H37C sheave bushing? Picture included

[voyaJack]

Hi,

The mast is down on my 1984 H37C. I decided it was a good idea to try to clean the sheave (one of which was frozen). I succesfully removed what I would describe as a "sheave bushing" (see picture) for the main halyard, but the other one broke off. So the bushing is stuck inside.

Anyone knows if it's still possible to find that part somewhere? I'm a bit lost in the rigrite.com catalog, plus I'm not sure what brand of mast I have. Any information would help.

The alternative is to leave the bushing inside, and screw a protective plate outside, but that's only delaying a problem down the road (e.g., when I absolutely have to do maintenance on the sheave). Any other creative solution is welcome.

Thank you,
-Jack

 

[Jim Legere]

Hi Jack,
You can get the sheave pins here.

BTW, I maintain the H37C database; you might be interested in having your vessel particulars entered or updated and to have a copy of the database, which includes supplier information and model year variations as well as boats and owners. If you wish to participate, please send the HIN, boat name & home port via a PM or email to jameslegere[at]eastlink[dot]ca.

 

[Johnb]

Jim, great reply. I am also interested because I am planning new standing rigging in the next few months.

Jack, do those axle pins come out of the places you can see in the attached pictures, on taken at the mast head and one at the staysail sheave. Also, what is the condition of the sheaves. Please let us know how it turns out.

It seems smart to fix that all when you have the mast down. The pictures are from my mast paint job in 2002 (before repainting)

 

[tmjb]

I have the closely related H36. It's an '81.

I'm pretty sure that The mast is a Kenyon 5280 CR with Kenyon 3550 boom & SP4 airfoil spreaders.

I'm guessing they're likely to at least be the same make.

Hope this helps.

 

[ggrizzard]

I'm doing a mast re-hab right now.
Go to "Kenyon Spars" on Google.
Or go here: http://www.rigrite.com/Spars/Kenyon_Spars/KENYON.html#spreader sections
You'll end up at Rig Rite's site. Select bushings and check availability by size.
Remember wear and distortion if using calipers.
My 1979 H30C bushings were there.

 

[voyaJack]

Finally coming toward completion on the mast re-hab project. For the sheave axle pin, I ended up drilling a small hole on the opposite side, and used a punch to get the broken axle pin out of the sheave. I sealed the hole, and I'm actually quite happy to have drilled it since this is a better design IMO than having to pull on that axle pin.

Thank you Jim, that axle pin from rigrite.com is exactly what I needed. I ended up having to redrill a screw hole for it but that was easy.

@John: yes, the axle pin come out of there. Be careful when pulling that plate on, it's attached to the pin itself, and you'll break it if you pull too hard. But as you can see, it's not a huge deal if you break it. Just drill a hole on the opposite side and punch it out. The sheaves were okay, I cleaned them as best as I could, and reinstalled them with lanocote around so they wouldn't freeze. Out of the 4 sheaves in my mast, the 2 that weren't used were completely frozen. They can now move freely, although I don't really have a use for them.

I ended up doing a modification which could be interesting to others with the same mast (which has a wire track). I cut off the protection for the wire track about 2 feet at the bottom. So now, instead of the wires coming out of a hole, they come out straight toward the bilge. The major benefit of this is that I can now access the wire tracks at 4 locations by 1) removing the boom 2) removing the mainsail 3) unscrewing the boom plate that is holding that plate on 4) sliding the track protector down by about 1 foot, and sliding the sail tracks by 1 foot. This gives me clear access at the top of the mast if I need to change wires, or refish a line, etc. Plus, it gives me 4 access points where I was able to attach my wires to with zip ties. The only down side is that the connector plate is not supported by the mast step anymore, I added a machine screw to help relieve the tension.

Hope this helps.