rudder packing gland bolts

[passingwind]

  Does anyone know how the bolts that hold down the rudder packing gland are attached to the hull? Mine have corroded so bad that there was only half of the bolts left and of course broke off when trying to take them off.Packing gland has a plate that has four holes in it for the bolts to come up thru. After the gland was removed there are four bolt stubs sticking out of the fiberglass hump and a hole with what looks like a bronze sleeve that goes down thru the hump of glass to meet up with the hull layup. Are the sleeve and the bolts attached to each other by a bronze plate buried in the glass? Are they just buried in the glass? Are they U bolts buried in the glass????Thanks.

[Dale Tanski]

Ok, this is a guess.  ONLY a GUESS.
I would suspect that the bolts are not set into the fiberglass.  My guess is that there is a bronze flange/lower sleave that was inserted from the bottom side of the hull that meets up with the upper portion.  The bolts that you see are most probably inserted from the bottom side (probably flat head) and go up through the upper flange where the nuts reside.
It would not make sense to bond the bolts into the hull and very difficult to do as well, so that they lined up with something after the boat was laid up.
This would mean you would have to drop your rudder to get at these bolts.
Remember... just my guess.

Dale

[passingwind]

  Dale,
The rudder is out and the packing gland is removed. Are you saying that your guess is that the bolts are coming from the bottom of the boat(outside)? I have sand blasted the bottom and it is down to the gelcoat. Should I sand threw the gel to see if there is flat Head screws? From the outside you can see that there is the hull layup then above that and slightly offset there is a bronze sleeve..Bolts are not visible unless under gelcoat.I can post picks if need be...Thanks

[Dale Tanski]

Please send me a picture if you could.  What I think you are saying is that the sleeve sticks down from the hull but there is no sign of hub or flange at the point where the bronze sleeve is visible.

I suspected that the bronze sleeve had a lower flange on it, and that it was slid into the hole in the hull leaving only the flange showing.  I am not sure if this is what you are seeing or not.  To hold the sleeve in place there would be bolts from the outside up, through the hull and into the upper collar or flange.  The nuts would sandwitch the sleeve and upper collar into the hull.

Yea, send me some pictures.  You are going where no 365 owner has gone before with this rudder post sleeve.

Dale

[passingwind]

 Ok Dale here goes my first atempt at posting photos
<a href="http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/?action=view&amp;current=100_0688.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/th_100_0688.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/?action=view&amp;current=100_0683.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/th_100_0683.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/?action=view&amp;current=100_0678.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/th_100_0678.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/?action=view&amp;current=100_0674.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/th_100_0674.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/?action=view&amp;current=100_0667.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/th_100_0667.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/?action=view&amp;current=100_0660.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv63/passingwind_photo/th_100_0660.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>v

[passingwind]

Ok I guess I did something wrong but but you got the pics.
Looking at the pic #3 it looks like there is no bronze sleeve but there is nothing but glass.I will do the exploratory surgery and find out where the bolts are located.Post more pics as things progress. Thanks.

[Dale Tanski]

I would agree.  Grind a bit around the rudder shaft hole and let's see what is under there.

What kind of prop do you have?

Dale