Had to replace my engine control cables late last week. Steering system is a classic Edson pedestal with a Ritchie compass. Compass came off fine and then immediately my project turned into another project. The four screws holding the compass mounting plate and control housing to the pedestal wouldn't budge. These are 1/4 - 20 x 3.5 inch long slotted head stainless screws installed into an aluminum pedestal. Never apart in 28 years so they were seized badly.
Maine Sail recommended an electric impact driver so I figured I'd give it a try. Also PB Blaster was recommended. I soaked the screws for hours with PB Blaster. With a very large screwdriver I was finally able to get one screw to break loose and removed it. Still have bruises on my hand from the screwdriver handle digging in trying to turn it so hard. All the others I tried the impact driver but the first lesson was a slotted head screw is basically impossible to control the bit from sliding out from the impact driver. Too much risk of damage to surrounding parts to make this work. If the screws were Phillips head or hex head this might have worked.
I used a dremel (Black and Decker equivalent) with cut off discs to cut off the heads of the screws. Once the heads were gone the compass mount and control housing came off easily. Now I had three very long studs sticking up and frozen in the pedestal base. So the next recommendation was to use vice grips on the studs, another lesson it didn't really work well. The screws are so small in diameter that it was hard to get the vice grips to get a good bite on the screws, you have to use the very end jaw of the vice grips and they didn't hold well enough to turn the stud. Continued soaking with PB blaster throughout the day while attempting multiple removal techniques. I finally settled on using a small size pipe wrench. While also hard to get a good bite on the small screw I was finally able to get a second screw to turn a little, it was hard to tell if the screw was just twisting before breaking or actually turning in the hole, but I was prepared to drill and tap if needed. Working the screw back and forth a few times to break it free seemed to help, I finally freed it enough that I knew it was unscrewing and was able to remove it finally.
Turning my attention to the other two remaining studs I continued with PB Blaster and using the pipe wrench and for each one I was able to eventually break it loose, I tried a larger pipe wrench but was not able to get it to bite into the screws. In each case I was sure the screw would twist off and break but in each case it finally unscrewed. So after getting them all out I used some never seize on the threads of a good screw and worked it in and out of each hole until the threads turned freely by hand, running a tap down the holes would be another good practice to clean up the threads.
Pulling out the cables and cable clamp turned into another task, the clamp would not fit with the chain in the way on the sprocket, so into the rear propane locker to remove the vent hose and plastic liner, then into the quadrant to back off the tensioning screws for the steering cables. Maine Sail recommends nylon lock nuts but I had jam nuts on mine, so I will need to add lock nuts at a later date. You can always just thread a lock nut on top of the two jam nuts. Now with the chain out of the way I was able to get the clamp and cables pulled up enough for removal.
On reassembly instead of slotted head screws I went to the hardware store and purchased four hex head screws and four Phillips head screws ( I wasn't sure if the hex head would fit without interference so the extra four bucks would save me a trip back again. They also had nylon washers to put under the heads as I found in the original installation.
Edson sells "special coated" screws for 27 bucks for four of them to prevent the galvanic corrosion since they learned over the years I guess. I am guessing the coating is dry film lubricant, also known as electrofilm but am not sure, that is a very high price for four screws. The stainless screws I bought uncoated were about 1.20 each or call it 5 bucks for four. The hex head bolts went in perfectly with no interference making me wonder why Edson didn't use them in the first place? A socket wrench provides a much easier installation and removal method with far less chance of stripping the head. I coated the threads very liberally with Permaloc Never Seize compound (available at auto part stores). It looks just like what we used to refer to in aerospace as "silver goop." With all parts reassembled and the steering cables retightened all systems appear ready to go.
My final task was to rebed the screws in the base, Edson now uses hex head bolts for the base but mine are slotted head screws in countersunk holes. The nuts underneath were barely finger tight and one was pretty loose but removing the screws with the bedding compound on them was still tough. I tapped them with a hammer from below using the nut on the bolt to prevent damage to the threads on the end of the bolt. That worked well and then using the screwdriver to loosen them up for the last small amount of length. I then spent a copious amount of time cleaning the bolts and holes of old compound, and removing corrosion and salt residue from whatever leakage had occurred through the years. Once clean I made a large cone on each bolt with butyl tape and pressed it into the hole. Then with a helper holding a large screwdriver I tightened the nuts from below making sure the screw didn't turn to break the seal.
So now I have new control cables, a well lubricated steering system, a new fuel tank, new fuel pump and new Racor 500 MA large capacity fuel filter. In my spare time I took out my old Racor 120 and bought a small Facet cube pump at an auto store and made a polishing system for use in pumping out my tank annually, polishing the fuel if it needs it, and to polish any new fuel before it goes in the tank. The small pump is only about 25 gallons an hour but that will handle my whole tank in an hour.
Time to fire up the iron sail and head out to sea for trials then head north for fun and excitement.
For anyone with an old Edson I hope these lessons learned help. and since the compass comes out easily (three screws) it may be wise to remove annually and recoat those 4 long screws with never seize or equivalent. I also recommend getting a cover for the pedestal. Looking at prices for this stuff replacement is a fortune. Almost a grand for the base, over 500 for a wheel, almost 600 for the compass, almost 400 for the control housing, over three hundred for the pedestal guard, and a cheap vinyl compass cover is over 40 bucks now. Add in the idlers below deck and the system is over three thousand dollars, a few yards of sunbrella are worth the investment in making a pedestal cover to protect it. So now I have another project :>)
Maine Sail recommended an electric impact driver so I figured I'd give it a try. Also PB Blaster was recommended. I soaked the screws for hours with PB Blaster. With a very large screwdriver I was finally able to get one screw to break loose and removed it. Still have bruises on my hand from the screwdriver handle digging in trying to turn it so hard. All the others I tried the impact driver but the first lesson was a slotted head screw is basically impossible to control the bit from sliding out from the impact driver. Too much risk of damage to surrounding parts to make this work. If the screws were Phillips head or hex head this might have worked.
I used a dremel (Black and Decker equivalent) with cut off discs to cut off the heads of the screws. Once the heads were gone the compass mount and control housing came off easily. Now I had three very long studs sticking up and frozen in the pedestal base. So the next recommendation was to use vice grips on the studs, another lesson it didn't really work well. The screws are so small in diameter that it was hard to get the vice grips to get a good bite on the screws, you have to use the very end jaw of the vice grips and they didn't hold well enough to turn the stud. Continued soaking with PB blaster throughout the day while attempting multiple removal techniques. I finally settled on using a small size pipe wrench. While also hard to get a good bite on the small screw I was finally able to get a second screw to turn a little, it was hard to tell if the screw was just twisting before breaking or actually turning in the hole, but I was prepared to drill and tap if needed. Working the screw back and forth a few times to break it free seemed to help, I finally freed it enough that I knew it was unscrewing and was able to remove it finally.
Turning my attention to the other two remaining studs I continued with PB Blaster and using the pipe wrench and for each one I was able to eventually break it loose, I tried a larger pipe wrench but was not able to get it to bite into the screws. In each case I was sure the screw would twist off and break but in each case it finally unscrewed. So after getting them all out I used some never seize on the threads of a good screw and worked it in and out of each hole until the threads turned freely by hand, running a tap down the holes would be another good practice to clean up the threads.
Pulling out the cables and cable clamp turned into another task, the clamp would not fit with the chain in the way on the sprocket, so into the rear propane locker to remove the vent hose and plastic liner, then into the quadrant to back off the tensioning screws for the steering cables. Maine Sail recommends nylon lock nuts but I had jam nuts on mine, so I will need to add lock nuts at a later date. You can always just thread a lock nut on top of the two jam nuts. Now with the chain out of the way I was able to get the clamp and cables pulled up enough for removal.
On reassembly instead of slotted head screws I went to the hardware store and purchased four hex head screws and four Phillips head screws ( I wasn't sure if the hex head would fit without interference so the extra four bucks would save me a trip back again. They also had nylon washers to put under the heads as I found in the original installation.
Edson sells "special coated" screws for 27 bucks for four of them to prevent the galvanic corrosion since they learned over the years I guess. I am guessing the coating is dry film lubricant, also known as electrofilm but am not sure, that is a very high price for four screws. The stainless screws I bought uncoated were about 1.20 each or call it 5 bucks for four. The hex head bolts went in perfectly with no interference making me wonder why Edson didn't use them in the first place? A socket wrench provides a much easier installation and removal method with far less chance of stripping the head. I coated the threads very liberally with Permaloc Never Seize compound (available at auto part stores). It looks just like what we used to refer to in aerospace as "silver goop." With all parts reassembled and the steering cables retightened all systems appear ready to go.
My final task was to rebed the screws in the base, Edson now uses hex head bolts for the base but mine are slotted head screws in countersunk holes. The nuts underneath were barely finger tight and one was pretty loose but removing the screws with the bedding compound on them was still tough. I tapped them with a hammer from below using the nut on the bolt to prevent damage to the threads on the end of the bolt. That worked well and then using the screwdriver to loosen them up for the last small amount of length. I then spent a copious amount of time cleaning the bolts and holes of old compound, and removing corrosion and salt residue from whatever leakage had occurred through the years. Once clean I made a large cone on each bolt with butyl tape and pressed it into the hole. Then with a helper holding a large screwdriver I tightened the nuts from below making sure the screw didn't turn to break the seal.
So now I have new control cables, a well lubricated steering system, a new fuel tank, new fuel pump and new Racor 500 MA large capacity fuel filter. In my spare time I took out my old Racor 120 and bought a small Facet cube pump at an auto store and made a polishing system for use in pumping out my tank annually, polishing the fuel if it needs it, and to polish any new fuel before it goes in the tank. The small pump is only about 25 gallons an hour but that will handle my whole tank in an hour.
Time to fire up the iron sail and head out to sea for trials then head north for fun and excitement.
For anyone with an old Edson I hope these lessons learned help. and since the compass comes out easily (three screws) it may be wise to remove annually and recoat those 4 long screws with never seize or equivalent. I also recommend getting a cover for the pedestal. Looking at prices for this stuff replacement is a fortune. Almost a grand for the base, over 500 for a wheel, almost 600 for the compass, almost 400 for the control housing, over three hundred for the pedestal guard, and a cheap vinyl compass cover is over 40 bucks now. Add in the idlers below deck and the system is over three thousand dollars, a few yards of sunbrella are worth the investment in making a pedestal cover to protect it. So now I have another project :>)
