Do you have adjustable upper rudder castings? If so, the plate may be too far back and not properly engaging the cam. With the rudder locked down, loosen the bolt that holds the plate, shove the rudder and plate as far forward as they will go, and tighten the bolt while holding them there. (If this fixes your problem but then the rudder won't lock down properly you will need to back off this adjustment a little.)
To work properly, the whole assembly (not just cams) need to be clean and the delrin screw under the plunger must not be too tight (won't kick up) or loose (won't stay locked down). When in the up position, will the cam/plunger move down a little by firmly (shouldn't be too hard) pressing down with your thumb? If not, the plunger may be stuck. Remove the cam and try to force the plunger down by levering it with a screwdriver or such.....then work it back and forth while bathing it with soapy water. If that doesn't work, you may need to take the whole thing apart to clean it and adjust the spring tension with the delrin screw......which is probably frozen and will need to be drilled/burned out (do a search).
One final possibility (not uncommon on "run down" boats) is that a previous owner put the wrong parts, poorly drilled rudders, etc. on the boat (geometry of the rudder system is whacked). That would probably be harder to figure out....pix may help.
_________________ Jerome Vaughan Hobie 16
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