Rudder Loose
 

Hi,
I have an '82 stars and stripes and I noticed the rudder has about 1/2" up and down play in it, as well as some play in steering. Last weekend I was at the lake with a friend who has an 87' prostar and he has no play in his rudder at all. Does anyone know what could cause this play in mine and how I can fix?
Thanks,
Zack

My guess is the bushings may be worn.

BUT, put grease in the zerk fitting on top of the rudder, you may be suprised on how much that helps.

duct tape!!!!!!!! lol

works everytime!!!

I just had my '82 S & S in the MasterCraft shop for a prop shaft replacement and I also noticed a bit of play in my rudder. Like Ski King said... bushings. Then he looked at me and said that he'd grease it and not to worry about it. The boat ran and drove great! Like Ski King said! lol

If it's just up and down play, it's likely the rudder pinch bolt has loosened to the point where it has slid up on the rudder shaft. Should be easy to fix by just loosening the pinch bolt on the tiller are where it attaches to the shaft, support the rudder from underneath up against the rudder port, slide the pinch bolt down and tighten. Don't lose the keyway. Probably don't even need to remove the cotter pin. You may want to take the opportunity to grease the rudder port, though - that's a big component of it's water sealing.

Loose steering isn't likely to be your rudder, it's more likely the steering cable or the helm mechanism.

If your rudder wiggles side-to-side in the rudder port, that would likely indicate a worn rudder port or rudder shaft and replacement is necessary.

Just to add to that, a floor jack or a bottle jack under the rudder works nicely to press the rudder up against the rudder port..

If the rudder will move up and down in the shaft log as much as 1/4" or more, you need to check it out pretty quick. There are only two things (that I know of anyway) that will allow the rudder shaft to move up and down in the rudder log.
1) There is a good sized cotter pin that should be installed through a hole in the top of the rudder shaft just over the tiller arm. This is a failsafe device to keep the tiller arm from slipping completely of the rudder shaft if the pinch bolt mentioned elsewhere in this thread becomes loose. If the the tiller come off of the rudder, the rudder will drop out the bottom of the boat with the obvious consequences of no steering and a big hole (1 1/8") opening up in your boat.
2) There should be a thick (approx 1/4") nylon washer installed on the rudder shaft between the tiller arm and the rudder log. If it is not there, there would be vertical play in the shaft.

By the way, there are no replaceable bearings/ bushings in the rudder. If you have significant side to side play in the rudder, both the rudder shaft and log are worn. Frequent greasing will buy some time but both the rudder and log will need to be replaced as a unit. It is also possible to bore out the log to a larger diameter and machine a bushing to slip over the rudder shaft but this is somewhat involved.

But there should be 2 O-rings in slots in top and bottom inside the rudder port hole that acts as a seal and will effect the tightness till they wear flat.

Thank you all for the quick replies. I jacked up the rudder today to get a better look at what is going on. I snapped this pic using my cell phone. I don't see any bushings on top or bottom of the large nut (anywhere for that matter). I was wondering how serious this is, and where I could get replacement bushings?
Thanks again,
~Z~

That's different than current rudder arrangements - looks like it's a compression nut. No matter, the reason you have up and down play is that gap you see between top of the compression nut and the bottom of the tiller arm. Likely there was supposed to be a nylon bushing on top of it to take of the space between big nut and tiller. I would recommend you go to some store that sells nylon bushings with the inside diameter of your rudder shaft, support the rudder from under the boat with a jack, remove the cotter pin, loosen the pinch bolt on the tiller, slide it off the shaft, slide the bushing/washer over the shaft, slide the pinch bolt back on (don't lose the keyway) so that it's flush agains the bushing, tighten the pinch bolt, re-install the cotter pin.