My Catalina has 1" studs and the torque is specified to be 235 ft-lb. There are 9 of them. My bilge was left pretty ugly by the PO 5 years ago and other than scrubbing it the best I could and re-setting the float switch for the bilge pump, I have pretty much ignored the bilge as long as it didn't have any obvious problems. I finally decided to remove & replace the nuts so I could clean up the steel backing plates. I had hoped to actually remove the plates and get them polished or replaced. But they appeared to be epoxied into place so the job looked way to daunting and I didn't have a good reason to disturb them. So, I polished them with a dremel brush the best I could. I bought new 316 ss nuts and lock washers and decided to replace the old even though the old looked pretty much ok. The old lock washers had significant corrosion-like stains, but didn't appear to have any loss of metal. The plates were slightly pitted in spots, though. This is a 25-year old Catalina by now.
I found 2 nuts of the 9 that I can't get off with a socket, though. They are too close to the sidewalls of the bilge and the socket can't get a grip. In fact, one of them was not even tightened down securely. there is about a quarter-inch gap between the loose lock washer and the bottom of the nut! So much for quality control!
I torqued 4 nuts yesterday. I lubed the studs and the nuts and each nut turned freely when started. I torqued each on gradually up to 175 ft-lb. I have 2 - 1.5 inch sockets. One is just a mild steel socket (silver chrome finish) and the other is a bit beefier, with a black finish. The fit was too tight for the black socket at 2 bolt locations. I could only approach 235 ft-lb by doing a leg press. The 2 nuts in the aft section of the keel were able to be torqued to 235 with the black socket. I could not torque the 2 in the forward section of the keel to 235. The wrench could be pressed forward a significant distance without clicking and it would spring back when the force was released. It seems that the silver socket may be factor. It was also clear that the extension bar was able to twist quite a bit in torque. I was worried about the breaking point.
In any case, I can get at just 3 of the 4 bolts in the center section. I need another few dremel wire brushes to clean up the plates & bilge so I'll tackle that on another day.
I found 2 nuts of the 9 that I can't get off with a socket, though. They are too close to the sidewalls of the bilge and the socket can't get a grip. In fact, one of them was not even tightened down securely. there is about a quarter-inch gap between the loose lock washer and the bottom of the nut! So much for quality control!
I torqued 4 nuts yesterday. I lubed the studs and the nuts and each nut turned freely when started. I torqued each on gradually up to 175 ft-lb. I have 2 - 1.5 inch sockets. One is just a mild steel socket (silver chrome finish) and the other is a bit beefier, with a black finish. The fit was too tight for the black socket at 2 bolt locations. I could only approach 235 ft-lb by doing a leg press. The 2 nuts in the aft section of the keel were able to be torqued to 235 with the black socket. I could not torque the 2 in the forward section of the keel to 235. The wrench could be pressed forward a significant distance without clicking and it would spring back when the force was released. It seems that the silver socket may be factor. It was also clear that the extension bar was able to twist quite a bit in torque. I was worried about the breaking point.
In any case, I can get at just 3 of the 4 bolts in the center section. I need another few dremel wire brushes to clean up the plates & bilge so I'll tackle that on another day.
