I face a similar problem on the lower gudgeon of an Ericson 30-2 that I want to purchase. Thanks....Evan Koch
hope this helps...
This is pretty out of date but... I had luck taking the pintle and gudgeon to a machinist. They bored a hole into the gudgeon and pressed a fairly thick silicon bronze sleeve into it for around $75. The sleeve's ID was a little smaller than original but very close. The pintle was a little misshapen so I used emry cloth to very slowly true it up and remove the material to allow it to fit. The end of the Pintle has a larger OD than the shaft its attached to so i don't feel like I compromised anything by shaving off a few thousands of an inch. Its been a few years, I haven't heard it clunk again since and its very smooth.
This is pretty out of date but... I had luck taking the pintle and gudgeon to a machinist. They bored a hole into the gudgeon and pressed a fairly thick silicon bronze sleeve into it for around $75. The sleeve's ID was a little smaller than original but very close. The pintle was a little misshapen so I used emry cloth to very slowly true it up and remove the material to allow it to fit. The end of the Pintle has a larger OD than the shaft its attached to so i don't feel like I compromised anything by shaving off a few thousands of an inch. Its been a few years, I haven't heard it clunk again since and its very smooth.
Thanks for this information. Shortly after I originally posted my query, a boat mechanic at my marina fashioned a shim out of PVC and wedged it around the pintle within the bottom gudgeon. It held up for a year or more, and finally worked its way out and sank. Not long ago a friend suggested fixing the problem with fiberglass resin. He said mix some up with cabosel (sp?), add some graphite, and pour it into the gudgeon around the bottom of the pintle. Turn the rudder periodically as the resin sets up. That motion, combined with the graphite should prevent the resin from bonding to the pintle.
Originally I was going to do the graphite and epoxy too but the wear on the pintle made it an odd shape. It wasn't really perfectly round anymore so I personally needed to fix that part anyway. It was a pain to remove the rudder and gudgeon but It feels like a long term fix. I'll post a picture if I can find one of the fixed gudgeon. Hope you find the right solution for you.
My erixon is on Lake Pend Oreille in Ifaho. Where's your boat?
With some friends, my wife and I chartered a sailboat in Half Moon Bay, BC last September. We spent most of the week around Cortes Island.Very very beautiful.