My Hobie has the new rudder castings. I keep breaking the vertical plunger that is spring loaded. It keeps getting pushed out and jamming the cam so it will not lock down the rudder blade. Why does this keep happening?

Are you sure that it is the proper plunger? The Hobie 18 plunger is different from the Hobie 16 plunger. The H-18 is a different shape, more oblong than the H-16 which is round. The reason I ask is that I have found a few 18 castings with H16 plungers installed. How much tension are you putting on the spring with the tension screw?

the plunger is oblong. I ordered them from the hobie catalog. Tension... is with the screw still showing one or two threads. With less tension the blade will not stay down. ideas?

I have been in Hobies for 20 years and have never seen one break. This summer I have now seen three of these (yours are 4 and up) fail in a very short time.

I think in the past they were made solid and US made now they are hollow and offshore (like everything else). We lube them up every time we go out, that seems to help quite a bit. Tension is a zen thing, I set it on with the boat on the beach wheels where a tug on the bottom unlocks them. If they are popping up all the time there may be several reasons, one is tension is not enough, the other is cam is worn, the best thing to do is set them on the trailer, tension, toe, rake are all critical for them to work correctly.

I would buy new cams with the rebuildable screw set up and new plungers and call Hobie and see what they say. HTH, Richard.

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Lake Perry KS
H-18
N-5.5 UNI +spin
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all three are brand new from hobie and i use lots of marine grease. tension is not set very tight but i will try using less.

any pics of these plungers? it sounds like it could be a material spec issue...

do you have, can you borrow an old plunger to compare the sizes by micrometer, try and measure flex etc.

i don't know the hobie cam system much at all but if they are getting meshed up in there could they be too soft, could your marine grease be attaching the surface, softening them?

if it's just a plunger could you make your own out of some solid plastic stock?

another big read from a hobie site

http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=467



Edited by erice on Jul 18, 2012 - 05:24 AM.

Has anyone had any success avoiding this issue? I have the same issue now, I bought new plungers and I only get one or two sails out of them. Not much tension on the spring either... Anyone have suggestions for a good grease to use?

I've never had this type issue with the plungers. From what I understand, the problem is caused by defective castings, not the plungers themselves.

To lube the plungers and cams you can use any type waterproof grease. I use white lithium grease because I keep it in my toolbox to use on the trailer ball.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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