As I posted before. Mistress's CB fell down and was wedged between the trailer crossbar and the boat ramp, causing me to cut a significant piece off of the CB to unwedge her.
I finally got all the parts in yesterday and replaced the CB today. That was a thankless job! It all came off easy enough, but putting the CB back in the belly of the boat meant that I had to elevate Mistress ~1ft above the trailer and block her with a lot of 4x4's. It took a special 9/16 ratcheting socket wrench to easily access the locking nuts in the hull, and those brackets just did not want to line up with only two hands. ........ Yeah furgitaboutit....there was no way the Admiral was going to climb under the boat, especially since I was laying on the only dolly.
Issues:
1. The new CB has a pre-drilled hole for the uphaul line. Too bad that it's too small. I had to bore the hole out more to pass the pre-swaged wire rope through that hole. The loop of wire rope wasn't the problem as much as the swage itself.
2. The new wire rope ass'y comes pre-assembled with a bracket and a stop. That requires you to pass the wire rope through the sheave under the galley and down from under the galley before attaching to the CB. It seems like it would have been easier to attach to the CB under the boat, then using the old line, pull the new one through.
3. The bolt assembly that secures the wire rope consists of a bolt, 2 ea. regular nuts, and a locking nut. There is no hole to mechanically attach it to the CB. I drilled a hole in the CB and added a 1" washer on the outside, while using 1 less regular nut. IMO- this is a much more secure assembly.
4. There is significant play in the CB. I haven't seen a way to reduce that to keep the CB from moving side to side while in an anchorage.
The upper hole is for the pivot assembly; the lower hole with the notch in the trailing edge is for the uphaul line. The line is passed through the notch into the CB, then the bolt ass'y secures it inside the lower hole.
This shot is of the new bed made from 5/4 decking coated with resin (Thanks for saving me some big bucks Sumner!). This is to make sure a repeat of the CB dropping down doesn't re-occur. You can now see why I painted the CB with dayglo yellow. Mistress is still blocked and the CB hasn't been secured in the full up position in this shot.
All-in-all, it was a learning experience. I also found a hole in the hull, right next to where the CB brackets attach. Since that area is normally flooded when in the water, it wasn't a big problem, but I went ahead and patched it while I was down there.
Sorry about the lousy quality of pictures. I was using my cell phone instead of a dedicated camera.
- James