O'day 322 Keel Bolt Tightening

[Mike Rhodes]

Anyone have any idea on how often the keel bolts should be tightened and to what torque spec? I seem to have a slight leak from around one of the keel bolts into the bildge. Not sure if the nuts on the bolts need tightening or if the seal between the keel and the hull needs to be sealed. Anyone have this problem?

 

[Justin - O'day Owners' Web]

Leaking

Its next to impoosible to tell with certainty without seeing the boat, but I would have someone with some fiberglass experience look at the boat with you. Tightening the bolts may prevent the leak from entering the bilge but not from intruding into the keel stub - weakening it. Obviously a bad thing.If I have to guess from here I'd guess that you need to seal the joint and then tighten the bolts but I'd want to know for certain.Justin - O'day Owners' Web

 

[Dave]

Creep

Creep does not refer to the character of the writer of the question or to previous responders. It refers to what happens to metal under continuous stress and strain over an extended period of time. It is especially a problem at elevated temperatures like for turbing blades on jet engines. Basically over time the material stretches (plastic deformation) even though it is below the yield point on the stress - strain curve. Since your keel weighs about 4000 lbs? and it is supported by 4? keel bolts you can assume each bolt is constantly supporting about 1000 pounds of force, take a little away for the bouyancy of the keel in the water and the non uniform distribution of the force. Now subject the bolts to continuous bending as the boat bounces around in the waves and the keel is displaced off verticle. Since O'Day has been out of business for a long time your boat is probably about 10 years old? so there are a lot of bending cycles under the keel. Justin is correct, your keel should be re-bedded and the keel stub checked for water infiltration. I've never seen the torque specified for the bolts but you can use standard torques for the bolt size from a machinists handbook, I'm sure you can find something using the Web.good luckdave

 

[J.B. Dyer]

Archives

If you will check the archive section on this site you will find several queries concerning keel bolts. One of the articles cite 160ft. lbs. of torque. There are several well written responses in that foremat and you might find some of them interesting.Good Luck!

 

[Bob Todd]

I posted 160lb/ft...

...but that was for the 272LE/272. However, even if the keel bolts are the same size it doesn't mean they are the same torque.Referring to torque tables is terrific if you are looking for the maximum torque for a given bolt size and thread type. However, if you approach this torque range for this particular application you risk crushing fibers, cracking gel-coat, and compressing glass mat allowing water intrusion.Rudy Nickerson would know what the torque specs are for this model, however, he is closed until 6 January. I'll be visiting him then and I'll get the specs for you.Cheers,BobLinkage below to my home page