Mast base red locktite predicament

[Darbonne]

Fixing up an old Mistral Superlight. Had some base parts, so ordered a stud and new rubber U joint. Thought I would put a base together. Everything was going fine till I tried to wipe some excess red threadlock from the bolt that that holds the stud to the bottom of the U joint. The threadlock dried before I could get the bolt all the way in and now I have 1/8" slack between the bottom of the U joint and the stud. It wont budge. Did some research and it takes heat to break the threadlock. If I apply heat it will melt the stud and U joint. I really screwed this up. Several solutions come to mind. Trash it and buy a new one. Try to get it apart with a small butane torch and order new parts that I melt in the process. Use it how it is-not to keen on this one. Red locktite dries fast when it is 96 degrees outside.

[U2U2U2]

I think I would try to fix it before trash.

Watch the video that shows brake cleaner to loosen

I use the blue

[Darbonne]

Yeah, I thought about this all night. Now that I am over being pissed. I can cut the bolt using a ban saw, then apply heat and try to get it out of the rubber piece without ruining it. Or I could compress the base and fill the cup with epoxy, thus eliminating the slack. Problem with the epoxy fix is that the stud will not swivel. The cup swivels. Will the stud not swiveling be a bad thing?

[U2U2U2]

[Darbonne]

Think I am going to try the epoxy fix. I am a little paranoid about this base after seeing what happened to joethewindsurfer.

[grantmac017]

I'd cut then apply heat to the stub using a soldering iron. You should see the loctite bubble then twist out with vice grips.
It doesn't take an oxy torch to release that stuff.

[bamer]

Just shim it. For a soft shim take some thin line like Kev-Cord or Q-Powerline and wrap it between the rubber joint and the safety strap/ plastic washer.

For a rigid shim take a plastic washer, cut a slot in it and slide it in place. Then glue this washer to the other plastic washer. If you cut the slot in carefully you can even glue the cut section back in. The rigid shim may need some sanding to get it to the correct thickness.

Either method done correctly should last the life of the universal.

Next time you use Locktite:
1. Push the bolt assembly through the cup, washer, and strap and make a mark with a permanent marker where the threads exit. Make another mark ~4 threads down the bolt from there.
2. Have all tools ready to go.
3. With the assembly laying horizontal, put one reasonable drop of Locktite in the area between the marked lines.
4. Keeping everything horizontal, quickly screw everything together until it is exactly how you want it.
5. Stand it up so gravity will allow any uncured liquid to run down into and not out of assembled parts.

I personally think Blue/242 is a better choice for windsurfing parts. It takes about 100 psi to break the bond of Blue Locktite and then another 40+ pounds of force to keep the assembly spinning. That is plenty strong for this application and just at the edge of allowing disassembly in the future.

[Darbonne]

Yeah, I thought about shimming it. I'll look into it.

[mark]

Bamer's idea about cutting a slot in a shim is a good idea. The bolt diameter is about 8 mm. However rather than making the whole slot 8mm wide I would try making the slot about 8 mm wide on the OD and tapering to about 5 mm on the ID. The plastic shim should flex a bit so when you slide it in it will stretch and then close after it is fully inserted. You can always start with a smaller gap at the ID and increase it if you can't get the shim to slide in.

Chinook sells 1 3/4 inch diameter plastic flat washers. I would buy a few and experiment with different gap widths.

[grantmac017]