New tiller fit

baaadman

baaadman

New Member
I have a 1973 Laser with the wooden rudder, centerboard and tiller. Last week I broke the tiller during the 2nd death roll. I got a new one but the wedge is a little too large to fit in the rudder head. I can grind it down to fit, but wondering if that's normal. Maybe the early rudders were made a little different?
 
You didn't mention what the material of the new tiller is where it's inserted in the rudder head, but it is normal to have to a little sanding/shaping - they make them oversize so you can get the tightest fit (which is what most people want) which gives a more precise feel in all conditions and can be critical in heavy air downwind
 
it should be a tight fit, you don't want to force it in and not be able to get it out though,

what I do when I get a new tiller is apply some dish soap on the end to help it slip in to place, you'll want to repeat this for a while and eventually you won't have to use any soap. Even with a tight fit you should still use the pin to lock it in place, to make the new key hole put the tiller and rudder together, then drill through the hole on the rudder assembly into the tiller deep enough so the pin sits as low as it can.

You'll find that the tight fit gives you much better feel
 
Before you start grinding away be aware of the fact that the rudder stock from an old boat is a very different shape.

New rudder stocks have a squarish profile where the tiller fits in. If yours is original it is most likely rounder along the top surface. You could fit a new tiller to it but it would require a lot of shaping with a file or even a dremal.

If the one you got to replace it with is aluminium, hack away and it will fit eventually.
 
Sean said:
New rudder stocks have a squarish profile where the tiller fits in. If yours is original it is most likely rounder along the top surface. You could fit a new tiller to it but it would require a lot of shaping with a file or even a dremal.
Click to expand...

That was exactly the case when I bought my new carbon tiller, I had an old stock. Rather than seriously modify the carbon tiller I decided to spend yet more money on a new stock, worth it in my opinion as if I change boats/stocks and keep the tiller I wont have to rebuild it with epoxy later
 
Thanks for all the replies. I thought some shaping to get a tight fit would be a good thing. My shaping may be a little more than most - mostly the sides at top of the wedge. Glad to have some experts to check with before I started hacking!
 
I had to do this when I replaced a wooden tiller with aluminum tube. Basically you need to:

  • Change the slope of the top to match the old stock. I did this by filing/planing a bit of material off the top as well as taking a mm of thickness from the ridge where it sits on the stock.
  • Rounding off the two top edges to match the radius at the top of the stock.
If you do it by progressively testing the fit it should be a firm fit with no movement. Because mine is a tight fit I take the tiller off while its on the boat.

Ta Ian
 
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