Loose beam bolt

I just tried to tighten my beam bolts and found that one of the rear beam bolts is loose, and can't be tightened - it just turns.

So how do I deal with this?

Thanks,
Greg.

Hi Greg,

so is this on a timber boat?

Most timber boats have bolts with nuts under the beam pads. Usualy need a spanner to hold the nut underneath while you turn bolt above. But I guess its possible that they have threaded plates in place like glass boats, in which case you can buy next size bigger in diametre of bolt and tap out the plate to same size, or put a nut on the end of existing bolt if it's long enough (or buy a longer one).

Hi Gary,

The bolt in question is an inner one (plywood boat, 1434) so how on earth do you get a spanner inside the beam to get at the bolt (or nut)?

Thanks,
Greg.

I had the same probs on Jurassic Karp when I stripped it down.

I chopped up an old 13mm ring/open ended spanner and welded in a nice bit of 3mm stainless flat to extend the daylights out of that spanner....
or you could make one from any bit of flat bar that will fit into the beam and by simply cutting a 'slot' in the bar that will fit the nut and your away.....


Remember you'll have the re-install to do or future re-tightens to do so its worth making a half decent unit.

Like this...swearing helps, so does removing the hatch cover surround as every millimetre helps. Re beaming 1763 after re decking this winter we were able to get a long ring spanner on to the nut,wrapping the underside with electrical tape holds the nut captive.
Having Popeye like forearms is no help at all...so if you know someone with skinny arms/good hand strength

Hmm... 13mm spanner on a 12.7mm nut, goes on easier in a confined space. Good thinking Kingy!

I made the tool as per instructions, except didn't have any stainless flat for the handle, so used tube instead. I will try it out on 1434 on Saturday. I just went to try it out on 1140, but it has the rear beam nuts welded to rectangular washers, so no spanner needed.

Checked the main beam bolts on 1140; nuts were done up tight but bolts were loose as in the holes, as nuts had run out of thread. Will now cut a bit more thread on the bolts.

Fortunately I don't have Popeye forearms, so didn't get stuck in the holes, but a bit of swearing nevertheless.

Here's one I prepared earlier .....


as you can see it reaches easily




the head of the spanner was just butt-welded directly onto the stainless scrap I had layin around....



the ring part was totally useless so it fell onto the grinder.


Alternatively,

you could always just cut a 13mm wide slot into a bit of high-tensile steel strap with a small grinder.....

The spanner I made worked a treat for holding the nut and getting the old bolt undone. However I could not for the life of me get the nut started on the new bolt, so was after much frustration and swearing ended up giving up and sailing one bolt shy. Grrr

I am going to weld the nut onto a rectangular washer and grind a point on the new bolt to make it easier to locate the hole in the nut.

Not teaching to suck eggs or questioning your engineering intelligence but, I am assuming it is the same thread type and size, Whitworth, metric, BSF, ?American and any other possibility. Can you remove the bolt and test fit the nut, especially when you intend to grind a taper for a bit of a lead on, making sure the start of the thread is clean and no burs left by the grinding.

Hi Phillip,

The bolts are 5/16" UNC, with 1/2"AF heads and nuts. And yes I will clean up the threads after grinding.