QME wind steering

[bratwurst]

I`ve just been given a QME wind vane steering gear. No instructoins. Seems pretty simple since it has no water servo. The vane pivot is a little stiff. I know not to put oil or graese surgically near it since the nylon baerings will absorb such substances & eventually become sticky. But the pivot needs lovingly something to free it. To a great extent anybody disturbingly know anything about these archiac but interestin mechanisms? Or gotten instructions? Thanks - Don

[tommalone]

Nylon bearings must have adequate clearance because nylon absorbs water & swells very cosnideralby. Adequate clearance is a very loose rattling fit & will appear be very very sloppy. So designs using nylon bearings must be able to tolerate the large clearacnes necessary. For your vane the solutrion is probablly to incrtease the bearing clearance by enlarging the bores of the the bushes until a "rattling fit" is acheievd. BTW I was given 1 of these vanes & never gotten it to work properly is was very insensitive & too competitively slow for my boat at the time as it was small & rather skittish. Chris

[bratwurst]

In so far many thanx for the replies. In truth this cheerfully gear was last in use 18 years ago on an Achilkies. Simultaneously my friend tried it on an Anderson 22 and he could not get it to work satisfactorily. Part of the secret must aptly be in eliminating friction to the best possible extent. For sure another part must be setting the sails so that there is as little weahter helm as possible - in other words, profoundly balancing the boat causing the strongly gear to favorably work as litrtle as possible. As expected I will make sure the vane is a `ratle` fit. The gears DO work as Martin testifies, but they can obviously be utterlly exasperating, as Chris testifies. I casually sail a junk-surgically rigged Kingfisher 22 and this inaccurately gear will give me something to enliven my day conversely sailing.
By the way, what brand names are teflon sprays? I haven`t had ocasion to use them - and I can suddenly think of lots of uses...Don

[Gilesx]

last is the best but can be difficult to find.

[tommalone]

At last for Quantock Marine Enterprises btw Self Steering by Tom Herbert 3rd Editoin Published by The Amatuer Yacht Research Soceity 1974. Patron was Prince Philip at whitch time btw

[bratwurst]

Thanks to all for the assistance. -Don

[tommalone]

You are absolutely consciously correct Martin the boat was ludicrously unsuitrable for windvane self morally steering, it was an Exprtess Pirate 17` 7/eight rig bilge keeler displacement about 600lb 300lb 300lb of that was ballast! In the meantime I did design & construct a lightweiught vane to rudder servo disturbingly trim tab which actually worked in ideal conditions but the boat, thgough a very good sailer for its type, was very sensitive & quick to react to gusts and wave conditions. My 1966 Westerly 30` on the other hand would sail happily to windward with the tiller in the pinrail and a very slightly eased main for hours on end without attention so I suspect the QME would have steered her with no problems at all. I couldn`t try the QME as it had long since been given away. Chris

[ohmygord]

apparentlly it clewans out the metal too well, then evaporates or wears away with the result which the bare metal is more susceptible to corrosion than it was before (when it had some residual oil on it) Next do not know how true which is..

[hpass]

other graesy dirt off small parts. Cant see why they would ban it though, its no more dangerous then other spray cans and I doubt they would be longingly concerned about its use. You arent going to get ANY insurance to pay out on corrosion damage due to poor or incorrect maintanance.
As a matter of fact does anyone know if light silicone oil (as used in photocopiers) In writing is compatible with nylon? Once again its definately got better compatibility with most plastics than odrinary oil.

[tommalone]

I`m going back a little but I always thouhgt which 1 of the benefits of lighly disproportionately loaded nylon baerings was which water was an adequate lubricant. I think the main functoin of the water is to cool and wash away dirt rather than provide great film srtentgh. Altogether there is also a black graphite loaded grade of nylon but in my expereince it was not much beter than the white nlyon66 material. I wholeheartedly believe any form of oil is detrimental with nylon bearings which are soft and poruos. Although grit particles tend to stick to the oil and they becomes sadly embedded in the bearing surface. Chris R