Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

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Chumpy36
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Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Chumpy36 »

In order to fully remove ALL of the crappy lamp cord wiring I need to remove the pulpit and fish new wire through and down to the v berth area and back to the circuit panel.

Seems pretty straight forward to remove as the nuts can be accessed from under the plexiglass hatch on the ceiling. Once removed it should be easy to fish the wire through etc.

My question is when it comes time to rebed. I have both 5200 sealant and butyl tape. I’m planning on using butyl tape unless someone talks me out if it.

Do you just run a small bead of it on the pulpit base, then place and tighten down?

Thx for any help
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WinSome
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by WinSome »

The butyl tape will work well. Use adequate amount, but preferably not so much as to squeeze it out past the fitting.
5200 is intended to be permanent.
I suggest you enlist a helper to take one side of the install.
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NiceAft
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by NiceAft »

I have no familiarity with the 26S, so I then have no familiarity with your problem, but I do know about 5200 and it’s not permanent cousin 4200. If 5200 would work If not for its permanency, then you can consider 3M 4200, definitely not permanent. I am not saying this is what you should use. You just have a choice; do your own diligence.
Ray ~~_/)~~
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Wyb2
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Wyb2 »

I did my pulpit with butyl, it’s only been a couple years but so far so good. 5200 will likely make it a bear to redo in the future if you ever need to.
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Wyb2
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Wyb2 »

WinSome wrote: Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:50 pm The butyl tape will work well. Use adequate amount, but preferably not so much as to squeeze it out past the fitting.
5200 is intended to be permanent.
I suggest you enlist a helper to take one side of the install.
Curious what you mean by “not so much to squeeze out past the fitting”? I’ve always used enough that a fair bit squeezes out when you tighten the hardware, that’s how you know you have full coverage. Clean up the excess with a flathead screwdriver, retighten after a day or two, and it should be watertight for decades.
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Stickinthemud57
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Stickinthemud57 »

Removing the pushpit on my 26S was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. Even though the bolts were accessible, several of them stripped out when attempting to loosen them. I had to resort to drilling out them out from the top. I hope your experience is better.

Butyl tape can be messy, but it is very effective. My process is as follows:

-Roll the material into a "snake" about 2-3 mm in diameter and encircle each bolt hole.
-Overlap and knead the ends where the snake meets so that you have a fairly uniform circle around each bolt hole.
-When installing bolts, wrap a small amount of material around the bolt just under the head before insertion.
-Tighten everything down
-Wait at least 24 hours, preferably on a warm day to allow the tape to flow.
-Tighten everything again. You can trim off the excess now if you want, but you will likely need to trim again when things get really warm.

Here's a very important tip: BE SURE TO COLLECT AND DISPOSE OF ALL OF YOUR TRIMMED OFF OR UNUSED BITS OF TAPE. THE STUFF WILL STICK TO YOUR SHOES AND GET TRACKED AROUND. ONCE IT GETS ON TO FABRIC (LIKE YOUR BOAT CUSHIONS), IT WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT TO GET IT OUT. ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

If you want to store some in your toolbox, keep it in a plastic bag. Same goes for any bolts that you keep that are contaminated with the stuff. I had a bunch that were just a mess to store, so I soaked them for several days in WD-40, which dissolved the material and made it much easier to clean them up.
The key to inner peace is to admit you have a problem and leave it at that.
Chumpy36
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Chumpy36 »

This is great. Thanks all!
KingRichard
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by KingRichard »

Chumpy36 wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 12:04 pm This is great. Thanks all!
If in the process you learn that it's possible to pull new wire using the old lamp wire w/o removing the pulpit that would be good info. I have to jiggle the wire to get the bulb to come on, but the pulpit is sound, so I'd rather not remove it.

Either way it would be good to here how it goes. And I appreciate reading everyone else's experiences!
Chumpy36
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Chumpy36 »

I’m gonna try one more time with smaller gauge wire tomorrow. Will report back
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Gotro »

It wasn’t easy but I was able to fish my front nav wires thru the pulpit tubing and into the hull on my 26 x . I removed all the foam under deck, located the screws on the rear pulpit anchor point then drilled a hole thru the stainless steel round plate, abaling me or the wire thru and into the hull .
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Gotro »

Here’s the results
Image

Image
Chumpy36
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Chumpy36 »

So I slept on it and tried again. I used my noggin this time and realizing that this line is only going to be running a small Led nag light, I downsized the wire and connected it to the thick main run I had run up to the anchor locker area. I’ll prolly put a smaller inline fuse when I connect to the panel or let the panel handle the wire protection.

Btw, I soldered the smaller wire to the bigger to make sure it did not come loose. Worked great and now I have a new run up to the bow mast light. I’ll use the same technique to run up the mast as well and that will be the last run to replace. Next will be connecting it to the new panel.

If the old line had broken the next thing I was gonna try was to fish a line down using a vacuum cleaner to pull the smaller lime and failing that, take off the bow pulpit.

Whew.
Chumpy36
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Re: Need to remove bow rail/pulpit- advice?

Post by Chumpy36 »

KingRichard wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:03 pm
Chumpy36 wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 12:04 pm This is great. Thanks all!
If in the process you learn that it's possible to pull new wire using the old lamp wire w/o removing the pulpit that would be good info. I have to jiggle the wire to get the bulb to come on, but the pulpit is sound, so I'd rather not remove it.

Either way it would be good to here how it goes. And I appreciate reading everyone else's experiences!
See above
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