Broke, don't work

 I was cleaning the back bilge the other day and had a real shock.  The steering quadrant was broken and all I had to do was touch a steering cable and it fell off the quadrant.  Dang, I hate when that happens.  So another adventure we have.  The quadrant for this boat is no longer available and whatever we find to replace it will have to be custom AND modifications to the steering system will have to be made to fit the new piece.


The worst part about this is that it probably was preventable.  Mea clupa, last year I noticed that some of the thru hull valves were deteriorating probably from electrolysis and had to replace them.  The problem was that the grounding system in the boat had a broken wire.  This grounding system prevents or at least slows the electrolysis on metal parts.  Remember salt, metal and electricity don't mix.  Anyway, the ground wire was repaired and I checked to make sure all critical metal parts were grounded but I didn't even think to check the aluminum quadrant.  A further teaching moment, aluminum is the most sensitive metal to electrolysis which is why most quadrants today are made from stainless steel or bronze. And another teaching moment, the aluminum quadrant was attached to a stainless steel rudder post where the problem of dissimilar metals creates its own set of problems.  There were also stainless bolts holding the quadrant together that also 'rotted' out the aluminum.

So, a new bronze quadrant is being made but I'm going to have to move a few things around to get the steering cables to line up which involves some cutting, fitting and fiberglass work.  At the same time some fiberglass patch up work has already been done around the rudder post stanchion where the existing fiberglass was pulling away.  This was also probably due to the steel stanchion rusting from electrolysis.

While waiting for the new quadrant I'm also going through the complete steering system and fixing and /or replacing anything that could be suspect which means lots of chain and cable is going to be replaced.  When done this baby should steer like a new boat and we shouldn't have to worry about a thing for another 30 years.

Quadrant with broken cable tang on left and stripped out bolt on bottom left.

Steering stanchion before refurbishment.  Note on sides where fiberglass is broken away.

Refurbished and now to paint the rest of the compartment.