I had the same issues.
PO owner, during the trip across the Caribbean, had to push the bearing back into place and added a hose clamp to prevent it from rising up. The problem that then developed was that rust from the hose clamp caused the bearing to seize onto the shaft and wear a larger hole in the wooden beam. This also resulted in the autopilot drive arm becoming sloppy.
Solution – bored a hole in a large piece of plastic and bolted this over the original bearing (after freeing it from the shaft). Just removed the quadrant and slipped the new bearing block into place. Have not had any issues since and is as solid as a rock!
Cheers
Dennis
Attachments:
Rudder-Shaft.jpg
Rudder-Shaft-Compl-2.jpg
