Movement of pylon in corner casting

Noticed movement (side to side) between the pylon & casting when out the other day. Upon dropping the hull out of the casting found the bolt hole thru the the pylon was egg shaped (not round). I have read several postings here & on Thebeachcats site about epoxying the casting to the
pylon. I believe this may be my next step. My question is has any one tried 3M marine 5200 instead of Epoxy. I have used 5200 many times on
my monohull, but never between two pieces of metal( mostly fiberglass to aluminum). 5200 is supposed to cure with a nearly indestrutable bond, but may have a little flex? Any ideas, or is epoxy the best bet.

I just use aluminium shims. Make them out of pop cans, hang them over the pylon and drop the tramp frame on and its tight. I guess the ones I made last were like 2" wide and 6" long with a little hook at the top to hold them in place. Hope that helps.
cw

I thought of doing the samething maybe with aluminum or plastic. Just wasn't sure how long shims would last. Also thought of enlarging the hole in the corner casting & pylon, going with a larger bolt. Is this a common problem. I know of another boat locally(3 years newer) that has not had
this type problem. Also thought of enlarging the hole in the pylon & than
buying an aluminum pipe to insert which would make up the difference so as to use the same bolt, leaving the corner casting the same size. This area must take a huge amount of stress, so what ever I do I don't want to increase the amount of torque on the casting.

The elongation on the pylon will happen if the casting to pylon joint is slightly loose. If you 5200 them togeather, it will be very hard to disassemble if you need to in the future. Shims may not last for decades, but they will last for at least a season. The more snug you have this joint, the less wear you will experience.

Enlarging both the casting and pylon holes for a larger bolt should be fine. Just make sure the new assembly fits very snugly. I would reccommend shimming. I hate a more permanant fix. you never know why you will want to take the boat apart in the future.

_________________
Nick

Current Boat
In the market
Previous boats owned
'74 Pearson 30
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

Thanks for the replies. I plan on trying to insert the shims this
weekend, if weather is nice, sailing on sunday afternoon. Will see how it goes. if shims don't fill the gap I'll opt for a larger bolt (With shims.)
Again Thanks,

In think MBounds also suggested something like vinyl siding material.

This task is on our "to do" list when it warms up a bit. Please, let us know what you used and how it turned out.

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hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297

Its not easy to add the shims. I found that POP cans work best and have a rubber hammer to pound on the castings with.
I had success cutting 1.5" x 6" strips, folding over the top 1" to 'hook' over the top of the pylon. 3-4 around the pylon and stick the casting on and hopfully you're good.

How about using a feeler guage to check the gap and get an idea of how much material to use before pulling the castings off?

I liked the soft vinyl/plastic idea (with mallet application, thanks for reminding us Chris) because this would be more apt to fill any gaps.

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hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297

I did the shimming last year. I did not like the permanent solution with epoxy. I used brass sheet metal from a local sheet metal place ($5). I encountered the problem with the oval holes only in the rear pylons. To fix those I stepped one bolt size up and filed the holes round again. I had to order bolts to get the ones that were only threaded in an area that extended past the casting. Check your rear cross bar... mine had a # of rivets that were loose and needed to be replaced. Holes were widened - and I used the sleeves (as found on the mast) to shim.
Rockport... occasionally trailer the boat to corpus for the weekend and sail in the bird island basin area. That should be close to your place?


Patrick