31' 1987 Hunter Chainplate Rebed Question!!

[Swan]

We have what seems at the moment to be a normal situation with no damage and no repair needed to the tierod, deck plate, or angle iron...
We are looking for basic instructions on how to rebed the deck plates as part of the chainplates on our 1987 31' Hunter..... After reading every thread and looking at every diagram on this issue, I fear this could ultimately be a frustrating job that should be easy. Here are my burning questions for anyone who has successfully rebed the deck plates on their 1987 31' Hunter.
1. Is there a locking nut welded OR attached to the tierod under the angle iron base.
2. If so, how do you access it without cutting holes in your hull or liner?
3. If no locking nut is there, will the angle iron drop after the tierod releases? (I have read that can happen)
4. Can we just loosen the tierod, keeping most of the thread in the angle iron enough to apply butyl under the deck plate and re- tighten?
If anyone has successfully done this project, please share your thoughts.

One last point about our situation. Our boat has an additional threaded hole in each angle iron which seems to be from the factory. All photos I've seen of other boats only have one where the tierod is screwed in. Was this a new design on the 1987's? If so I wonder what the purpose of that was?

HELP!! And thank you of course!

 

[kloudie1]

Chainplates

I am not an expert on this one, but I do know that there were boat-to-boat variations in the way that the angle iron was installed. The 31 is almost identical to the 34, so if you search threads for the 34, you'll find some info. What I know: All of the factory installs had a big nut welded to the underside of the angle iron. Some had locking nuts put onto the tie rod before it was threaded into the angle iron. Many did not, relying on the deck plate to hold the tie rod from turning. Some of the boats had a second hole in the angle iron and fiberglass where a short bolt was used to anchor the angle iron and provide a bonding wire attachment to the keel.. You can see from my attached picture that mine has no lock nut and a hole but no bolt in the hole. I suspect that it was used to final position the angle iron to allow the tie rod to be threaded in. I would put a long bolt into that hole to allow me to position the angle iron after the tie rod is removed. I would remove the bolt after the tie rod is re-attached. A few forum members have re-bedded the deck plate by carefully marking the tie rod insertion, then removing the little deck plate screws. Next carefully cutting the existing sealant using something like high test fishing string.. then unscrewing the plate from the top. Of course, if you have the mast on, you have to slack all the shrouds and support the mast with a halyard on the side you are removing.

 

[Swan]

Thank you!!! That is great info to add to our knowledge. Our situation is the same as what I see in your photo. I'll be a bit more confident about removing the tierod if what you say about the nut being welded underneath is correct and not just screwed into the tierod. We thought the same about the extra hole. Use it to our advantage while removing the tierod and keep the angle iron in place. We have no locking nut above the angle iron. (I was confused thinking that was what is welded underneath which made no sense). The mast is down which will make things easier if we can get this done before launching on a few weeks. We have looked at the 34' diagram and threads and recognize the similarities. What you've added clears up a bit more. I'll take any other input anyone can share as well but things are looking up! One more question....
1. Do you know the reason for the welded nut underneath? More strength perhaps?

 

[kloudie1]

Laughing.. not to be flippant, but it is to hold the nut in place for fabrication. Once the grid is glued into the hull, the angle can no longer be accessed .. so the angle iron has to go in and be held in place on the structural grid as the grid is placed and glued into the hull. It is quite a job to get the angle out for replacement.. Hunter recommended slicing a hole through the hull to pull it, then re-glassing the hole after replacement.. Moral of that story is to not allow any leakage to corrode the angle iron. Good luck with the re-bedding.. get a couple of pictures as it comes up and goes back in ! Some folks have had failures of a corroded angle iron..Some of that is documented in the H-34 posts..

 

[Swan]

I've seen the tales of corroded angle iron and tierods. My hope is that we will not have serious issues but there is definitely some rust seen on the angle iron in our case. I scraped and it seems to be just surface but ohhhh boy. We shall see.

 

[heart of gold]

I removed the tie rods a few years ago for rebidding when I had the mast down and as stated you can use the extra threaded hole to hold on to the angle iron. The tough part was getting the deck side screws out. They thread in to an aluminum plate. You may need an impact screw remover to get them going. I re installed with anti oxidant. I also scoped out the angle iron using a snake camera that I was able to thread into a hole where the water lines come out just aft of the main bulkhead. Mine still had a fair bit of original paint and looked solid thank heaven. There is a good mod on this site showing how one owner did the job from inside. Look in the mods under hunter 34.

 

[Swan]

Thanks for all the great info on this! We may be doing this in the fall so if something terrible happens we'll have time to think it through.