mullet
Well-Known Member
The track on my aluminium mast has a sliding stainless gate, secured by a stainless bolt which screws into a threaded hole in the mast. Predictably enough, the threads have corroded and more or less turned to dust on both the mast and the bolt.
My plan for a fix is to drill out the hole and replace with an aluminium rivnut and duralac between the rivnut and the mast (in case they are made of different alloys), and to hold the gate in place with a new A4 bolt (with a liberal duralac coating to its threads). The halyards are external so I'm not worried about fouling them.
Just wondering if any of the wiser, more experienced folk here think there might be a better solution, or anything else I should be considering? Thanks.
My plan for a fix is to drill out the hole and replace with an aluminium rivnut and duralac between the rivnut and the mast (in case they are made of different alloys), and to hold the gate in place with a new A4 bolt (with a liberal duralac coating to its threads). The halyards are external so I'm not worried about fouling them.
Just wondering if any of the wiser, more experienced folk here think there might be a better solution, or anything else I should be considering? Thanks.