Edson Pedestal & galvanic corrosion

[Ken Coit]

I am having trouble removing the compass housing from my Edson pedestal. The bolts seem to be corroded into the pedestal, but I can't really tell. Does anyone have any experience removing stainless bolts from aluminum pedestals or masts that seem to have been subject to galvanic corrosion? Edson now sells special $4.75 bolts that are coated and have a non-conductive washer to help prevent such problems, but back in '82, that probably wasn't the case. My current inclination is to grind or cut the heads off so I can disassemble the compass housing from the pedestal and get to the problem with vise grips. What then? Can I apply anything besides torque that will help? Heat? Penetrating oil? Sharp blows with a sledge?

Your thoughts are most welcome.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
CD-36 #84
Raleigh, NC



kcoit@nc.rr.com

[Jeff Barnes]

Ken:

I had the same problem on "Jazman" (CD36 #68). Two of the screws finally loosened with much WD-40 and a socket wrench with a screw-drive adapter. On teh othe two, I sheared the heads off with too much torque. Thats when the fun began. (At least at that point I was able to remove the compass!) Using a Dremel motor tool with a cut-off wheel, I cut the stainless screwss slightly above the aluminum tabs into whcih they were screwed (and corroded). Then, with a center punch, I indenetd a starter hole in each, and drilled the old screws out. (Stainless is not easy to drill since it work-hardens, so be diligent and patient. Then I drilled out the hole to jsut under 3/8" from the original 1/4", and re-tapped for 3/8 screws, which also seem to fit my compass as well. This was no small task. Good luck and let me know if you need more help of detail. I have refitted most everything on the CD-36.

Regards,

Jeff

[Ken Coit]

Jeff,

Thanks for the step-by-step horror story. I hope to avoid that one! Did you try heating the bolts with a torch or anything? I don't have to worry about the compass, it comes off with no trouble. The housing it sits in is through=bolted to the aluminum pedestal with stainless flat-blade machine screws.

What did you use to refasten, more stainless?

And since you have so much experience, did you ever have trouble removing the wheel? We have applied WD-40 and a wheel puller to no avail. I suppose the key is corroded to the wheel and the shaft. Is there anything else, besides the cap nut, that needs to be removed?

Thanks,

Ken

Ken:

I had the same problem on "Jazman" (CD36 #68). Two of the screws finally loosened with much WD-40 and a socket wrench with a screw-drive adapter. On teh othe two, I sheared the heads off with too much torque. Thats when the fun began. (At least at that point I was able to remove the compass!) Using a Dremel motor tool with a cut-off wheel, I cut the stainless screwss slightly above the aluminum tabs into whcih they were screwed (and corroded). Then, with a center punch, I indenetd a starter hole in each, and drilled the old screws out. (Stainless is not easy to drill since it work-hardens, so be diligent and patient. Then I drilled out the hole to jsut under 3/8" from the original 1/4", and re-tapped for 3/8 screws, which also seem to fit my compass as well. This was no small task. Good luck and let me know if you need more help of detail. I have refitted most everything on the CD-36.

Regards,

Jeff

parfait@nc.rr.com

[John R.]

I am having trouble removing the compass housing from my Edson pedestal. The bolts seem to be corroded into the pedestal, but I can't really tell. Does anyone have any experience removing stainless bolts from aluminum pedestals or masts that seem to have been subject to galvanic corrosion? Edson now sells special $4.75 bolts that are coated and have a non-conductive washer to help prevent such problems, but back in '82, that probably wasn't the case. My current inclination is to grind or cut the heads off so I can disassemble the compass housing from the pedestal and get to the problem with vise grips. What then? Can I apply anything besides torque that will help? Heat? Penetrating oil? Sharp blows with a sledge?

Your thoughts are most welcome.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
CD-36 #84
Raleigh, NC

Ken,
A great product that has proven it's worth countless times in situations like that which you are faced with is "PB Blaster". It truly works on freeing frozen parts easily and quickly. Ask any professional marine mechanic that has any experience and you will hear the same high regard. It is a co-polymer aerosal, it has a strong smell, it usually works within two minutes after it reaches the corroded area by capillary action. It meets military specification VVP-216-A-B.

It is manufactured by Blaster Division of W.K.W. Company (William K. Westley), Rockey River Marine and Automotive Manufacturing Chemists, 9545 Midwest Avenue, Garfield heights, Ohio 44125.

You should be able to find it at a good auto parts store, True Value or similar hardware, some marine stores.

Great stuff I've used it for years in the marine business.

No need to spend $5 on new bolts, use stainless and coat them with either Bostick "Marine Anti-Seize" or a lanolin based lubricant such as Lanocote made by Forespar. End of problems.

[Ken Coit]

John,

Now that is what I was looking for! Even if I have to cut the heads off to get to the corrosion, it sounds a lot better than having to drill out the remnants of stainless machine screws and re-thread the pedestal. Thanks very much.

Ken

I am having trouble removing the compass housing from my Edson pedestal. The bolts seem to be corroded into the pedestal, but I can't really tell. Does anyone have any experience removing stainless bolts from aluminum pedestals or masts that seem to have been subject to galvanic corrosion? Edson now sells special $4.75 bolts that are coated and have a non-conductive washer to help prevent such problems, but back in '82, that probably wasn't the case. My current inclination is to grind or cut the heads off so I can disassemble the compass housing from the pedestal and get to the problem with vise grips. What then? Can I apply anything besides torque that will help? Heat? Penetrating oil? Sharp blows with a sledge?

Your thoughts are most welcome.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
CD-36 #84
Raleigh, NC

Ken,
A great product that has proven it's worth countless times in situations like that which you are faced with is "PB Blaster". It truly works on freeing frozen parts easily and quickly. Ask any professional marine mechanic that has any experience and you will hear the same high regard. It is a co-polymer aerosal, it has a strong smell, it usually works within two minutes after it reaches the corroded area by capillary action. It meets military specification VVP-216-A-B.

It is manufactured by Blaster Division of W.K.W. Company (William K. Westley), Rockey River Marine and Automotive Manufacturing Chemists, 9545 Midwest Avenue, Garfield heights, Ohio 44125.

You should be able to find it at a good auto parts store, True Value or similar hardware, some marine stores.

Great stuff I've used it for years in the marine business.

No need to spend $5 on new bolts, use stainless and coat them with either Bostick "Marine Anti-Seize" or a lanolin based lubricant such as Lanocote made by Forespar. End of problems.

parfait@nc.rr.com

[John R.]

John,

Now that is what I was looking for! Even if I have to cut the heads off to get to the corrosion, it sounds a lot better than having to drill out the remnants of stainless machine screws and re-thread the pedestal. Thanks very much.

Ken

I am having trouble removing the compass housing from my Edson pedestal. The bolts seem to be corroded into the pedestal, but I can't really tell. Does anyone have any experience removing stainless bolts from aluminum pedestals or masts that seem to have been subject to galvanic corrosion? Edson now sells special $4.75 bolts that are coated and have a non-conductive washer to help prevent such problems, but back in '82, that probably wasn't the case. My current inclination is to grind or cut the heads off so I can disassemble the compass housing from the pedestal and get to the problem with vise grips. What then? Can I apply anything besides torque that will help? Heat? Penetrating oil? Sharp blows with a sledge?

Your thoughts are most welcome.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
CD-36 #84
Raleigh, NC

Ken,
A great product that has proven it's worth countless times in situations like that which you are faced with is "PB Blaster". It truly works on freeing frozen parts easily and quickly. Ask any professional marine mechanic that has any experience and you will hear the same high regard. It is a co-polymer aerosal, it has a strong smell, it usually works within two minutes after it reaches the corroded area by capillary action. It meets military specification VVP-216-A-B.

It is manufactured by Blaster Division of W.K.W. Company (William K. Westley), Rockey River Marine and Automotive Manufacturing Chemists, 9545 Midwest Avenue, Garfield heights, Ohio 44125.

You should be able to find it at a good auto parts store, True Value or similar hardware, some marine stores.

Great stuff I've used it for years in the marine business.

No need to spend $5 on new bolts, use stainless and coat them with either Bostick "Marine Anti-Seize" or a lanolin based lubricant such as Lanocote made by Forespar. End of problems.

Ken,

FYI, in the very unlikely event that the PB Blaster falls short in your situation you may want to try another purportedly good product called "Corrosion X". It is manufactured by a company in Texas and I know a distributor of the product in Tampa. I have had limited experience with it personaly but it is used quite a bit amongst a lot of the marine industry people in the Port of Tampa. I have some samples but haven't used it specifically to free up frozen dissimilar metals. I have used it for protection and lubrication uses on fasteners and moving parts and have had very good results. I'll dig up the info I have on it and post it in a new message when I find it.

[Ken Coit]

John,

I rushed out and found some PBBlaster at my nearest auto parts store and put it to work on an antique flashlight with battery corrosion. I t is eating the oxidation, but we haven't quite succeeded yet. Maybe another application or two will do it.

I will make an attempt to use the PBBlaster on my real problem, the pedestal, this weekend and I'll report back.

Thanks!

Ken

John,

Now that is what I was looking for! Even if I have to cut the heads off to get to the corrosion, it sounds a lot better than having to drill out the remnants of stainless machine screws and re-thread the pedestal. Thanks very much.

Ken

Ken,
A great product that has proven it's worth countless times in situations like that which you are faced with is "PB Blaster". It truly works on freeing frozen parts easily and quickly. Ask any professional marine mechanic that has any experience and you will hear the same high regard. It is a co-polymer aerosal, it has a strong smell, it usually works within two minutes after it reaches the corroded area by capillary action. It meets military specification VVP-216-A-B.

It is manufactured by Blaster Division of W.K.W. Company (William K. Westley), Rockey River Marine and Automotive Manufacturing Chemists, 9545 Midwest Avenue, Garfield heights, Ohio 44125.

You should be able to find it at a good auto parts store, True Value or similar hardware, some marine stores.

Great stuff I've used it for years in the marine business.

No need to spend $5 on new bolts, use stainless and coat them with either Bostick "Marine Anti-Seize" or a lanolin based lubricant such as Lanocote made by Forespar. End of problems.

Ken,

FYI, in the very unlikely event that the PB Blaster falls short in your situation you may want to try another purportedly good product called "Corrosion X". It is manufactured by a company in Texas and I know a distributor of the product in Tampa. I have had limited experience with it personaly but it is used quite a bit amongst a lot of the marine industry people in the Port of Tampa. I have some samples but haven't used it specifically to free up frozen dissimilar metals. I have used it for protection and lubrication uses on fasteners and moving parts and have had very good results. I'll dig up the info I have on it and post it in a new message when I find it.

parfait@nc.rr.com

[John R.]

Ken,

Shake up that can of PB Blaster real good before you use it and saturate the part that you are trying to free. Keep the part wetted with it.

Here is the info on the CX I mentioned. I've only used this stuff for lubricating purposes so I can't comment on it's ability to unfreeze parts. Many marine people say it is excellent for that purpose, but I have no experience with it for that use myself. Contact the company for more info.

Corrosion X is made by:

Corrosion Technologies Corp.
P.O. Box 5551625 Dallas, Tx. 75355-1625
PH: 800-638-7361
FAX: 972-278-9721
E-mail: corrosnx@ix.netcom.com
Website: www.corrosionx.com

John,

I rushed out and found some PBBlaster at my nearest auto parts store and put it to work on an antique flashlight with battery corrosion. I t is eating the oxidation, but we haven't quite succeeded yet. Maybe another application or two will do it.

I will make an attempt to use the PBBlaster on my real problem, the pedestal, this weekend and I'll report back.

Thanks!

Ken

John,

Now that is what I was looking for! Even if I have to cut the heads off to get to the corrosion, it sounds a lot better than having to drill out the remnants of stainless machine screws and re-thread the pedestal. Thanks very much.

Ken

Ken,

FYI, in the very unlikely event that the PB Blaster falls short in your situation you may want to try another purportedly good product called "Corrosion X". It is manufactured by a company in Texas and I know a distributor of the product in Tampa. I have had limited experience with it personaly but it is used quite a bit amongst a lot of the marine industry people in the Port of Tampa. I have some samples but haven't used it specifically to free up frozen dissimilar metals. I have used it for protection and lubrication uses on fasteners and moving parts and have had very good results. I'll dig up the info I have on it and post it in a new message when I find it.

[Ken Coit]

John,

Well, we tried PBBlaster, but didn't really give a good chance. We will try it again, keeping what we can wet. I can imagine that once it dries, you are almost back where you started. So far, we have sheared one bolt head and managed to get another to move. I think shearing may be easier than grinding if we can keep the slots from too much damage. Once we can get to the actual point of corrosion, it may go easier; at the moment, we must rely on the PBBlaster to work its way down the threads. If that doesn't work, we will try Corrosion X.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Ken

Ken,

Shake up that can of PB Blaster real good before you use it and saturate the part that you are trying to free. Keep the part wetted with it.

Here is the info on the CX I mentioned. I've only used this stuff for lubricating purposes so I can't comment on it's ability to unfreeze parts. Many marine people say it is excellent for that purpose, but I have no experience with it for that use myself. Contact the company for more info.

Corrosion X is made by:

Corrosion Technologies Corp.
P.O. Box 5551625 Dallas, Tx. 75355-1625
PH: 800-638-7361
FAX: 972-278-9721
E-mail: corrosnx@ix.netcom.com
Website: www.corrosionx.com

John,

I rushed out and found some PBBlaster at my nearest auto parts store and put it to work on an antique flashlight with battery corrosion. I t is eating the oxidation, but we haven't quite succeeded yet. Maybe another application or two will do it.

I will make an attempt to use the PBBlaster on my real problem, the pedestal, this weekend and I'll report back.

Thanks!

Ken

Ken,

FYI, in the very unlikely event that the PB Blaster falls short in your situation you may want to try another purportedly good product called "Corrosion X". It is manufactured by a company in Texas and I know a distributor of the product in Tampa. I have had limited experience with it personaly but it is used quite a bit amongst a lot of the marine industry people in the Port of Tampa. I have some samples but haven't used it specifically to free up frozen dissimilar metals. I have used it for protection and lubrication uses on fasteners and moving parts and have had very good results. I'll dig up the info I have on it and post it in a new message when I find it.

parfait@nc.rr.com