Rudder Post through hull fitting fasteners

[Ellis14376]

The rudder post through hull bearing on my 1981 S2 8.5 is secured with four bolts. Two of the bolt heads are badly rusted, the other two are fine. My plan is to try and remove and replace the rusted fasteners.

Has anyone done this? Are there blind mounted nuts embedded in the hull? If the head twists off the bolt, I'll have to drill and tap a new hole, but since it doesn"t fully penetrate the hull, it will be tough to know when to stop drilling. Any experience with this?

Thanks

 

[BobM]

http://forums.s2.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=106917 is our thread from May regarding this. So far Wander1 is the only I have seen who has done the job and was in the middle of it during this. I suggest you send him a message by clicking on his name, if you haven't tried already.

 

[BobM]

I sent a PM to Wander1 to get a clarification. The only thing I can think of is that the nuts are sealed into the bottom of the wood block that is epoxied into the base before being epoxied to the hull. Personally, I'll probably clean mine up and paint them. I have enough trouble at the moment!

 

[Ellis14376]

Thanks Bob, that helps alot. Interestingly, the question that got this thread started was mine. I apparently wasn't smart enough to be able to find the responses when they were posted.

The stuffing box mounting bolts didn't get any better this season, so time to squirm in there and pull the old fasteners.

Thanks for the help.