Hobie Cat Forums

Just re-sprayed my 86 H-18 (Gelcoat). It looks awesome. Lots of effort, finishing with 800 grit, compounding and buffing. I did the decks and masked in the non-skid to match the original areas.

Of course, it couldn't all go well. On re-assembly, I snapped off the port, front, inboard crossbar bolt. I have about an inch of exposed thread.

Anybody have any ideas? Has anyone ever replaced the casting kit inside the crossbar?

I'm thinking I am visiting my local machine shop.

BJY

Yes, I've broken one (while sailing). The casting is easy to remove, you just drill out the rivets that hold the outer casting and remove it. Then drill out the two rivets on the bottom of the crossbar and the inner casting will come right out.

You can try removing the broken bolt by putting the casting in a vice and using vice grips on the bolt. But if the bolt is frozen/seized (which it probably is), then I suggest taking it to a machine shop and having them extract the bolt. That's what I had to do. When you reassemble everything, be sure to use anti-seize grease on all the bolts.

EDIT: Sorry, the above is how to replace the REAR inboard crossbar casting. The process for the front is basically the same except that in order to remove the outer crossbar casting (which you must do before removing the inboard casting), you have to remove the dolphin striker nuts so the dolphin striker rod can slide free.
This can be a bit of a pain if the striker rod is seized/corroded to the castings. It can be taken apart, but isn't always easy. If you can pop the dolphin striker rod off of the dolphin striker post, it usually makes things easier.

sm

Thanks SM.
I took to a machine shop yesterday to have them get the bolt out and re-tap. Gonna try and not replace the inner block if I don' t need to. And yes, ANTI-SEIZE, ANTI-Seize. I learned my lesson.

Thanks so much for the reply. This is a great forum for this kinda stuff.

Does the bolt on the "86 thread directly into the block inside the crossbar? On my
'81 I didn't remove the block. All I had to do was remove the end cap and use a punch to tap the captive lock nut from the inside block. Then I fished a new nut into the block and bolted her together.

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Castleton,NY

I believe the design of the inboard casting changed over the years. As I understand it, the original design was a nut that was pressed into the casting as you describe. The later design is a much larger "slug" of machined stainless bar that is pressed into the casting, you would not be able to knock it out or service it while installed in the crossbar.

sm