repairing the goose neck.

My replacement is much stronger than the original part. That now means that the original cast fitting that is rivetted to the mast is now the weakest part of the assembly. Sometimes you can make things too strong if the result is that the next part to break is one that is much harder to replace.
 
Hi, I had mine worn away in a similar manner. I got someone on the forum with a lathe to make me a stainless steel bush. I drilled out the offending part and fitted the bush using araldite. It's been good for the last couple of years. I couldn't have
sourced the original part as it can be slid up and down in the mast. No signs of corrosion so far.
 
A stainless bush is OK provided that it is not too good a fit on the stainless shaft, as that might cause shaft and bush to seize together, but if given enough clearance, and greased it is actually a reasonable solution. In general the best bearing combinations use dis-similar metals, e.g. steel shafts in Bronze or whitemetal bushes, or in cast iron. Cast iron is unusual in that a cast iron piston will work very well in a cast iron cylinder, as most steam engines prove.
 
Norman_E said:
Cast iron is unusual in that a cast iron piston will work very well in a cast iron cylinder, as most steam engines prove.
Click to expand...

Don't know much about ring and bore combinations in steam engines but in cars, where the same applies, the metallurgy of the two is dissimilar. The rings have to be harder by about 50 Vickers to work correctly. Cast iron rings have also been used successfully in cast iron bores in reciprocating compressors but are rarely seen nowadays as they have been replaced by plastic. Plastics have limitations in combustion engines of course but otherwise are nearly ideal.
 
30boat said:
I've got this.Does it suit you?

gooseneck.jpg
Click to expand...

It looks like exactly the same thing but I would have to go down to the boat to check dimensions.
 
vyv_cox said:
I repaired the identical part on my Sadler something like five years ago. I reamed out the holes in the fixed part attached to the mast and the vertical hole in the gooseneck casting and inserted short lengths of PVC water pipe. I used 15 mm pipe that was rather large in diameter for the biggest hole I could ream, so I slit it lengthways and took a piece out. Not only has it been highly successful in eliminating the need for lubrication and the squeaking that always occurred, it has also been long lasting. I took a length of the PVC pipe out to Greece expecting replacement to be an annual event but it remains in the spares box, I am still on the original ones.
Click to expand...

Hi Vyv, your solution appeals to me.

Did you simply hand ream the misshapen holes, or drill them first then ream them? Did you work on the mast fitting while still attached to the mast or remove it first? I don't have a workshop with pillar drill etc but could take the parts to a machine shop if drilling is required. However, if it is simply a matter of reaming the misshapen holes it would be worth me buying a set of hand reamers.

As well as stopping noise, was the repair effective in reducing the excess play caused by wear? Thanks.
 
Joeninety, When I repaired mine I did not remove the part rivetted to the mast, but made a fitting that slid in the mast slot and steadied the shanks of the adjustable reamers that I used to open out the holes and make them round. Having reamed the upper hole to size a temporary plastic bush was used in that hole so that the reamer shank was centered to open up the lower hole. Reamers should never be turned backwards so I made fittings from hexagonal steel bar to fit the reamer shanks so that they could be turned forward only, with a ratchet spanner. It was written up in PBO August 2012. If you intend to ream aluminium castings and bush them, I suggest removing as little metal as possible and fitting thin walled bushes so as to avoid undue weakening of the casting.

Rather than buy a set of hand reamers try to get adjustable reamers that will start small enough to enter the existing hole and finish big enough for the bush. You may need as many as three because such reamers have limited range. You cannot do it with a set of fixed sizes without buying a lot of them, or drilling first, because fixed size hand reamers are only intended to remove a few thousandths of an inch of metal.
 
Joeninety said:
Hi Vyv, your solution appeals to me.

Did you simply hand ream the misshapen holes, or drill them first then ream them? Did you work on the mast fitting while still attached to the mast or remove it first? I don't have a workshop with pillar drill etc but could take the parts to a machine shop if drilling is required. However, if it is simply a matter of reaming the misshapen holes it would be worth me buying a set of hand reamers.

As well as stopping noise, was the repair effective in reducing the excess play caused by wear? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Nothing highly technical, I drilled out to my biggest drill size by hand, then reamed a bit bigger. The mast was in Greece and the gooseneck was drilled in situ. I drilled the fitting on my pillar drill. It has been a highly successful repair, taken all the wear out. I had bought a new gooseneck assembly but did not use it.
 
As a slight aside from the business of repairing goosenecks, I would like to comment on the minimising of the wear in the first place; most boats are in use for a miniscule percentage of their lives and spend most of the time moored or tied up, with the boom able to move, and subsequently wear, at the mercy of the wind, 24/7, no matter how tightly the mainsheet, topping lift and kicker are tensioned. Even the sailing school boats belonging to the French organisation Les Glenans spend some of their time standing still, so, to minimise gooseneck wear, their topping lifts are eased, so that the booms can be lowered to the deck, to rest on a plywood pad attached to the cockpit seat. They are prevented from further movement by taking a turn of topping lift or reefing line around the nearest cleat. Many of the smaller keelboats are not actually fitted with a topping lift.
 
Spirit of Glenans said:
As a slight aside from the business of repairing goosenecks, I would like to comment on the minimising of the wear in the first place; most boats are in use for a miniscule percentage of their lives and spend most of the time moored or tied up, with the boom able to move, and subsequently wear, at the mercy of the wind, 24/7, no matter how tightly the mainsheet, topping lift and kicker are tensioned. Even the sailing school boats belonging to the French organisation Les Glenans spend some of their time standing still, so, to minimise gooseneck wear, their topping lifts are eased, so that the booms can be lowered to the deck, to rest on a plywood pad attached to the cockpit seat. They are prevented from further movement by taking a turn of topping lift or reefing line around the nearest cleat. Many of the smaller keelboats are not actually fitted with a topping lift.
Click to expand...

I always brace the boom between mainsheet and an extra line to a stanchion base, which pretty much prevents any movement. The problem is that the fittings are simply holes bored in the aluminium castings, which have pretty much no bearing properties against the stainless steel pins. After nearly 30 years some wear is inevitable, even in normal sailing.
 
vyv_cox said:
I always brace the boom between mainsheet and an extra line to a stanchion base, which pretty much prevents any movement. The problem is that the fittings are simply holes bored in the aluminium castings, which have pretty much no bearing properties against the stainless steel pins. After nearly 30 years some wear is inevitable, even in normal sailing.
Click to expand...

Thanks Norman, Vyv and Spirit for the technical and preventative ideas.
 
vyv_cox said:
I always brace the boom between mainsheet and an extra line to a stanchion base, which pretty much prevents any movement. The problem is that the fittings are simply holes bored in the aluminium castings, which have pretty much no bearing properties against the stainless steel pins. After nearly 30 years some wear is inevitable, even in normal sailing.
Click to expand...

+1 The second line also allows you to offset the boom so as not to shade solar panels.
 
Spirit of Glenans said:
As a slight aside from the business of repairing goosenecks, I would like to comment on the minimising of the wear in the first place; most boats are in use for a miniscule percentage of their lives and spend most of the time moored or tied up, with the boom able to move, and subsequently wear, at the mercy of the wind, 24/7, no matter how tightly the mainsheet, topping lift and kicker are tensioned. Even the sailing school boats belonging to the French organisation Les Glenans spend some of their time standing still, so, to minimise gooseneck wear, their topping lifts are eased, so that the booms can be lowered to the deck, to rest on a plywood pad attached to the cockpit seat. They are prevented from further movement by taking a turn of topping lift or reefing line around the nearest cleat. Many of the smaller keelboats are not actually fitted with a topping lift.
Click to expand...
Plus 1 for laying the boom and mainsail in my case onto the cabin top. It seems happy to park next to a halyard winch. I don't tie it down it seems quite stable. I found that by suspending between main sheet and topping lift the constant motion wore out the traveller car over some years. olewill
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top