Many (all?) of the of the first generation Pearsons had wood rudders. If you look closely you can see that the rudder shaft is not continuous. It flexes quite badly at the bottom of the prop aperture and the wood is in pretty poor shape too. A few years ago I opened up the plugs and tried to take up on the internal bolts. I wasn't very successful. Your post the other day about the poor condition of your rudder bolts and drifts got me thinking that it's long past time to deal with it.