Couple of concepts for you. First, using your stainless sleeve idea, explore a Helicoil. Many grease fittings are 1/8 NPT.
https://www.amazon.com/Recoil-36028-Thread-Repair-Inserts/dp/B00KGO2DK0 A Helicoil (thread repair fitting) will give you increased hold in the fiberglass tube. I suspect you have a bit of room between the inside of the tube and the rudder shaft. If you mark your drill bits with tape for maximum depth, I'm thinking you can enlarge the hole with consecutively larger bits before tapping with the tap supplied with the thread repair kit. Insert the coil then install the grease fitting. Another concept would be to leave the existing hole as it is and epoxy a layer or layers of glass on the outside of the tube. You could glass the grease fitting in as you apply the layers. Alternatively, you could clone the outside diameter of the tube, fabricate a "patch" with the fitting epoxied into it and then epoxy the patch on the outside of the tube lining the fitting up with the existing hole. Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA On Sat, Mar 7, 2020 at 9:15 PM Paul Hood via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > I tried to grease the rudder post on my '81 C&C34 last year and the nipple > when touched, fell out of the fibreglass and in my hands. I could see what > appeared to be the stainless rudder post through the hole. I was going to > enlarge the hole, put a larger stainless sleeve in first then insert a > nipple or a hose to a nipple. My questions is, can I drill out the > fibreglass, deep enough without damaging the shaft and when I epoxy the > sleeve in place, can it be done without having epoxy get into the shaft > area. Also, not knowing the construction, is there a bushing of some sort > wrapping the rudder post or does it just move in the fibreglass encasing > with grease. I'm hoping not to remove the rudder to do this. The rudder > moves freely and is not wobbly at all. I just want to get grease in there > and maintain this long term. > > Thanks, > Paul Hood > '81 C&C34 Georgian Bay > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each > and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - > use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > >
_______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
