Rabbit hole

BillyK

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Jan 24, 2010
502
Catalina 310 Ocean City, NJ
I ended up drilling out the strut and floated the new cutlass bearing in place with epoxy for perfect alignment. My alignment with the keel has always been pretty good.
Does she pull hard to one side under power if you let the wheel go?
She goes pretty true while under power.. no real issues there. But i do notice that there is significantly less prop walk than my Catalina 30 had.. and i imagine this angle has something to do with it. I think the bend in the strut might be a camera artifact since it is straight when i look at it. Otherwise, its just off to an angle.
 

BillyK

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Jan 24, 2010
502
Catalina 310 Ocean City, NJ
Replaced the oil pan today..

Went with new bolts since the original were rusted.. point to remember if you ever do this job.. only get bolts as long as the threads are on the original.. i went with full threaded bolts that were the same length and they bottomed out in the block. Apparently the threads are not cut as deep as the original bolts are long.

i also got rid of that sump hose. Its just another point of failure and i change the oil out of the dipstick tube with a vacuum tool.

unnamed.jpg
 

BillyK

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Jan 24, 2010
502
Catalina 310 Ocean City, NJ
you were luck to get the bolts out. SS+AL+NACL =seize up!
Honestly, i don't know how the heads didn't come off the bolts with how much torque i had to put on them.. only 2 of the bolts were in there like that.. the other 6 came out relatively easily
 
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Dec 25, 2008
1,580
catalina 310 Elk River
The 2 rear port side twisted off on me with an impact wrench after 3 days of PB blaster. Fortunately by using replacement OEM mounts I had lateral adjustment to drill and tap new holes. Why manufactures don't get the SS+AL+NACL =seize up factor I will never know...at least put anti seize on them!
 
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BillyK

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Jan 24, 2010
502
Catalina 310 Ocean City, NJ
Finally made some more progress today.. Straightened out the strut.. installed the new shaft, new PSS, new cutlass bearing, and rebuilt transmission. here's a pic on how i straightened the strut .. that's a piece of mahogany.
IMG-4085.jpg


it was far easier to straighten that i expected... i had to adjust the twist on the strut once it was straight and i was able to do that with the old shaft as a lever in the cutlass.

Next on the agenda is to align the shaft-trans interface and setup the PSS.

Will be nice to not have the salon look like it was hit by a hurricane at some point.. Does anyone else feel like any onboard project totally overcomes the space inside with tools, parts, cushions, and everything else everywhere???
 

DArcy

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Feb 11, 2017
1,690
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
Does anyone else feel like any onboard project totally overcomes the space inside with tools, parts, cushions, and everything else everywhere???
Yes, sounds pretty familiar.
 

JRT

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Feb 14, 2017
2,037
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
Nice update. My strut bolts had signs of leaks at some point (Cutlass replacement?) that was repaired so you might double check those before you splash.
 
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Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Ya mean a mess in the boat during a project?? This during my compression post fix:
P3310856.JPG
 
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BillyK

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Jan 24, 2010
502
Catalina 310 Ocean City, NJ
Nice update. My strut bolts had signs of leaks at some point (Cutlass replacement?) that was repaired so you might double check those before you splash.
Good point.. i did inspect the nuts that i could see inside the hull and they appear ok.. I've never really paid any attention to the strut before on any of my boats since i've never had any issues that would require it.. When i got the design documents on how they lay up the fiberglass on these hulls to capture the strut i was really impressed with the amount of glassing used. Would seem that its one of the strongest parts of the boat other than the keel attachment points... I'm glad that i didn't have to remove it, that's for sure..
 

BillyK

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Jan 24, 2010
502
Catalina 310 Ocean City, NJ
The discovery continues! got down to the boat on Saturday to do some cleaning and the cabin smelled like the inside of a diesel tank! a little poking and i found that the source was the tank itself! So Sunday i went back and pumped out the tank and removed it.. (4 hour job, 2 of which was removing silicone around the propane tank insert so i could lift it up to get the tank out.. SILICONE ARG!).. Got the tank home and here's what i found after wire wheeling off the dirt and paint.

tank.jpg


interior shot where you can see the actual pin hole

tank2.jpg


Repair or Replace???
 

Tom J

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Sep 30, 2008
2,301
Catalina 310 Quincy, MA
The discovery continues! got down to the boat on Saturday to do some cleaning and the cabin smelled like the inside of a diesel tank! a little poking and i found that the source was the tank itself! So Sunday i went back and pumped out the tank and removed it.. (4 hour job, 2 of which was removing silicone around the propane tank insert so i could lift it up to get the tank out.. SILICONE ARG!).. Got the tank home and here's what i found after wire wheeling off the dirt and paint.

View attachment 175569

interior shot where you can see the actual pin hole

View attachment 175570

Repair or Replace???
I think I would replace the tank. The pinhole could be repaired, but that amount of corrosion would indicate the possibility of more leaks in the future. Shortly after I bought my C310, I discovered a leak in the fuel tank, and it was a pinhole in a weld at the seam. I took the tank to a shop that specializes in aluminum welding, and they repaired it, but that tank was only two years old, and had no corrosion. I did talk to Frank Butler about the possibility of warranty coverage, since it was obviously a manufacturing defect, but he pointed out that the warranty had expired. Oh, well.
 

dmax

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Jul 29, 2018
971
O'Day 35 Buzzards Bay
You can have a new, thicker bottom welded onto to that tank for much less than a new one.
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
We are reading through and discussing Everett Collier's book, 'The Boatowner's Guide to Corrosion". Sailboat Owner's Guide to Corrosion - Basic Theories (Collier 1-4)
There are descriptions of spot corrosion in fuel tanks and such that result from poor, chipped or worn paint jobs or contact with bilge water and another metal. There is probably an underlying problem that needs to be addressed, not just a fuel tank that needs repair.
I think most of the other participants in the corrosion thread feel aluminum is a poor choice for fuel tanks.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
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