leaking chainplate

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william vanwagoner
Posts: 112
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:59 pm
Location: Destiny #229 Long Beach CA

leaking chainplate

Post by william vanwagoner »

Has anyone had to fix a leaking chain plate? I have a leak at one of the four bolts holding the ball and socket chain plate assembly for the main portside shrouds, which penetrates the deck in the head compartment. I am trying to determine how to go about disassembling all of this to re-bed with calk. I am wondering if the bottom end of the tie-rod, which terminates behind a plastic cover plate in the shower stall, needs to be loosened, and if so, how to keep the tie rod from twisting. Is the tie rod encapsulated in the chain plate, or does the chain plate assembly come apart freeing the ball joint at the top of the tie rod? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill Van Wagoner #229
Bill VanWagoner
Destiny #229
R.B.
Posts: 233
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:04 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: leaking chainplate

Post by R.B. »

Hi Bill,

I see you haven't had any replies. I myself have not done this yet. But I did find a link on the C34 owners site. Although not identical to ours, may give you some tips on getting your job accomplished.

Here is the link.http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title ... hainplates

Hope it helps.
Ralph

WOLFHELM
C350 #342
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william vanwagoner
Posts: 112
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:59 pm
Location: Destiny #229 Long Beach CA

Re: leaking chainplate

Post by william vanwagoner »

Thank you for forwarding the link for a C34 chainplate repair; this is the first response I received on this topic. I guess this is a good thing meaning the chain plates do not leak often on our boats. I should point out that the C350 (at least on my hull #229) has a different chainplate arrangement than the C34. The top of the tie rod on the C34 appears to be held in place at the deck and can't rotate. However, on the C350 the top of the tie rod has a ball joint that is permanently fixed by the chainplate assembly. I called Warren Pandy and asked him about it prior to tackling the job. Upon examination, my biggest concern was how to restrain the tie rod from rotating when tightening the large nuts at the base. Warren indicated that when they assembled the boats, they did not seem to have trouble keeping the tie rod from twisting. Furthermore, Warren pointed out that there is no wooden core in the deck where all of this is assembled which is great news and a testament to the detail taken in the design of our boats. With these words of wisdom, I did the following (keep in mind the chain plate that was leaking is the port side that holds the main shrouds.):

I attached the spinnaker halyard to the forward shroud chain plate and tightened it a bit to help support the port side of the mast.


I loosened the port side upper and lower main stays until they could be removed from the chain plate counting the number of turns as I went.


I loosened the bolts holding the chain plate on the deck


I removed the plastic assess plate on the shower stall wall and removed two large nuts, a lock washer, and a flat washer, and an aluminum block milled to rest on the bracket so that the washers and nuts are perpendicular to the tie rod.
Very Important! - you must hang on to the aluminum block, it is not stuck to the bracket, and in my case fell down into the abyss. I had to use a coat hanger to coax the block back up to where I could get it out of the access hole. This added at least a half hour to the job, and had I not been able to retrieve it, would have delayed things for days or weeks while waiting for a new custom aluminum block from Catalina.


clean all of the old adhesive from the chain plate tie rod assembly and the bolts. I should note that the chain plate assembly is an interesting unit. The tie rod is threaded at the bottom end which goes through the aluminum block, a flat washer, a lock washer, and finally two nuts. All of this holds the bottom of the tie rod to a metal bracket glassed to the side of the hull. There is a ball joint at the top end of the tie rod, which sits in a cup shaped piece of stainless steel visible from below deck (the deck was at least two inches thick at this point). This cup is welded to the bottom of the part of the chain plate you can see above deck. This forever captures the ball joint linking the tie rod to the chain plate.


I used 3M 4200 adhesive to form a strong flexible bond but one that could be removed if the job needs to be repeated in the future (unlike 5200). I placed tape around the outline of the chainplate both above and below decks, I should mention there is a thin plate that partially covers the underside at the headliner which is held in place by the nuts holding the chainplate bolts. The tape keeps the adhesive from spreading out over the deck on the outside and the headliner on the inside.


I then glopped the adhesive on the deck, on the sides of the hole where the ball joint cup goes, and below on the headliner, and re-inserted the chain plate assembly through the hole remembering to slide the headliner plate over the tie rod end before the tie rod goes into the hole at the back of the shower stall.


Then I inserted the four bolts holding the chainplate to the deck. I tightened the hex nut, acorn nut, and lock washer mix on each but only a little more than finger tight.


Then inside the hole behind the shower stall, I put on the aluminum block, the flat washer, the lock washer, and the two large nuts, being careful not to drop anything this time. (I cheated and stuffed a few micro fiber towels in cavity below the hole to catch anything that I might drop this time). Then I made sure the aluminum block was situated correctly before snugging the two large nuts hand tight.


I left everything hand tight and left the boat for about twelve hours letting the adhesive set up a bit. Upon return to the boat, I tightened the four chain plate bolts -tight. Then I managed to get a wrench inside the hole behind the shower stall and tightened the top nut while holding the tie rod by hand to resist twisting. Then did the same with the bottom nut which I believe is there to lock the upper nut in place. (I checked the other nuts at the base of the other tie rods and found one that was loose, so this is a good thing to check periodically).


I re-attached the shrouds and tightened them the same number of turns it took to loosen them. Checking with my rig tensioning gauge, things were not quite in balance, so I wound up removing all of the cotter pins on all of the shrouds and proceeded to tune the rig to get uniform tension while periodically sighting up the mast to make sure it stayed straight.


I took the boat out sailing and did a bit of fine tuning replacing all of the cotter pins upon return to the dock. All of this took place the weekend prior to Easter, and so far no leaks. In hind sight, I probably should have loosened all of the shrouds since this job necessitated re-tuning the rig anyway.

I hope this helps anyone else that encounters this issue.

Bill Van Wagoner #229
Bill VanWagoner
Destiny #229
Frank Heyniger
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:37 am
Location: Battery Park, Sandusky Ohio

Re: leaking chainplate

Post by Frank Heyniger »

Thanks Bill, this was great information and wll explained. I hope I don't need to do it but if the problem arises I am prepared.
I'm tired just reading your explaination.

Frank
R.B.
Posts: 233
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:04 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: leaking chainplate

Post by R.B. »

Great write up Bill!

Thanks
Ralph

WOLFHELM
C350 #342
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