Shim needed for rudder cam stop plate.

This is only my 2nd season with a boat with adjustable rudders, and it has new cams. Last year I kept having one rudder kick up from time to time, despite having the spring tensioned as far as possible. I knew there was an underlying problem, but didn't have the time to mess with it last year. The problem was that I could force the stop plate forward while tighten the bolt down as all the tutorials show, but even though it clicks down with an audible snap, it takes almost no effort to pop the cam up again. If I slide back the plate a tiny bit, this fixes that issue, and it takes about 20-25 lbs to kick up as it should, but then this makes too much play between the rudder and casting, the rudder is not held tight up against the casting and allow the rudder to rake back a bit, causing some tiller tug at higher speeds. Yesterday I was trying to resolve the issue, and taking a close look at the rotation and lock of each side. It looked like the problematic side did not rotate as much as the good side when locked down, even though both sides audibly click into place. I placed a washer under the stop plate as a shim, which lowered the stop plate by about 1/16"+, which seemed to resolve the issue. Anyone else have this problem?

Nice solution. Yes, that could be a thing if the upper is drilled too high.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

If I understand what you are saying correctly, it sounds like root of the problem may be slop due to wear in the rudder pins, holes in lower castings, and/or gudgeons. It's sort of hard to explain, but, if there is slop elsewhere, the adjuster plate can actually be moved too far forward....so far that the forward end is too close to a vertical line through the pivot point of the cam. When this happens the cam cannot rotate/lock/unlock properly. If this is the case, the proper fix would be to remove the slop (which has other benefits as well)....I'd start with pins first, then gudgeons if necessary, then bush the castings. I've never heard of your solution...thought you just had to live with the tiller load or remove the slop. Sounds like it's working for now, but I'd keep a close eye to make sure it's not causing other problems like premature wear/tweaking of the cam.

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16

Good point, I have an extra set of rudders, I will see if a hole is off. The ones on there are from a '79 (excellent condition), the spare set is from an '84 (a little rough).



I actually haven't paid much attention to all of the parts in detail, I will take a closer look, but nothing stood out as being obround when I last serviced the parts, and didn't seem to be any additional slop in the casting or rudder holes. I know the cams & cam pins are new, as well as the rudder pins. I did notice that the upper and lower castings are touching when locked down. I'm pretty sure there should be a very slight gap between the two, can anyone confirm? At this point, I'm leaning towards the old rudder holes being slightly off. I know the washer is not the proper way to fix, but as long as it's working at this point I'm good, I don't want to swap rudders unless I need to, I absolutely hate trying to squeeze in and line up the rudder stiffening kit plastic shims, it takes forever.