Just finished repairing and refurbishing my rudders , thanks for all of the tips . My top tips for anyone else thinking about refurbishing their rudders are ;
1. Remove rudder blade from stock and bring into house to completely dry out
2. Clear out split in bottom of blade with a thin knife and a sheet of fine sandpaper folded in half , really clean out the split and file out split with folded sandpaper
3. I tried gluing two halves of blade with resin which was unsuccessful . Use Areldite , it works really well and is tougher than resin , also fills any small chips
4. Get the service pintle kit from Brain ( Windsport ) , it has all the parts you will need .
5. I recon that most people with boats of a certain age will need to replace the locking lift wire and just as importantly rudder lock spring cover sleeve . I cannot emphasis how important these two small components are !
6. I cobbled together a pintle bracket that fits into my workmate for ease of rudder blade working / assembly
7. Probably not necessary but i drilled out and removed the rivets that hold in the tiller arm end bracket , makes installing the lifting cable hooks so easy
8.Adjust main and end bracket bolt tension to remove excess play but allow free movement .
9. Finally spray copiously with quality silicone spray ALL parts that move
Took me two days to refurb blades and rudder stocks .
Back to sailing next week .
Derek
