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Hi Folks….
Anyone out there do any maint. to their steering system above/beyond looking at the wire & pulleys and saying to themselves…”yep, the wire is still there – probably will work for another year”. I think I’ll squirt some oil on the sheave bearing pins and move the wheel from side to side…… beautiful!
I’m in the process of installing a below deck autopilot & was thinking that the chain & wire in Iris is 38 years old – Edson suggests replacement of chain/wire every 5 years (I’m sure that’s for the “go fast” boats with highly stressed spade rudders! – not our boats) but 38 years is a long time ……so…..I was wondering what other folks may have done.
The chain seems OK, and the wire is not bad….The wire clamps are junk (rusty) and will be replaced in any event.
Thoughts are appreciated.
MikeMike,
You described my thoughts to a tee–replaced the autohelm linear actuator on “Crew Rest” a few years ago and said, “wire and chain look good to me!” Don’t think we put too much stress on these. The previous owner had replaced the “brake shoes” on the Edson system–and that will need doing again, but I don’t see the need to replace things that are working fine—-although, a steering failure is something I’d rather happen to somebody else—and not in my marina. I’d think replacing the clamps will give you a peaceful night’s sleep.
“Snoodle Time” did a very nice autohelm installation not long ago and maybe Steve has an opinion?
BarryHi Mike and Barry
Several yrs ago I had wire jump out of the quandrant while leaving a dock in Annapolis. Did manage to put it back on after an hr or so.
Just before wire enters quadrant on Stb side put a block on wire with turnbuckle attached to fwd partial bulkhead. This keeps tension on wire so it does not jump off quadrant.
Works fine
Joe Irish Mist
I’m of the firm believer in replacing parts before they break. Since it has been my experience that failures happen only at the most inopportune times I think it is a good idea to stay ahead of breakages.
I imagine it will be a major pain in the butt to replace, but confidence in your gear makes for great sailing days.
A humble opinion of a sailor.
Well…I crawled under the cockpit last week and found the wire a bit worn where the wire feeds into the quadrant – looks like it has “rubbed” as it fed into the quadrant off the alignment wheel – which is a bit off perhaps – a few worn strands. 38 years is a pretty good run.
By dumb luck I found a “new/old stock” bronze edson bulkhead mount steering station unit for our “teak box” pedestal this past weekend at a local marine store. It has the wire, chain and an integrated wheel brake built into the unit…..I’ve always liked a wheel brake to lock the rudder at anchor or sailing….so …it was priced right & had to follow me home.
Add another thing to the list of “projects”. I’m hoping that it may be a reasonably simple swap-out…famous last words!
Mike
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