Repair of transom support poles

J3ff

I have one on each side that basically the head fell off of.

All 8 were "professionally" repaired when the motor was swapped 5 years ago.

5 years ago water was coming out of the lowest hole when brought on to land...  That hasn't happened again, I've been looking for it, but here we are today.


What would you do to fix this? Do I even want to try to get the others out?

YYZRC

Remove screws. 

Scrape/sand off bottom paint around holes. 

Fill holes with epoxy. Use a syringe and overflow, then tape over hole and let it set. 

Drill new holes 1/2” to the left/right. 

Fill new holes with 5200. 

Install new screws. 

For the screws that broke off, I would grind into the surrounding gel coat to allow me to get a vice grip on the threads to unscrew it. Fill with epoxy same as above. 

J3ff

Arggg, I guess I can get that done after work. What exact epoxy and does west marine sell these syringes 

YYZRC

You could probably get away without moving the holes if you can get the broken off screws out.  If you want to get really fancy you could epoxy the holes and then drill them out again.

For epoxy, I used this: https://www.westmarine.com/west-system-g-flex-650-8-liquid-epoxy-resin-and-hardener-9223132.html

J3ff

Thanks. I haven't touched the other screws... I don't really know what I'm doing.. I do know I paid 100's of dollars to have this fixed 5 years ago and that seems as if it didn't work.. or is 5 years really the life of something like this? Keep in mind for the last 3 years it's been in the water 11 months out of the year. 

aero3113

There’s a chance that they used poor quality stainless screws….

J3ff

sure looks like it! Going to attempt to repair on wed after work.. 

PickleRick

Assuming they are thru bolts with nuts on the inside you may be able to spray with penetrating oil and gently use a flat punch to tap the broken screws inward.

If it starts getting stubborn don't hit it for all it's worth, go inside, respray and tap it back the other way.  Repeat each direction a few times until she comes out without much fuss. 


Chinese stainless is crap.  

Liberty44140

I did this myself on the 342. Really was an easy project. Had one screw head already broken off and I broke off a couple more in removal. Not a big deal, I drilled small holes all the way around the broken screw and got it out with needle nose. As YY says fill with epoxy, I love west system six10 for this. Perfect product for it. I then re sealed with 4200 and it’s still holding well for the new owner. Used stainless screws from hardware store…. But we are freshwater. 

J3ff

They are not thru bolts

J3ff

Liberty44140 said:

I did this myself on the 342. Really was an easy project. Had one screw head already broken off and I broke off a couple more in removal. Not a big deal, I drilled small holes all the way around the broken screw and got it out with needle nose. As YY says fill with epoxy, I love west system six10 for this. Perfect product for it. I then re sealed with 4200 and it’s still holding well for the new owner. Used stainless screws from hardware store…. But we are freshwater. 

Sounds good, going to attempt to fix on wed, this is why it's out, to find things like this.

GMSLITHO

they don't go through the hull 

J3ff

The good news is all of the other screws are solid and came out with no problem. The bad news is it looks like the "professional job" was not very professional? I have a grinder that I can use to get the bad screws out (two out of eight)... I figure maybe I should just seal up those two holes and start over? the other six seem fine, maybe they just need some more 5200?? At the minimum, all screws need to be replaced, new sealer needs to be put in, etc.. the good news is no water came out of any of these holes!!

Any thoughts are appreciated. 

Liberty44140

You need to pull those bases away from the transom. Clean the transom down to gel coat and the inside of the stainless base down to bare stainless. Drill out holes to be larger than screws going back in. Fill holes with thickened west system (prefer six10), re drill new holes, re seal with 4200…. Plenty so it’s coming out all the way around the base, screw it in tight with new screws. Realize some folks prefer 5200, to each their own, but if your pro used 5200 to install that your about to learn why i would use 4200 (or life seal)….

J3ff

friend dropped off a grinder today at dinner. This doesnt look like a fun job to do in our 92+ degree heat over the next 5 days, but I guess thats what has to be done.

I'm with you until you say drill new holes and then re-seal with 4200.

GMSLITHO

whats the grinder for 

J3ff

to remove some of the material around the screw that the head broke off of... 

GMSLITHO

maybe a small dremel tool might work better 

J3ff

Well a fresh drill bit either tore the screws apart or pushed them in? It was about 15 seconds on both sides and it was over... 

Somewhere in the realm of five or six years ago when I had the motor changed they found that these holes were leaking. At that point they asked me if I wanted them repaired or not and of course I had them repair it. Now you might assume that the repair would be cleaning out the holes cleaning up the material around it using some epoxy as mentioned above and making sure everything looked really good. Unfortunately the shop charged me $125 an hour to fill it with what looks like 4200.

Will be doing it the correct way this time.

Liberty44140

Yea not good but easy for you to make it right. You may want to drill out any of the wood you see if it’s wet and even use an Allen wrench cut down to 1/4” or so to try to chip out any wet wood around the hole under the transom glass. Then like I said fill with six10. Recommend letting  the epoxy sit more than a day, hopefully you can give it 2-3 days. I found last summer on hot humid days I’d fill something one afternoon and next morning it was not 100% hard. Needed another day. 

J3ff

Yeah going to fix on Friday and launch Monday, thank you for your help, will try to chip away anything bad

YYZRC

If you want to be sure, use a 1” hole saw and drill through just the outer skin of fiberglass and then stop. You will reveal the condition of the transom wood and you can decide how to proceed from there. 

GMSLITHO

I would fill the holes and move the poles a little to the right or left and drill new ones 

J3ff

Done and done, the two holes that we did not fill in and re drill were nice and strong. New stainless screws used as well

On to other issues

J3ff

YYZRC said:

If you want to be sure, use a 1” hole saw and drill through just the outer skin of fiberglass and then stop. You will reveal the condition of the transom wood and you can decide how to proceed from there. 

dug around with an allenkey as advised, did not find any soft wood..

Liberty44140

Nice work!!!

J3ff

Got way down in there today to look at the other side... Not thrilled that they went threw all the way, but looks like that was the fix the first shop did. Also explains where the first syringe of epoxy went. We refilled it and did it much slower the second time. Do you think I should drop some 5200 on them? It does appear that water was leaking into the boat through the bottom one at least.

aero3113

It wouldn’t hurt, but I would think you’re good to go 👍🏻