Very easy and quick rudder bushings.

[hinmo]

Lowes!
TG

just went....couldnt find any, guess I will try bushingsonline.com or something

[MHardy]

I bought mine from my local Ace Hardware. They are on that aisle with the pull-out drawers of "speciality hardware". I would think every Ace has them. Good luck!

[hinmo]

will try Ace - thx

another 2 inches of snow tonite...AAARRRGGHHH

[BruceW]

Mark,

PM me sometime if you want to meet up and sail in my CP 23.

We have a good ACE hardware around so I"ll probably need those also, btw. So far, so good though.

Bruce

[hinmo]

Went to Ace today....nada
Guess I will have to try alternate methods

[Jon898]

Used a 1/2" drill X14" long extension to drill out the castings to size...

Tim:  Did you have to drill out the castings or was it just a plastic bushing as Skip earlier aluded to?  If it was the castings, how hard was it to keep everything aligned?

Jon

[Tim Gardner]

I did have to use a 1/2" drill with a drill extension, but I already had the extension.  You can buy a long 1/2 drill at harbor freight Item #68824 for $13.  It says it's a wood drill but works fine in aluminum if you go slow. Did it by hand held drill motor in one pass., same with the rudder.  Tapped in the bushings with 3 in 1 oil liberally applied, and voila! done.  no slop at all I used dielectric silicon grease to lubricate the bolt bushing because it hinders galvanic corrosion.

TG

[Jon898]

Tim:  Thanks,

Jon

[Jon898]

Did this today on the Picnic Cat...worked like a charm and took about half an hour.  Now the rudder won't clang from side to side any more due to the worn plastic bushing on the lower gudgeon.  Cost had gone up a bit (bushings were $4.65 each) and I had to upgrade the two bolts from 5/16" to 3/8", but total was still under $25 plus the long drill bit (thanks for the tip about Harbor Freight, Tim).

[skip1930]

Ace is the place ... with ss washers and new bolt and ny-loc nuts ...$14.00 if you don't but a new drill bit cut down for a 3/8 chuck. [3/8's allows for smaller drill motor and that allows a tighter fit up against the transom for a straighter shot through the aluminum casting. ]

skip.

[Bob23]

I've done this repair/modification and the only hitch I ran into was the drill size. I have a larger Makita 18v cordless and the body was too wide to allow proper alignment. I also have the Makita 18v right angle drill and that helped a lot; it allowed me to properly drill the holes so they line up. I'd think a light duty drill (read: smaller body) would be best for this project.
Bob

[Jon898]

If you don't have a right-angle drill or one with a small enough body, then the long drill bit Tim referenced above works well as you can go through both gudgeons at once and keep the drill body away from the boat completely.  I used a bigole 1/2" Craftsman corded drill and found the steadying handle (it's actually a hammer drill - of course with the hammer function turned off) really helped keeping everything aligned.