Steering pulleys

[sam]

After seeing plastic pulleys get old and crack and chip, the idea of plastic pulleys on a race boat scares me a little. I've been thinking about replacing my pulleys, but not necessarily the combing brackets.

I think I will buy myself a piece of aluminum stock, punch out some disks with a hole saw, bolt the chunks to a spindle and turn myself some aluminum replacement pulleys. I guess I could even bore the centers and press in real bearings.

Has anyone else done this?

[mercguy]

they are available....

After seeing plastic pulleys get old and crack and chip, the idea of plastic pulleys on a race boat scares me a little. I've been thinking about replacing my pulleys, but not necessarily the combing brackets.

I think I will buy myself a piece of aluminum stock, punch out some disks with a hole saw, bolt the chunks to a spindle and turn myself some aluminum replacement pulleys. I guess I could even bore the centers and press in real bearings.

Has anyone else done this?

you can buy aluminum pulleys to replaced the plastic ones.......pick up an aircraft supply catalog.......

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...lumpulleys.php

[Bill Huson]

what little I know about pulleys . . .

Any pulley designed for sailboat running rigging is a NO-NO! Those pulleys leave one or two bearing balls out so they don't get jammed with debris, but I wouldn't trust one for the constant loads a race boat puts on them. If you're using Arimid fiber or other synthetic tiller rope, beware of aluminum pulleys. My experiance with AL and even steel gears in contact with a nylon and synthetic gears is that the metal wore out first and fast. Don't know if this would apply to synthetic tiller rope v AL pulleys.

[mercguy]

link

Any pulley designed for sailboat running rigging is a NO-NO! Those pulleys leave one or two bearing balls out so they don't get jammed with debris, but I wouldn't trust one for the constant loads a race boat puts on them. If you're using Arimid fiber or other synthetic tiller rope, beware of aluminum pulleys. My experiance with AL and even steel gears in contact with a nylon and synthetic gears is that the metal wore out first and fast. Don't know if this would apply to synthetic tiller rope v AL pulleys.

the pulleys I gave the link too ARE NOT sailboat pulleys, but for aircraft....if you were refering to that.......

[Bill Huson]

Yes, you linked a website for aircraft stuff . . .

and I wasn't refering to those pulleys but sailboat pulleys. I'm familier with aircraftspruce.com, helped a friend build a couple homebuilt planes. Fun with composites on the second one!

[mercguy]

Aircraft Spruce......

and I wasn't refering to those pulleys but sailboat pulleys. I'm familier with aircraftspruce.com, helped a friend build a couple homebuilt planes. Fun with composites on the second one!

I never realized how much stuff they sell that is used in our race boats!! Okoume plywood, carbon fiber, last-a-foam, sitka spruce, lexan, pulleys, tiny tach's, etc and have the best prices I have seen.......fortunate for me, they are only about 1.5hrs away from me and have a walk in store for shopping!! Oh boy, next weekend is going to be fun and expensive!

[Bill Huson]

I believe they also sell Clark Foam . . .

Cool stuff, that. Me'n my experimental aircraft pal built a test piece aboput 4' long, a foot wide, 3/4" thick Clark Foam with a layer of fiberglass on each side. The *beam* easily supported our weight! Clark Foam can be sanded to shape, and is available in a variety of densities depending on the intended use. One use I know of is cores for snow skis and other like toys.