Play in Steering System

[Claus Kjaerby]

Anybody knows how to adjust slack in the steering system on a Bavaria 37 2007 (2-3 cm on the wheel)

The wheel is fastened OK, the two chains are tensioned/adjusted and the rudder post itself is well trimmed with no slack in the bearing. To me it seems to be a slack in the joint between the vertical and horizontal set of teeth.

[George P]

Try epoxy at the joint, but not too much incase you have to disassemle one day.

[George P]

I may not have been elaborate enough, the play is most probably where the quadrant and the rudder post are attached, that is where I would focus, maybe the through bolt has loosened enough to widen the through holes, if so a little epoxy may just be the trick.

[SabreKai]

I think Claus may be referring to lash between the worm n pinion gears in the steering box. If thats the case, theres not much to be done without replaceing the gear set. Each tooth would need to be shimmed up somehow to remove the lash, and I have no idea how to do that without going thru a machining process, so you might just as well replace the gear set.

--
Sabre

[sestina]

Ask the manufacturer of the steering gear! If you need fleas, then go to a dog.

The rack and pinion in a Lewmar Cobra system can be adjusted by the removal of shims. If this is your steering gear, PM me and I'll send you a pdf copy of the manual.

[Fishspearit]

I removed play in my steering system recently, from the same place you are describing. The hard part was accessing the two gears in the pedestal. I was able to shim the two gears closer together by putting a thin washer behind one of the gears. I was glad I had tackled the job because the gears have set screws that act as keys to hold them on the shaft, and one was broken which was part of the cause of play.

[Firehoser75]

Claus,
I own a Bavaria 36 (2005) and my steering system should be similar to yours. Slack in the cable/chain system is removed at the steering quadrant that is attached to the rudder post. before you tighten, make sure the wires run properly through all of the pulleys. You loosen the lock nuts, take up any slack in the wires and retighten the lock nuts. If the chain is sitting properly on the sprocket in the binnacle and running properly through all of the shives (pulleys), this should remove any play or slack in the system (unless some component of your system has failed). Hope this helps,
Tom