Chainplates Inspection and replacement

[Jim Picerno]

I've recently purchased an 89' 38-200. I've decided to replace the shrouds, and I'm working with a rigger to inspect all of the tangs,sheaves, t-ball fittings,etc. Here's a picture of the back of my port side settee. Here are some questions which may be dumb but I'll mention that I'm in FL, and the boat is on the hard in CT until spring so I can't really get into things until I'm up there in a month or so. I noticed some screws at the top of the settee back, so does the whole back come off to access this chainplates? And what's the general opinion on replacing chainplates and tie rods (is that the right part name)? Any recommendations for fabricators of these parts? TIA

 

[Loren Beach]

Welcome to the Ericson owners site!

The Navtec SS connecting rod pieces should outlive you and the boat. The SS U bolts that pass thru the deck need to be carefully inspected, however. here are several threads on this site about that. Some U-Bolts have developed small cracks on the inside radius of the bend -- Garhauer has provided replacement ones for others here, at reasonable pricing.

The settee back in the pix is almost identical to the scheme that EY used on our '88 boat. I removed those teak veneer panels (port and starboard) right after we bought our boat and checked the lower attachment point. No problems or signs of deck leaks/corrosion. Those rods are threaded at the bottom and thread into aluminum round bars embedded in a heavy-duty part of the internal grid.
A few years ago I did remove our deck fittings, cut back the coring, epoxy fill, and redrill for the fittings. EY did a great job bedding the fittings on our boat with "5200", but at three decades it was time to replace all sealant and epoxy-pot all holes in the deck.

Do not.... ever allow leaks around those big SS U bolts. Salt water (or any other kind of water) will cause corrosion under the deck where the "tie rod" has its Head held in a cup machined into a piece of aluminum bar. Any water that leaks thru will really corrode where the SS goes thru that bar.

Some pix of ours here: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/ubs/gear-removal-progress.786/

Our particular model did not use the U Bolts, but accomplished the same thing with headed bolts. If you search the site for chainplate U bolts and similar words there are other threads.
Post back with any questions and include any photos when an if you have some available.

 

[Kenneth K]

I have a photo that almost shows what Loren is describing. In the yellow circle, you can just see a bit of the horizontal aluminum bar that the tie-rods screw into. That bar (the blue line) transfers loads from the tie-rods to the TAFG. In the 32-3 (shown) the forward tie-rod (port side) is located in the head.