Deck Organizer Removal

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Larry Stewart

I need to replace one of the rollers on my deck organizer under the sea hood of my 1998 376. The screws are large phillips that hold the organizers but I cannot get the screw to turn. Have anyone out here removed an organizer before and if so how? Not sure if the screw bolts through the cabin roof, if so, I cannot locate how to get to the underside of the organizer. Any thoughts would be appreciated. ....Larry...
 
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Amanda

Tough job....

If you are talking about the same thing we have on our 40.5, the bolts were seized and we had to pay someone to come and loosen them to remove the panel (with a wrench and a hammer to turn the wrench, basically). The traveler bar needs to come off, and all of the other screws around the perimeter come off, then the panel will lift. There was a way to get to some of the bolts from inside the head and salon (triangular little panel with screws), but no way to get to the main screws from below. Hope that helps...
 
Dec 2, 2003
1,637
Hunter 376 Warsash, England --
I Did

Larry, I did just this about 5 years ago. My H376 is 1996 so it was about 5 years old at the time. The Philips head screws were seized too. I used lots of WD40 and after waiting some time, using a considerable amount of force, including one of those percussion tools, they came out. It was a nerve wracking time as I did not want to damage the deck nor ruin the screw heads. I guess if I had ruined the screws the option still existed to drill them all out, remove the organiser and grip the studs with a mole wrench. In the event it didn't come to that. I was replacing the existing sheaves with roller bearing types for the main halyard. More recently I did a test on my main halyard by hanging the Admiral on a bosun's chair and lifting her just off the deck with the halyard winch. Then I tied a spring balance on to the winch handle and pulled. It took 20 lbs to move her. So I took the halyard completely out of both organisers and ran it from the mast heel, over the coach roof and direct to the rope clutch. Repeating the test it now required only 10 lbs to raise her. ie. 50% of the winch power is lost in the organisers. Since then I have re-run the main sheet as well. In my case I have a tubular stainless steel guard for the dorade vents so I have put a small sheave on this to divert the ropes away from the dorades. It only puts a very small kink into the line so I doubt it affects the friction very much. For mote details see "Today I Hung the Admiral - (H 376 Main Halyard)" in the archives. Good luck.
 
Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
Be sure to use Tef-gel when you replace.

Larry: One of those impact tools that you hit with a hammer may do the job. If you have a large (long handled) phillips head screw driver that would allow you to put an end wrench on it that may help too. Be sure to use Tef-gel on the screw threads when you replace the screws. I think you have galling from the disimilar metals (stainless & aluminum).
 
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