Remember to Lube the Rudder Pintel and Gudgeon

How to Lube the Rudder Pintel and Gudgeon

The pintel will tend to wear in the gudgeon simply from hanging all these years. If you don't tie off your rudder so it moves with the current, add a little sand or mud from a close call grounding and the pintel can be ground away. The best advice I have is to lube it. Here's how:
 
1. Buy a pinpoint grease injector needle from McMaster Carr, like this one:

and attach it to your grease gun (I bent the needle slightly to give me a better angle). If you have an air powered gun, all the better. I used Mobil One synthetic wheel bearing grease because that's what I had in my gun. Any waterproof grease would work fine, I think.

2. Lift your rudder up to expose the Pintel. Place some blocking under it so the rudder can't slip back down. You should be able to expose almost all of the pintel.

3. Inspect the pintel for wear and corrosion. Assuming it looks ok, insert the needle into the gudgeon cavity and pump it full of grease.

4. Remove the blocking and ease the rudder back down and rotate it from side to side to distribute the grease evenly. Clean up the extra that squeezed out.

5. Do this at each haulout when you repaint your bottom.

To eliminate the wear of the base of the rudder against the top of the rudder shoe at the keel, I took a thin sheet of Teflon, cut a hole in the middle the size of the pintel and trimmed the outside edge to match the rudder shoe--eliminating any wear of fiberglass against fiberglass.
 
To prevent the rudder from lifting off the pintel, follow these steps:
 

!. Build a teak collar base under the cockpit sole at the tiller head bearing that is a wedge the angle of the rudderpost.

2. Split the collar base and mount to the underside of the sole around the rudderpost.

3. Attach a 1-1/4" collar zinc to the rudderpost positioned 1/4" below the base. The zinc will prevent the rudder from lifting.