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Damaged fairlead


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A large boat went by causing one of my fairleads to buckle along with the fixing screws sheering off. Is it just a matter of drilling out the screw hole or is there another way to do it?

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Cheers

 

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If it has happened once it could happen again. I would drill out the broken screw and drill and tap everything for larger screws. The fairleads for my centre rope had 4mm diameter holes in them. I lost one fairlead when all three M4 screws sheared hauling on the boat in a lock. I am not hugely strong honest. They and the fairlead on the other side were drilled and retapped for M6. You will need to buy or borrow appropriate size drills, tap, tap wrench and a countersink drill to increase the size and depth of the countersinks in the fairleads.

 

Jen

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59 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

If it has happened once it could happen again. I would drill out the broken screw and drill and tap everything for larger screws. The fairleads for my centre rope had 4mm diameter holes in them. I lost one fairlead when all three M4 screws sheared hauling on the boat in a lock. I am not hugely strong honest. They and the fairlead on the other side were drilled and retapped for M6. You will need to buy or borrow appropriate size drills, tap, tap wrench and a countersink drill to increase the size and depth of the countersinks in the fairleads.

 

Jen

Or if you have access to the underside you could just drill a plain hole and use nuts and bolts.

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I had the same problem. In my case the wind blew me against a raised lift bridge on the Llangollen which "pinged" the fairlead off. I found that once I started drilling the screw it was quite happy to screw itself further in and actually ended up inside the hollow box section of the roof rail. I was then able to replace with screws of the same size. 

If your fairlead is not salvageable you may find that the new fairlead is of a different size and therefore the requirements for holes will be of a different screw spacing. 

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I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago. I relocated mine slightly so that I could drill fresh holes. 

The main thing I did before refitting it was to drill and,  importantly,  countersink a 3rd hole in the center so that I had 3 fixing points, never had a problem since. 

Important to use a countersink and a suitable screw to prevent rope chaff. 

 

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1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

... retapped for M6. You will need to buy or borrow appropriate size drills, tap, tap wrench and a countersink drill to increase the size...

Note that, conveniently, the drill size for M6 is 5mm. 

11 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

They look like they were riveted on in the first place??

They look like hex head csk SS to me. 

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36 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Note that, conveniently, the drill size for M6 is 5mm. 

They look like hex head csk SS to me. 

They look like SS to me too in which case they probably will turn deeper into the hole but drilling them will blunt a bit fairly quickly

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That is a pop rivet and whoever pop riveted a fairlead on obviously has no clue what they are doing. Drill it out and refix using an M5 (minimum) nut and bolt. I would use stainless steel.

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Yep, been there, done that.

I was not sure of the material the busted screw was made from, and wanted to avoid leaving a broken drill in a partly drilled out hole, I got a cobalt HS drill bit, did the job a treat. Resized the hole, (check the maximum diameter of the hole in fairlead) drilled out, retapped thread, take your time on this, make sure the tap is properly aligned, you may only get one shot, I used hardened steel hex bolts

 

 

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47 minutes ago, pete.i said:

That is a pop rivet and whoever pop riveted a fairlead on obviously has no clue what they are doing. Drill it out and refix using an M5 (minimum) nut and bolt. I would use stainless steel.

Magnifying the pic, I'm pretty sure it's a CSK hex socket head screw. That said, using pop rivets wouldn't be entirely mad, if you wanted to create a weak point that would give way, think weak links on fender chains.

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Magnifying the pic, I'm pretty sure it's a CSK hex socket head screw. That said, using pop rivets wouldn't be entirely mad, if you wanted to create a weak point that would give way, think weak links on fender chains.

It is a hex socket screw. Judging by the size of the screw, I am guessing it was intended to be a weak point perhaps as you described.

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I wouldn't use them for that very reason,pinging off


Interesting to read. Since losing one I noticed many boats don't have one but without it, it would make a mess of the paint which would in turn lead to rust. What do you use/do instead?

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1 hour ago, pete.i said:

That is a pop rivet

Looks like a hex csk to me. Do you know the boat well then?

19 minutes ago, RichM said:

Thanks for the replies.


Interesting to read. Since losing one I noticed many boats don't have one but without it, it would make a mess of the paint which would in turn lead to rust. What do you use/do instead?

I suspect DC meant he wouldn't use SS screws. But maybe he did mean fairleads...

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1 hour ago, RichM said:

It is a hex socket screw. Judging by the size of the screw, I am guessing it was intended to be a weak point perhaps as you described.


Interesting to read. Since losing one I noticed many boats don't have one but without it, it would make a mess of the paint which would in turn lead to rust. What do you use/do instead?

Some boats have brass strips on them, rather than a fairlead,  so the rope rubs that rather than the pain't. 

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7 hours ago, cuthound said:

Some boats have brass strips on them, rather than a fairlead,  so the rope rubs that rather than the pain't. 

Has anybody got an idea of where these can be bought, or do you have to make your own?

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