1992 H17 Sport Traveler Car I Shouldn't Have Removed

I have the rear crossbar of my 1992 H17 Sport removed and am going to polish it. In order to make it easier to polish, I took the end cap off of the traveler-car track and slid the traveler car off. When I did so, the ball bearings fell out and scattered all over my shop floor.

Are there any tricks to getting the bearings back in? I think I am going to have to put the traveler car in a vise to hold it level while I put the bearings back in, and then try to slide the rear crossbar onto the traveler car while still in the vise or something. That is going to be very difficult to do.

This will probably make the #1 entry on my "Things I did wrong during the restoration of my H17" list.

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave

Harken provided a " ball loader" with each traveler car. It is a (usually blue) plastic section that looks a little like an "I" beam. Slide the car on and then feed the bearings in t a small slot.



http://www.harken.com/traveler/qatravelerone.php

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Thank you, Matt!

--
Don

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave

I was able to get the traveler car back on the track, with the bearings, without the need for a special tool; however, it only worked because I currently have the boat disassembled. First, I propped the rear crossbar on a table so that one end of the crossbar was on the floor and the other end was on the table. The traveler-car track was facing the floor. This gave me about 2 feet of the crossbar above the table where I could work with the traveler car upside down.

Then, I disassembled the traveler-car assembly so that all that was left was the base of the traveler car. On the base, there are two screws on each side that hold a plate. I removed the screws and plate from one side and slid the traveler-car base onto the track just so it lined up with the end of the traveler-car track. Then I was able to push the bearings into the slots on the traveler-car base. When the bearings were in, then I put the side plate back on. Then re-assembled the traveler-car assembly.

Whew! I'm glad that is back on.

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave