Transom Door hinge on the bulkhead side

wlavista

I have a 2005 FV 250.  it seems the bolts holding the top hinge of the transom door on the sidewall is stripping out. Probably because my rite of passage of leaving the door closed while raising the engine hatch once too many times!

 If I unscrew the bolts, it seems the nut on the other side is unfastened and will drop into the sidewall.  If it is that, and it drops, it seems it would be irretrievable and I probably will have to use a different fastener for the door hinges altogether.  Any experience ones out there with this issue or recommended fix?

wlavista

Aren't there any suggestions?

TonyWalker

I have some "door, hinge and bolt" experience with my 342.  If I remember correctly with the 342, the screws are threaded right into the fiberglass.  One of them turns and no longer tightens, but the others still do.  When I get the boat back to home dock and can work on it/use it once again, I plan to insert a wooden toothpick into the hole with the stripped threads that would serve as a 'threadable shim"  and see if that idea could fix my problem.

 

Yours must be a bit different, using nuts on the backside that are inaccessible.  The toothpick idea might work.  And at Lowes hardware area, I think they have an assortment of blind type fasteners some of which are quite clever, many intended for drywall, one of which might provide a solution.

Anyway, good luck with this and let us know what you come up with.

Tony

Salt Shaker 342

TikiHut2

After bending two latches I replaced the pin with a $.10c painted wooden dowel that'll give before my lack of attention wrecks the hinge .....again. 

As for the hinge bolts/nuts, I'd make sure to stick with Stainless steel fasteners even if it's a freshwater boat for obvious reasons. Maybe you can reach the nuts by reaching in through a vent fitting, speaker or other access panel that's temporarily removed?? If you have to drill out the old ones don't let them get hot or the SS will harden, creating a multiple beer induced depression.

It'd be nearly impossible to get to the ones in our 270 through the engine compartment, but if mine gave out I'd remove the old fasteners and lather an oak strip with some thickened resin (mixed hot for a quick cure) and get it up behind the old hinge mount, then use new SS wood screws in a pre-drilled hole through the oak backing. I'll look at mine tonight and see if my idea would even work, so if this is edited tomorrow you'll know i was just winging it.

Good luck and know that almost everyone has made that mistake. Mike

habit68

I bent the hinge on my door by the transom (yes I tried to lift engine without opening the transom door first, Doh!) on my 2005 250 FV and was wondering if you can get new hinges anywhere?

Michael T

Both Tony and Mike have great ideas, in my opinion. Mike's would be a permanent fix (until the next miss lift :-) ). If you try Tony's idea first I'd use a cedar shim. Just cut a sliver off a cheap cedar door shim available at any hardware store. The cedar will not force the screw against the opposite side of the screw hole in the gelcoat possibly cracking it. The cedar will give and easily accept the threads of the screw. We did this all the time in finished carpentry to avoid splitting pine door frames when hinge threads stripped. You can easily trim off the excess cedar just before  you make the final few turns of the screw. As an adfded benefit the cedar will not rot. I really like the brilliance of the wooden dowel in the transom door "bolt" as a safety feature. BTW - here's one for you. A guy with a Rinker 310 was lifting his engine hatch and couldn't figure out (until way too late) what the cracking sound was. No, it wasn't the transom door - it was the access day hatch to the engine compartment. Apparently, it has to be raised first manually, before the entire seat/hatch assembly is raised or it can lock itself tight to the lip of the access port and the main hinges will split and break away from the main hatch. Ouch - want to speculate what that would entail to fix?!! - See, it can always be worse! ;-)  MT

TikiHut2

Habit, those hinges are relativily soft SS so you can probably massage them back to near new with some patience and the right amount of leverage. I just broke yet another gate pin yesterday....blame it on the rum Glad I had a pin made out of oak instead of steel. Good luck with your hinge. Mike


Good input MT.

habit68

Thanks guys, appreciate the great tips (I like the wooden dowel Idea for the bolt) and info! Is there a place that I could buy new hinges if I can't get it back to original shape?

Thanks!

Mercury2005

wlavista - on my 2006 270 I gained access to the hinges by removing the top plate where the vents are, then removed the vents.  I installed nuts and bolts thru the hinges. I was able to use a box end wrench and a screwdriver to tighten the hardware. Now both hinges are bolted solid to the hull.  Replaced the vents with new ones and replaced the vent hose with new and all works great.