How to rejuvenate an adjustable Spinnaker pole

[zachduckworth]

Hi,
I have one of the adjustable Forespare spinnaker poles. Not the cheap, lightweight ones, the bigger, heavier-dury ones. A few months ago the control line on my pole snapped and since then I haven’t been able to telescope it.

I watched some videos on fixing them and then started working on it tonight. Ever notice that screws never freeze in how to videos? Well a few are hard-frozen on my spin pole. I ended up having to cut off the end cap with a hacksaw to free it. This means I’ll need to cut each piece down when I put it back together, but it’s way too long for my boat already. So that’s nit a huge deal.

The end fitting is still stuck to the off cut of the extrusion. I’m going to wake up early tomorrow and cut it free with an angle grinder, because my time is precious and this thing looks like it’s going to test me at every turn.

My question is, what can/should I do to this thing (aside from tefgel) that will make it easier to work on in the future, or make it better? I wish there was some way to rig an extension mechanism on the outside instead of inside. I suppose that if it was possible somebody would make it already. Anyway, advise on working on one of these things is appreciated!

[scherzoja]

I've got one of these also and I rebuilt it because the plastic bushings swelled up from water contact during prolonged storage ashore. I sanded the circumference of that bushing to reduce its diameter a bit.

Put silicon grease on the plastic "oring/bushing" that is part of the larger tube and through which the small tube slides. I vaguely recall that there is a plastic part on the inner end of the smaller tube, grease that also. Wipe off excess so the grease doesn't contaminate anything (deck, stanchions, lines, whatever it touches)

[zachduckworth]

Originally Posted by scherzoja

I've got one of these also and I rebuilt it because the plastic bushings swelled up from water contact during prolonged storage ashore. I sanded the circumference of that bushing to reduce its diameter a bit.

Put silicon grease on the plastic "oring/bushing" that is part of the larger tube and through which the small tube slides. I vaguely recall that there is a plastic part on the inner end of the smaller tube, grease that also. Wipe off excess so the grease doesn't contaminate anything (deck, stanchions, lines, whatever it touches)

Great advice, thanks! This was exactly what I needed.
I got the thing apart this morning without having to damage it. The outboard cap piece was the only thing I couldn’t remove because one of the screws was frozen. Not a huge deal as there isn’t much going on at that end. I noted that the outboard end cap is made of some sort of plastic, not metal. The inboard, mast-side end cap is aluminum.

I pulled every fastener and part, and ran some paper towels down the inside of the tubes. I’ll put some grease in both inner and out tubes before I completely put it back together. The bushings seem ok, not a lot of swell. I will keep that advice in mind for the future. There was some galvanic corrosion at the ends of both tubes that made it a little sticky before; I filed that off.

I did a dry run by putting parts of it back together this afternoon with some mouseline. It worked pretty well. So, tomorrow first thing I’ll go to West Marine and buy some line, and some silicon grease if they have it and put it back together. I can’t wait to pole out my whole spinnaker again. It’s been awhile.