Tips to: tighten/loosen through bolts solo?

[reginaldobaker]

Anyone have tips on how to loosen or tighten a through bolt solo? The nut will start to spin the bolt at a certain point and it risks messing up sealant/butyl waterproofing.

Run into this problem a lot with boats (and recently when installing an air vent onto my truck canopy) - the nut needs to be turned on a through bolt but one person isn't able to reach both sides.

It's ideal to have a second person but this isn't always possible.

One way that works alright for me (when Installing a new through bolt and selecting new hardware) is to use about an inch longer bolt than necessary. I'll be able to keep the bolt from turning with a visegrip while tightening up the nut on the same side. The downside is this can bugger up the threads and make removal difficult.

Any thoughts at all?

 

[Christian Williams]

Vice Grip for me. I've even had to drive a temp stopper screw on the other side, to keep the Vice Grip from spinning.

 

[Nick J]

Sometimes you have to get creative. I stacked tools to support the socket wrench which had a bit holding the screw. Not great, but it worked

 

[reginaldobaker]

Awesome you had a picture of that setup

 

[reginaldobaker]

@Christian Williams Is the stopper screw a specific product or more of a "concept"? Have been thinking jamming two nuts would work well too (bolt length permitting) as this is standard practice for threaded studs.

 

[Kenneth K]

I replaced several deck fittings by myself this season.

Some more tips here: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/necessity-is-the-mother.20220/

 

[Christian Williams]

More desperation than concept. Meaning, anything I can think up to stop the inaccessible rotation of the hidden end my hand can't reach.

The classic case is tightening bolts through the cockpit floor. Helps to have somebody under there. Last time I hailed a kid walking down the dock. "Say, want to do something cool?" He did. And he was better than a Vice Grip, and not much larger.

 

[william.haas]

More desperation than concept. Meaning, anything I can think up to stop the inaccessible rotation of the hidden end my hand can't reach.

The classic case is tightening bolts through the cockpit floor. Helps to have somebody under there. Last time I hailed a kid walking down the dock. "Say, want to do something cool?" He did. And he was better than a Vice Grip, and not much larger.

I have made many a friend this way… yachtsmen, sailors, boaters… we are all a community. On this type of task, I have always found that a second person always helps to get the job done the right way.

 

[shard7]

Yes, making friends at the marina and having a second pair of hands is always helpful for these tasks. But I've also grown very fond of screws with Allen wrench heads since it's often quite easy to rig up an allen wrench to counter hold while tightening the nut from below.

 

[Dave G.]

I've also grown very fond of screws with Allen wrench heads

Yes and wish that would have always been the head of choice on deck hardware. Trying to hold a straight or phillips head bolt is always a 2 man job.

 

[bigd14]

I have had reasonably good success using an impact driver to remove nuts from below without the bolt turning. The sudden force takes the bolt by suprise and the nut is off before it can react. I have also had success driving nuts onto new bolts in the same manner, especially if using butyl tape. If you apply the butyl tape onto the shaft of the bolt below the fitting it can help to capture the bolt in the hole through the deck and limit its rotation. Note that this does not work with the plastic insert lock nuts. I hate those because they gall together way too often and you can spend hours turning a flat wrench 1/8 of a turn at a time. It's much easier to install and remove nuts just using a flat and a lock washer. I always use Tef-Gel now too to prevent galling.

Of course the impact driver method is not truly reliable; there always are one or two bolts that have your little plan figured out. Or they just give up and break.

 

[reginaldobaker]

Good call @bigd14 . Funny you mention that - recently replaced struts on my car and the only way I could torque up the top nuts without also spinning the piston was with an impact. It never crossed my mind for the "through bolt" application though

 

[G Kiba]

I recently suspected leaks in the deck to hull joint under the toe rail that runs almost the entire length of my 911. I ended up using a manual impact driver (hit with hammer type that I used on Motorcycle cases a long time ago) to tighten up the fasteners without holding the nut. Seemed to work! No more leak. I think the manual impact driver has less chance or stripping threads.

 

[Loren Beach]

I recently suspected leaks in the deck to hull joint under the toe rail that runs almost the entire length of my 911.

On this point... 10+ years ago I found and fixed a small deck on our boat. It was by the port side nav desk, but location is not the important factor. What I found was a seepage where one of the #12 SS "locator screws" was driven thru the deck flange. These were used to locate and initially secure the hull-to-deck joint, after sealant was applied and before the slotted toe rail was placed on top and thru bolted. These screws are not visible, hidden under the toe rail.
There must have been a small gap in the sealant at that exact point, during assembly. Anyhow..... I could see the underside of the hull flange on the inside with the end of the screw threads showing. Since I did not have access to the screw head, I extracted it from underneath, by chucking up a short piece of small steel pipe, with "teeth" ground into one end. This went around the screw, barely, and I was able to cut upward thru the two layers of frp, and pull the screw down and out.
After cleaning up the area with sand paper and acetone, I pushed up a thin epoxy putty plug, with effort. Once cured and sanded, it's not visible from inside anyway. This is covered by a cabinet. Never.... another leak.
When you access and view the hull/deck joint, much easier when inside the lazaret, you can easily see the ends of those long-ago-vital 'locator screws.
That whole joint was installed/sealed with copious 5200, and has never leaked, otherwise.
You may have cured a leak by further compressing the old 5200, and as they say, "whatever works."

 

[Second Star]

It is very situation dependent isn't it? I have used a double box head wrench over the piece that needs to be held and run a small line from the end of the wrench to somewhere convenient (or not so convenient) to stop rotation. Same would work with a Vice Grip. I've put a VG vertically onto a nut then passed a long nail between the jaws of the VG to stop rotation in a very confined space. I suppose you could drill a hole through the bolt head as if you were going to use a locking wire and bodge a wire or nail to stop the rotation ... A situation ripe for imaginative thinking!