Removing H18 Corner Castings

Anybody know how to take the front corner castings off? Also, should the v-shaped dolphin striker rod just pull out after you take the nuts out of the castings? Seems like all of my stuff may be seized up.

Once I get them off, what is behind them. I need to get a compression tube down to where the dolphin striker is.

Hi,
I replaced both of my end castings last year : remove the front beam from the two hulls. Drill out the rivets holding your mast base in place. your dolphin striker (V -shaped rod) should feel loose now. Unscrew the nuts on the end of the DS so that they just are about to come off the thread. Tap with a hammer on the nuts. The DS should come loose, repeat for the other side. (always check you ' re not damaging the thread at the end of the DS, nuts must protrude the threads)
The inside of my end castings were eaten away by the SS rod going through the aluminium casting + salt water : not a happy combination. I re fitted the SS DS with a (heated) shrink wrap plastic covering to minimize erosion of the alu end cap.
Good luck !
Michel

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Michel

Yes, the dolphin striker rod should slide out of the casting after you take the nut off. Then the corner casting will slide out of the crossbar. It is quite common for the dolphin striker rod to be seized to the corner casting. Stainless steel rod inside of an aluminum casting. Good luck getting them apart. I have one that I am still working on.

If you can't get one side apart, try the other. If you can get one side of the dolphin striker loose, you can muscle it out by pulling / bending. Take the whole crossbar off first.

Jim

After you get the end caps off, there are aluminum brackets riveted to the inside of the crossbar. These are what hold the threaded inserts for the inboard crossbar bolts. In order to slide a sleeve in from one end of the crossbar, you would need to also remove one of these brackets.

Are you changing the dolphin striker post to a bolted connection like on the 17? If you look at the way the compression sleeve works on the 17 crossbar, the hole in the top of the crossbar is the same diameter as the OD of compression sleeve, so the sleeve just drops in from the top of the crossbar and then the top nut is what holds it in place- no need to go in from the end.

sm

I'm actually putting a 20 compression sleeve inside which does not fit. I could drill out the dolphin striker hole in the crossbar to fit, but it seems to me like that would defeat the purpose of the compression sleeve?

Matt

The setup on the 20 is the same as the 17. The compression sleeve drops in from the top of the crossbar, not from the end. The hole in the top of the crossbar is the same diameter as the OD of the compression sleeve.

Still trying to figure out why you'd need to install a compression sleeve on an 18 dolphin striker. The purpose of the compression sleeve is to prevent overtightening the dolphin striker nuts and denting the crossbar on boats that use the captive ball mast step system.

sm

I'm putting a ball on an 18 crossbar in order to support a Tiger mast. The hole on the 18 won't fit the 20 compression sleeve. Should I just drill out that top hole to where it will fit? It wouldn't be a stronger setup to go in from the side? In either case, I still need to get that v-bar out and its quite seized up. I've got some pb blaster soaking into the casting right now hoping that will loosen it up.

All I can tell you is that on the 17 and the 20, the compression sleeve drops down from the top, not in from the ends. The top hole is large enough for the sleeve to pass through. I think it would probably be stronger if it wasn't set up that way, but that's how it is. It would be a bit of a trick to get the sleeve in from the ends and lined up with the dolphin striker holes, especially on a curved crossbar.

You might not actually need to remove the dolphin striker rod (V bar). Since on the 18, the dolphin striker rod doesn't pass through a hole in the dolphin striker post (as it does on other models), instead it sits in a sleeve so you can remove the post without removing the rod. Just drill out the rivets on the mast step and pull the mast step and striker post up out of the crossbar. Then install the new dolphin striker post into the crossbar and down into the sleeve. I'm not sure if it'll work, but it might.

sm

I wish that were possible, but the dolphin striker has a nut and washer that must go on the bottom of the crossbar and therefore must be inserted from the bottom. In that case, there is no way to fit it in the sleeve on the rod without removing the rod.

I'm hoping I can tie a string around the sleeve and drop it in in whichever orientation is necessary for it to fall near the center and then flip it into proper position when its at the center. I don't know how tight the fit is. I think the guy who previously did this setup must have just drilled out the top though, so its probably fine.

I'm late to the party, but this might help.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Af7Q58FRk[/youtube]

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