Trim tab mounting screws

Pat310

Has this happened to anyone else? All the screws broke off. Tried to back them out with unscrewums but seem pretty stuck in there. Tech at marina suggested 5200 over old screws and shift tab over a bit and re-screwed. I don’t like the idea of changing location of tab. Thinking drill out old ones filling with thickened epoxy and reinstalling in same location. Comments?

Pat310

Sorry 2003 310 FV

skennelly

Strange that they broke...must have not been stainless.

Willhound

Yep. I beleive you are on the right track. What your tech suggested would work, a slight shift probably wouldn't affect things much. .....but If you're anything like most of the rest of us it'll bother you. 

PickleRick

Stainless gets eaten by electrolysis just like outdrives and props.  Probably not a good idea to put bottom paint on trim tabs because of that.


Drilling out each screw will require very steady hands and lots of drill bits.

I'd drill out enough to fill each hole with 5200 and move it over an 1/8th of an inch. 

aero3113

It happened to my cousins 2007 SR 240. But his screws pulled out and water got in. He let it dry out for a while and installed with 5200 and bigger screws.

Pat310

Not sure if electrolysis or just the wrong grade of stainless.  Only have the boat a few months and thought 183 hours on 2003 meant like new but turns out to be a boat that never left the dock and never was maintained. Oh well plenty of time to tinker on my Rinker these days :-)

Liberty44140

I would get the screws out and fill with epoxy. It’s the right way to do it. Buy some cheap drill bits at harbor freight as you will go through them and drill small holes around the screws that are broken off. Will be a few hours work to do them all, then fill with epoxy and re drill. While there might as well do both tabs and the mounts for the swim platform if they are screwed in below the waterline too. Hopefully you can back them out without breaking off the heads. 

Pat310

Tried to remove with these:
https://www.amazon.com/UNSCREW-UMS-Handy-Broken-Screw-Extractor/dp/B06WLM8K5T/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
really nothing more then a roll pin with saw teeth cut into it. Wouldn’t back out broken screws but was thinking get a little larger and drill out around screw. Will epoxy be strong enough if hole is that over sized?

PickleRick

Properly applied thickened epoxy bonds better than the vinylester resin that holds the hull to your gelcoat.

Liberty44140

Absolutely, I removed my swim platform struts a few years ago and two heads broke off the screws. I drilled small holes around the broken screw to make sure I got it out. I then drilled all holes to be that larger size and filled them with thickened west system epoxy. So now rather than be in wood, those screws are in epoxy so no way to rot any wood and it is way stronger of a hold than wood. That is the “right” way to do it. You just need to make sure to really fill the holes, keep shoving it in even as it starts to set to be sure it’s full of epoxy. 

Pat310

Thank you all for input. definitely going to try to remove them. Will update post with progress