|
If you're not familiar with the internals of the 18 crossbars, basically, there are aluminum internal castings with stainless steel inserts that are riveted to the inside of the crossbars. These internal castings are what your inside crossbar bolts thread up into.
First thing I would do would be to pull off the crossbar end casting and remove the internal threaded casting. These parts are all just held in place with rivets. The opposite side of the internal casting should have the end of the bolt prodruding that you can grab onto with a pair of vice-grips. Give the whole thing a good long soak in WD-40 and then put the casting into a vice and try removing the bolt using vice grips. Hopefully this is all it takes.
But, if the bolt still won't budge, you'll probably have to drill it out and run a tap through. I had this happen once, and it was a major PITA. I thought I was going to have to scrap the casting, but a machinist friend was able to get the seized bolt out. So depending on your capabilities, the easiest solution may just be to scrap and replace the casting.
Once you repair or replace the casting, everything gets riveted back in place.
Regardless of the repair method, you definitely want to remember to coat the threads of all the bolts using anti-seize when you reassemble the boat, that is the most important thing.
sm
|
Login
Register
FAQ
