Stainless Line Guide "Skene Chock" bolt failure

[solanderi]

Well it seems like this is going the same route as Jim. The “Bolt Out” device buried into the bronze bolt as advertised but when I torqued on it the bolt it broke off just like Jim’s experience above. So I will continue to try to make headway on this at about 1/4 to 1/2 inch at a time and report back. Jim, is there a stainless backing plate here that will need to be re-tapped ? Thank you for as many details that you can offer.

Greg

[Walter P]

I personally love the square drive (Robertson) screws. You need to be careful with your source of SS
screws as many if not most are not 316 grade. I recommend checking with Steve at Sam's Marine to
see if he has what you need. Nothing as disappointing as doing all that work and having your hardware
developing rust stains, especially when it was sold as marine stainless steel. If Sam's has what you need
it may cost a little more but you will have the real McCoy. Remember the old saying.."If you want nice
clean fresh grade A oats it costs so much a pound. If you're satisfied with oats that passed through the
horse first, it will be a little cheaper"

Walt

[solanderi]

Thank you Walt,

I will call Sam’s first thing tomorrow. I wanted to keep the OEM look so I will see what Sam’s can offer and then make the next best choice.

I am being chased off the boat for now secondary to some thunder and lightning action. To be continued....

Greg

[Pascal]

You ll have to drill in out, you can be sure there will be a lot sealant in the thread. Or maybe you can the chock 1/2” and just drill new holes

Be careful using square head bolts as you can put a lot of torque on them increasing the likelyhood of the bolt breaking.

[solanderi]

I’m still rained out over here so I am just trying to visualize the next steps. Apparently the bronze bolts are pretty much frozen and I will just keep at it with the Bolt Out device until it’s all out. The part I’m still not understanding is whether there is a metal plate in the deck or not. Jim wrote that he had to “put a plasti straw in each hole and pouring epoxy and silica in around the straw, then retapping each hole.” So it was just re-tapping the epoxy or a metal backing plate. Sorry that I asking these basic questions. Thank you,

Greg

[Walter P]

Greg, there is a metal plate that Hatteras imbedded into the gunwalls. The metal however is not stainless
steel, it is aluminum. When you finally succeed in removing the old screws (which is a PITA) you should
still run a sharp tap into the old thread to clean it out. Most of the time you will find that a PO or the
factory squirted caulk onto the threads as well as under the fixture. The thinking is that water can find
it's way along a less than perfect thread....which is usually the case, and drip. My process is not to get
too carried away with caulk and keep it off the threads. TefGel should be on the threads. The way I have
done mine in the past is to caulk the underside of the fixture without getting carried away. Carefully
hold the fixture just over the fiberglass and give a little coating of caulk onto the bottom of the screw
head letting it get down only about 1/4" or so into the screw hole of the fixture. Start the screws in the
imbedded plate and LIGHTLY snug them down. They should only be snug, but seated so that after a few
days you can tighten them properly. This procedure will ensure a good seal whereas tightening it all the
way during installation may not leave enough "spring" in the cured caulk. It actually took me longer to
write this down than actually doing the job.....

Walt

[jim rosenthal]

I used stainless bolts. Phillips head, I think I got them from Chesapeake Marine Fasteners. Now I would look for 316 SS, probably McMaster-Carr. But 304 would be okay.

[jim rosenthal]

The Series 2 45C is one of my favorite Hatteras yachts, by the way....

[solanderi]

So unfortunately the saga continues. After breaking the tip of the “Bolt Remover” off inside the stuck bolt, I went to Home Depot to get a bit that will chew thru the “Bolt Remover” tip and then into the culprit bolt. I bought several sizes of the Titanium Milwaukee Tools bits that show pictures of I beams on the side figuring that must be the right product. There were 2 other choices per the HD salesman, one was carbide and the other one was what tradesmen use because they can reshape now them. So I went with the premium Titanium.

The premium Titanium bits only spin on top of the “Bolt Remover”. Despite using a punch to give the tolitanium bit something to grab as well as prevent bit walking all I did was make noise and watch the bit spin around.

Maybe I should have bought the carbide or tradesmen bits.

I called Sam’s and the have the exact OEM replacement bolts so I will do a Ft Lauderdale rum tomorrow for that.

Alex at Sam’s told me that I am drilling out “Chrome over Brass” if that is useful info. TTYL,

Greg

[SEVEN]

Make sure when you are putting in new screws that you add a thread compound that is meant for dissimilar metals. You’ll have electrolysis under the deck and who knows if you’ll be able to get them out in the future.