Cabo Rico NE 400 rudder shaft from Harken

[Norris Palmer]

Anyone have info on how to replace the seal on a 98 NE 400? The Shaft Seal for the rudder is from Harken?

[Keith Laker]

Norris,

The Harken seals (and bearings) are alas very prone to failure.  I replied at some length to another NE400 owner last year along the following lines:-

"...Hopefully the attached pictures and brochures may be of some use to you. The pictures are not all individually labelled, but you'll see for yourself that there are pictures of the rudder removed showing the flat-topped rudder tube inside the boat. You'll also see pictures of just how badly the original Harken bearings had corroded and the evidence of wear on the grp where the whole lower bearing housing was rotating in the hull.


We fitted the bearings and stainless steel sleeve shown on the brochure and described as "7T Series". These were a direct replacement for the upper and lower bearings. Instead of Delrin balls, they are cylindrical roller bearings. We've had them installed for six years now and everything seems to be fine.


You'll also see pictures of the seal carrier that held the two foam rubber shaft seals and was mounted on top of the rudder tube. Initially I replaced these seals with neoprene lip seals (also supplied by Jefa) but these were not a total success. We subsequently adopted the use of a Halyard Marine 'Deep Sea' seal which has proven very successful. I had our local yard make up a phospher-bronze flat ring which bolted to the top of the rudder tube and against which the carbon seal presses. We had to weld up part of the keyway to gain a water-tight seal on the SS hose clamps.


I've also included a couple of shots of the cover plate on the helmsman plinth that I think we were talking about the other day.


Be warned - the rudder is very heavy! Two of us used a car jack and lots of blocks of wood to gradually lift it back into the hull."

Sorry Guys, there are 19 photos here - my apologies if this proves unmanageably large - I've not tried this before!

Keith

On Saturday, October 26, 2013 5:43:31 PM UTC+1, Fragile Habitat wrote:

Anyone have info on how to replace the seal on a 98 NE 400? The Shaft Seal for the rudder is from Harken?Norri

[Karen Palmer]

Will read it now!

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "caborico" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to caborico+u...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cabo...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/caborico.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Karen Palmer]

Looks like all I need is that rubber footing…where do you get it?

 

I spoke to harken they said they never had a seal on the top of that or the bottom, that it was a wet bearing and that cabo must have put a plastic cap on top of it to keep water out while on a heel.

 

The base of the post is just a hair on the water line which allows it to leak

 

Where to you get the rubber boot?

 

From: cabo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cabo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Keith Laker
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2013 2:21 PM
To: cabo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [caborico] Re: Cabo Rico NE 400 rudder shaft from Harken

 

Norris,

--

[Keith Laker]

Norris,


The rubber boot you refer to is the Deep Sea Seal. In the UK they were supplied by Halyard Marine (but are no longer available I'm told). They are essentially the same as this: http://www.tnorrismarine.co.uk/manecraft.php.   These type of seals have a finite life:  perhaps ten years at best.   I take comfort that at rest, the top of the rudder tube is several inches above the waterline and should the seal fail (as did the Harken seals) the ingress of water would only happen underway in sloppy conditions.   That would not be acceptable if you were going offshore.

The Harken bearings were wet bearings - that is why there is such extensive corrosion visible in my photographs! The lower bearing had completely failed due to excessive corrosion that they entire (seized) bearing assembly was rotating inside the frp rudder tube. 

 Contrary to what the Harken rep may have told you, the seals were indeed Harken seals - but their function is not to keep water out of the bearings, but rather to prevent water from coming over the top of the rudder tube.  The seals are mounted in the separate seal carrier screwed to the top of the rudder tube - see attached pics (the s-shaped cut in the plate was mine).

The Jefa bearings we used seem much better engineered and were a very straightforward replacement for the Harken ones.

Best wishes,

Keith

[Karen Palmer]

Keith,

 

How does the boot seal at the top when the rudder has to move?

 

Is there no bushing that could have been put on to seal around the shaft?

 

Thank you

[Keith Laker]

Norris,

The seal is between the bottom of the boot (which rotates with the rudder stock) and the phosphor bronze plate (which is circular and is bolted to the top of the rudder tube).

Keith