Rudder support brace

B

bcm

New Member
Jul 28, 2009
2
NY
Boat Info
300 DA
Engines
mercruiser
Does anyone know were I can find the rudder support braces for a 1984 34 sea ray. I did some google search's with no luck. I have attached a pic of the brackets.
I think I will have to fabricate some new one's if i can not locate some.

thanks in advance for the help

34oyl52.jpg
 
That's the strangest thing I've seen...
My '85 390 has thick bronze shelves across the stringers just like every other boat I've seen.

Curious, do you have any pics of what it looked like before you took it apart?
 
They do rust. I've got a fabrication-welding shop at my marina and had them make me new ones in stainless steel. It cost me about $250. I suggest to keep the gauge of the steel thin so they can be bent by hand so to fit your though holes. Rebed with 3M 4200. 3M 5200 is OK but hard to remove if needed. I cleaned the though holes and the area with a wire brush on my drill. slide the rudder shafts back in and support the rudders with blocks and wood shims to reattach the steering rod. Clean the steering rod and coat it with WD 40,do not paint,it will rust under the paint. After i did this i went to my Chiropractor.
 
Can you change these while the boat is still in the water? How bad can they get before they need to be changed? Only one leg on one bracket of mine is rusted through. The other leg is still very good. Is that dangerous??
 
1988 340 DA. Changed mine in the water. Tightened the gland nut as tight as I dared to keep the rudder in place. As much as
possible I kept a safety wire thru the cotter hole during the process. Just didn't feel like diving for a rudder. Tightening the
gland nut would probably have been enough. I would think a single leg rusted thru would be a problem. The shaft is aligned at the bottom
by the gland and at the top by the support leg. All the pressure on the rudder at the bottom and the counteracting pressure of the steering
would be moving the rudder from side to side. The first visible sign will be a leaking gland.
 
Thanks for the info! I plan on picking up a couple of the SS ones on Ebay soon and taking care of it. I was mostly worried about the nuts/bolts where it is attached to to..... Aren't they thru-hull bolted? Would I need a wrench on the other end?

I do have a very small leak in my Port rudder box right now. I just attributed that to older packing. The rudder boxes and struts had all be replaced by a previous owner, so I am sure these brackets had been replaced at least once before as well.

Oh well, just something else to get done before the good weather hits.

Thanks!
 
Redhook, I replaced both of mine last year with the ones on e-bay and they worked fine. I could not have done mine in the water because the nut was a little frozen and the whole thing was spinning. They are through bolted so I had to get someone under the boat with a large screwdriver to hold it.
 
I replaced mine with those ss ones last year as well from e-bay. I had to do them while the boat was on land. The screws that come through the hull was the problem. It was a 2 man job, one in the boat and one out. Had to put the screw driver on each one.
 
As I recall, First I cleaned up the threads with mild muratic acid, then soaked them with a solvent (I would use PB balster today).
I double nutted the screw to keep it from turning until I got the permanent nut loose
 
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