Keel bolt holes

[Bill Ramsey]

Looked under the boat today and found that the swing keel is about to fall off. One of the left side piviot block bolts is gone and the other looks to be half out. The right side appears to be about a half inch low. I couldn't determine if the hole where the bolt is missing is stripped or if the bolt just worked loose. Worst case, if the bolt hole is stripped, am I just looking at drilling and tapping for the next size bolt or could there be more to the repair.

 

[David]

Keel Bolts

I just found the same thing on my boat. I used a bottom tap to clean the threads on all 4 of the nuts and installed new bolts torqued to 25 foot pounds, not sure what the torque specifications is suppose to be. So far, everything is fine.David

 

[Ed Mollencupp]

Try This

When you make the repair put some good thread lock on new bolts after you clean the threads.catalina says 30ft pounds of torque.Good Luck,its not a bad repair

 

[Dick of Sylvan]

Sleeves?

I've not had your problem, but my son had a similar problem on the exhaust manifold of his Suburban. It leaked, he'd have it fixed and it would leak again. Finally he had a friend who found a stripped thread in one of the bolt holes. He bored it larger and used a bolt sleeve that made the bolt oversize to fit the newly threaded hole. And it works! Might be something similar that could be done for our keel bolts if we strip threads though we'd have to watch out for differing metals that could lead to corrosion. Never overtighten keel bolts and threadtite on the threads or a bit of epoxy at the bolt head can help keep them there. Dick

 

[Shane]

Catalina direct kit

I ordered the kit from catalina direct for replacing the bolts and it came with a locktight kit for the bolts.