Rebedding chainplates

[Roc]

Hello everyone,
I see evidence of rust stains around the acorn nuts next to the chainplates when viewed from inside the cabin.  This is seen on the forward two chainplates on the port side.  I did read the article in FAQ on 'How do I rebed leaky chain plates' and have a question.  I was thinking about leaving the tension on the rig, just like Ron suggested.  It seems the force from the shroud is directed through the deck with the T bar that is attached to the tie rod.  I figure I can remove the two bolts on either side of the chainplate along with the plate cover that is attached by two little screws, and dig out the old bedding.  I also see there is a gasket of bedding on the plate where the tie rod is attached to inside the cabin.  I can also dig this bedding out. My question is, am I correct in thinking I can remove these two bolts because the force of the rigging is actually directed to the tie rod??  I want to take these bolts out and check the plywood core.  Based on the design, it seems these bolts can be removed while leaving the system intact and in tension.  I plan on injecting the bedding using a plastic syringe with a flexible small diameter tip.  Any thoughts??

Thanks,
Roc

[Hernacki]

My recomendation is to de-tune the rig and do the job in pairs.  The water travel path is very complex and putting more sealent in bad sealant normally does not work.  

We bedded both the interior T plate and the outside cover in 5200.

Best of luck :p

T.R. Hernacki
Anointed #1298

[skip]

Roc-
Sorry I am not there to help, got wet and left Lockwoods last Saturday.

Did my plates the week before while mast was still down.  You are technically correct that the bolts hold the t-bar from falling down if there is no tension on the rig.   I actually ended up rigging up a shock cord on top to hold the t-bar up when I re-bedded.

I would imagine that the alignment of the shroud is not exactly the same as the alignment of the rod and you might have some difficulty getting the bolts back in.

Good Luck-
Skip

[Stu Jackson]

Roc, I agree with T.R.  If you do them in pairs and remember the number of turns you did on the turnbuckles, you should be able to retune your rig without too much difficulty.  What I did was to use a yellow crayon on each of the turnbuckles to mark where they were on the threads, top and bottom, before I backed them off, and then just reset them to that spot when I tightened up each one.  Worked just fine, with one minor adjustment after I took her out again.  You really need to back off the tension and get both the little cover plates AND the main big pieces top and bottom, inside and out, off to get sealant inside everything.  Also, I had to adjust the inside main brace that runs from under the deck to behind the settee on the forward lower port shroud to get the whole assembly on that particular one together again.  You'll need a short handled adjustable wrench to get behind the settee to adjust the nuts back in there.  I liberally sealed both above AND below.  We used regular sealant, since the only place I think 5200 is warranted is the hull deck joint.  You never know when you'd want to replace one of those fittings, and using 5200 means you'd need a hydrogen bomb to remove it.
Stu