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PostPosted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 2:15 pm 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:21 pm
Posts: 3
Hi H18 sailors. I have a rudder casting with a seized spring screw? The white piece made out plastic. I have heard that you can drill it out with a spade bit and then use a die to clean out the threads. Does anyone know what size spade bit and die to use? I am planning on fixing the rudder casting over the winter. Any help would be much appreciated.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:40 am 
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Joined: Tue May 27, 2003 12:44 pm
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Location: Oceanside, California
Unless you REALLY need to adjust the screw... leave it alone.

You can remove by drilling using a wood bit just under the diameter of the screw or heating a large blade screw driver and melt it (imbed) into the screw. Cool and then use vise grips on the shaft to add enough leverage to turn the screw out.

The threads are 3/4"-10

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:36 am 
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Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 10:25 am
Posts: 4176
Location: Jersey Shore
The minor diameter of a 3/4-10 thread is 0.625", so would want to drill it out using a 5/8" drill bit or one size smaller to avoid damaging the threads in the aluminum casting. Then chase out the threads to clear out the remaining nylon material.

Coat the replacement screw with grease before reassembling in order to prevent it from getting stuck in the casting.

sm


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:04 pm 
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Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 3:15 pm
Posts: 610
Location: Buffalo, NY
Mine were very brittle when I drilled them out, so the screw driver trick definitely wouldn't have worked for me. I drilled and chased the threads, as srm described. However, I had to keep these screws so loose to allow my rudders to kick up that I had to put tape over them to keep them from falling out. Unfortunately, I still lost the screws, and unless I'm mistaken, Hobie has stopped selling the screws and the springs for the old style H18 rudder castings. Has anyone had any luck in finding replacements?

Fortunately enough, I've found that my rudders stay down even with no spring and screw in place... I may need to file down the latches again to remove any flat spots so that they kick up properly. However, my attitude is to treat the rudders as a manual retrieve system, rather than an auto-return/kick-up system. I raise and lower the rudders myself when coming into the beach, just like the daggers. I don't rely on them to kick up on their own, ever. If you ever DO have need to keep the rudders down, I'd recommend purchasing a rudder return kit from Murrays Sports. The system uses a bungie cord to hold the rudders down, but still allows them to kick up if/when needed.

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:35 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 2:15 pm
Posts: 78
There's plenty floating around as NOS parts... google "Hobie 60450000" for the screw and "Hobie 10430000" for the spring. Murray's has them as well.

After removal, one of mine was reusable, IIRC -- and I cut threads into a 3/4-10 bolt and chased the casting threads to encourage happiness in the new screws. After filing, cleanup, and lube, my old-style castings release pretty well as long as the sliding surfaces are greased. I keep those screws loose enough that they matter little, and use bungee cord as the primary down-lock (well, at least beyond basic friction). In heavy wind and waves, I do need to reset the rudders to fully down from time to time, as they'll walk up a bit on their own... but the increasing weather helm is a good indicator of when that's happening!

I, too, treat my rudders delicately, as if they were manual, without auto-release/kick-up, hoping that if needed, the tuning/lubing I have done for auto-release will keep things happy. So far, so good...

Randii


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