Leaking Garboard Plug

[Lord Farringdon]

QUOTE=Theresamarie11;486171]..... also had water in there from a cracked and leaking garboard plug housing. [/QUOTE]

I didn't want to hijack another thread on gelcoat delamination in the bilge (which the above quote is from) so posted this question separately.

I have a problem with leaking around the garboard plug housing (we call it a transom plug in NZ). It was just a minor seep but over two weeks it would start to fill the bilge although not enough to trigger the pump. Hauled the boat and removed the plug. Refreshed the plumbing tape on the threads and re-inserted. Put the the boat back in and now it leaks more! I guess that says I have done something wrong with the plug ( I know I tightened it well) but could it be the through hull fitting which has been 'worked' with the plug removal and retightneing. I have what appear to be some gelcoat chips around the plug (inside the bilge) so I am concerned about water entry at this point and structual issues? What should I do next?

Terry

 

[melida]

Terry,
Glad to hear you again, but sorry for the water leak.
I can't comment for fiberglass work or structural things, but if it were me I'd haul out the boat immediately for worst case scenario. Getting wet wit sea water the bilge is worst thing for a fiberglass boat.
Maybe the problem is bigger then it's seen, so I'd put the boat on a dry stack and leave the garboard drain open and engine hatch open for draining the water and drying the bilge.
Hope your problem is tiny by screwing the plug wrongly.

 

[Lord Farringdon]

Hi Melida, Good to hear from you again. Thanks for your advice. Yeah, I'm going to have lift the boat again but I need to know what all the possibilities are first. Do these boats have a rubber or neoprene seal on the plugs or is it just brass to brass which I seem to have? Is there a special type of thread tape? Maybe I used the wrong sort? I don't want to lift the boat out of the water again and place it in the yard for something that might be a 10 minute repair that would I only have to pay for a lift and hold for 30 mins.

Another earthquake in Christchurch yesterday 6.0 on the Ricter scale. 40 -50 injuries (from being thrown about and knocked down mostly) but no deaths thank goodness. Another 5 buildings in the CBD have collapsed and a pall of dust hung over the city yesterday afternoon. The people of that city must be seriously considering living somewhere else.

Cheers


Terry

 

[rockhead]

My boat is 21 years old. I noticed while flushing the bilge with a garden hose that water was seeping out around the garboard drain fitting without the plug even in. It turns out that the fitting had been removed and refastened by the previous owner. The fitting was not centered so one of the screws didn't catch very well. I ended up removing the fitting and rebuilding the entire area with white marine tex. I replaced the fitting and sealed it properly with new 5200 and new screws. Good as new or even better!

 

[melida]

Hi Melida, Good to hear from you again. Thanks for your advice. Yeah, I'm going to have lift the boat again but I need to know what all the possibilities are first. Do these boats have a rubber or neoprene seal on the plugs or is it just brass to brass which I seem to have? Is there a special type of thread tape? Maybe I used the wrong sort? I don't want to lift the boat out of the water again and place it in the yard for something that might be a 10 minute repair that would I only have to pay for a lift and hold for 30 mins.

Another earthquake in Christchurch yesterday 6.0 on the Ricter scale. 40 -50 injuries (from being thrown about and knocked down mostly) but no deaths thank goodness. Another 5 buildings in the CBD have collapsed and a pall of dust hung over the city yesterday afternoon. The people of that city must be seriously considering living somewhere else.

Cheers

Terry

Terry,
I can't say technical and type about the plug, but this year 1 month ago and last year from since I bought the boat I hauled out at least ten times and every time I opened the plug by myself and then tightened with no water came in.
What if you tighten the plug by not matched to the thread's teeth and it left gap which intakes water.
Maybe a possible easy cause did it.

Heard the news about the earthquake in Chrischurch at 6richter. Hope you and your family well. We had in aug 99 at 7,4richter(declared which was almost 8,5) and 24,000 people died(declared actually more than 40,000 died) so I feel bad when I hear the news about eartquake or an environmental disaster even from the other side of the world.

 

[Lord Farringdon]

Thanks for your thoughts Melida, we live some way from Christchurch and geologically on a different 'plate'. No 'shakey town' for us thank goodness. We have some friends in Christchurch though and we have checked that they are all fine although they say they are a little on edge and not sleeping too well. The problem is the aftershocks keep hitting. It just wont settle down. This last one was considered a new earthequake that will present its own aftershock sequence as well. I think if was in Christchurch I'd go and live on the boat!!

 

[Lord Farringdon]

Thanks for that rockhead. I wondered about the thru-hull part of the plug. When I taped the plug up and turned it back in I paid special attention to the thru-hull fitting to see if it moved at all during the tightrning sequence but it seemed solid and it lies flat. I would hope it's not the problem, nevertheless, there is always a possibility something's not right there.


Terry

 

[Henry Boyd]

I was told this spring that you should not use teflon tape to seal the threads on the plug. My tech coated the threads with a thin layer of grease and tightened it up. If it is leaking behind the actual flange, the repair is to remove it. Then allow the transom to drain any water that might have soaked into the core. Assuming no long term damage to core of transom, clean it up and coat with epoxy, also filling the old screw holes. The assembly then gets re-installed with the hole pattern rotated, so the screws will go into fresh glass. Then install using proper bedding methods and it should be good.

Henry

 

[Lord Farringdon]

I was told this spring that you should not use teflon tape to seal the threads on the plug. My tech coated the threads with a thin layer of grease and tightened it up. If it is leaking behind the actual flange, the repair is to remove it. Then allow the transom to drain any water that might have soaked into the core. Assuming no long term damage to core of transom, clean it up and coat with epoxy, also filling the old screw holes. The assembly then gets re-installed with the hole pattern rotated, so the screws will go into fresh glass. Then install using proper bedding methods and it should be good.

Henry

Dont use teflon tape eh. That may well be where I went wrong because it didn't look like it had tape on it when I unscrewed it. Wished I'd used grease now. Oh well...looks like another haulout. I'll examine it closely on haulout to see if there is anything more major wrong with the thru-hull. Thanks Henry and others for your suggestions.


Terry

 

[Lazy Daze]

That's correct, no reason to use tape just bronze to bronze. I've never used grease, although I don't see how that would hurt anything. If that doesn't fix the problem, then removal of the flange, as Henry mentioned, is the next step. It's either the plug not sealing well or the flange is leaking - those are the only two options. If you haven't seen the backside (inside) of your flange before, note that one of "screws" is actually a through bolt as your grounding system attaches to it. Yup, that's right, 'ya need skinny arms with two elbow joints and a host of socket extensions....:smt101

 

[CNYBoater]

Lazydaze, reviving a dead thread since you brought up my plug. This what you were referring to?

 

[Lazy Daze]

Lazydaze, reviving a dead thread since you brought up my plug. This what you were referring to?

Correct. Like most things on boats, they should be resealed every so often. It's just good PM. Preventative Maintenance. Emphasis on the "preventative".

 

[CNYBoater]

1) remove garboard plug socket
2) check surrounding wood for rot or wetness, allow to dry if wet
3) reseal transom wood in/around opening, but with what? 5200?
4) fill old screw holes, again, which product? 5200?
5) once cured, rotate socket to be in fresh glass, align, drill pilot holes, fill with what sealant, since I'll eventually need to remove them to do this again?
6) reinstall garboard plug socket, assuming a non-permenant sealant on both sides of socket housing.


input appreciated. I see 5200 mentioned above, but I thought that was something you used that you don't easily remove later.

 

[boatrboy]

That's correct, no reason to use tape just bronze to bronze. I've never used grease, although I don't see how that would hurt anything. If that doesn't fix the problem, then removal of the flange, as Henry mentioned, is the next step. It's either the plug not sealing well or the flange is leaking - those are the only two options. If you haven't seen the backside (inside) of your flange before, note that one of "screws" is actually a through bolt as your grounding system attaches to it. Yup, that's right, 'ya need skinny arms with two elbow joints and a host of socket extensions....:smt101

I did this repair a few years back and took pictures - here is what Lazy Days is talking about with the ground screw - it's tough to get to for sure....as you can see I ended up cutting the head of the screw off and pushing it through. I ended up making a stainless steel nut that was about 1 inch long so it was easier on reassembly. I also found everything solid but opted to re-glass the hole anyway.

 

[Lazy Daze]

CNY,

If everything is tight and good, I wouldn't bother filling old holes and rotating the socket. I personally like Life Seal LifeCaulk for this application. It's an adhesive caulk, but not quite as tenacious as 5200. But do note that it is messy so tape up the surrounding gelcoat well. It looks like regular caulk (and essentially is), but darnit if it doesn't always seem to get somewhere that I don't want it to. Do it right and you'll sell the boat well before you need to do this again. If you do want to fix old holes, I would do like Boatrboy did and use epoxy resin as that would be permanent.

 

[boatrboy]

I should have clarified-I only made a mix of fiberglass resin to coat the existing large hole. I use a paint brush and coated it where it was bare. The screws were fine and filled with sealant.