Beneteau Oceanis 361 / Heavy Touch to Move Wheel to Initiate Turns

[PRBrock]

Hi:

Turning my Oceanis 361 wheel requires a significant amount of force, much more than is usual. My Autohelm does work with this "heavy" wheel but something is amiss. I looked at the cables and saw nothing to hinder them and I opened the starboard side lazarette to view the lubricated bar that slides in/out of the cylinder and saw nothing impeding the movement. Anyone out there have a clue what would cause resistance my wheel?

[Ben Campbell]

Any chance the wheel "brake" knob (center hub of the wheel) has been
tightened?

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[DragonflyB331]

Have you checked the rudder bearing ?

Mark Stillwell

573-819-0436

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 7, 2016, at 4:45 PM, PRBrock <paul...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Hi:

Turning my Oceanis 361 wheel requires a significant amount of force, much more than is usual. My Autohelm does work with this "heavy" wheel but something is amiss. I looked at the cables and saw nothing to hinder them and I opened the starboard side lazarette to view the lubricated bar that slides in/out of the cylinder and saw nothing impeding the movement. Anyone out there have a clue what would cause resistance my wheel?

--

[Randy Brown]

I've had that happen a few times on my 361 when a bright hot sun has been shining on it in a slip all day. A couple of days later it is fine. Not sure what exactly is causing it other than the obvious heating and expansion of some part but I've never been able to figure out which one. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Denis Guitar]

The Ben361 (2002) is equipped with a carbon fiber ruder post. This post will
somehow when hot get slightly bigger thus will become tighter in it's
seating. The remedy is to remove the rudder and a light sanding. Ask
Beneteau (Ward)
It happened to me!
Good luck!
Denis

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Campbell
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2016 6:13 PM
To: Beneteau Owners
Cc: ba...@strattonarts.com
Subject: Re: {Beneteau Owners} Beneteau Oceanis 361 / Heavy Touch to Move
Wheel to Initiate Turns

Any chance the wheel "brake" knob (center hub of the wheel) has been
tightened?

On 7 Jun 2016, at 16:45, PRBrock wrote:

[Rick L]

I have also heard that some WD-40 or CRC-56 down shaft helps.  Same used to happen with my 361.

[marshall]

I suspect your rudder bearings are frozen.  I had a very similar "feel" to the wheel on my boat a few years ago (first 40.7) .  Have they ever been replaced on your boat?  On my boat, the bearings had frozen, and the bearing casing was turning inside the standpipe.  It took some force to get the wheel turning, but then was always stiff.  My theory was that between uses, the space between the bearing casing and the standpipe corroded up again, once that was broken loose, the wheel was merely very stiff.

Replaced with this:

http://www.jefa.com/rudder.htm

Bite the bullet and replace the top bearing also while you have the rudder system all apart,

~Marshall Murphy

Aya Sofia

[bungee.john]

Did a Atlantic crossing on a 461 with similar systems ,found the magnetic clutch on the auto helm wasn't disengaging so we were fighting the auto drive motor ,freed the clutch ,WD 40 now steer one finger ,owner thought the helm was normally heavy so didn't look past muscle power ,
regards bungee