leaky thru hull

[mrlee]

Hi, My Irwin 30 has a leaky thru hull and it's the one for the speed transducer. Is this hard to remove? Is the electronic part delicate? There is also wood spacers between hull and the nut...On almost ALL of my thru hulls...should I change all of these at the same time? With what? Please give me some input so I don't do something wrong...She will be hauled in 2 weeks.
Thanks...everyone here is great!!!
Here are some pics...1st 2 are the leaky thru hull, then forward of it is dry, then more with the wood spacers...

[model 10]

Trash the ones you have for water and get valves with a 3 or 4 bolt flange. I guess you just re -seal the plastic jobs. I hate plastic thru hulls. I imagine running into something and they shear off.

[mrlee]

Guy, this is for the Transducer...I don't think it's plastic (I hope) so do I need to put the wood back? What else can I use instead of wood? I am thinking of making fiberglass pieces to resemble the wood and form them to the hull at the same time.
...Good idea?

[HopCar]

Since you're going to be working on them, I'd replace those wooden backing blocks with fiberglass. I would also install Groco Flanged Adapters between those ball valves and the thru-hulls. The threads currently don't match and it is a weak connection.
Groco Seacock Backing Block
Groco Flanged Adapter IBVF

[Finistere]

Do not use wood, it will swell when wet and contact when dry, eventually it will leak. Fiberglass and epoxy work very well.


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[mrlee]

Got it...I'll make the round fiberglass pcs manana and take measurements to order the flanged pcs...Now the fun...shipping to Mexico!
Thanks a million guys. It feels better just having an idea of what to do...
Any tips on how to measure these for the flanged units? Thread diameter of the existing pcs.?

[HopCar]

The ball valves look like Apollo valves and may have the size cast into them. If not measure the OD of the threads just below the valve. Hard to tell from a picture but at a guess I'd say that was an 1-1/4 valve. If I'm right, the threads on the thru-hull will measure about 1-5/8" OD.

There are two issues with just screwing valves onto thru-hulls. The first is that the thru-hull is realitively weak. Yours are cut short so that helps. The other problem is that the thru-hull has straight threads and the valve has tapered threads. You can't get very many straight threads into the tapered threads before it jams. This is a pretty weak connection. The Flanged Adapter solves both problems. The Groco fiberglass backing plates make installation pretty easy but you can save some money by making your own.

[mrlee]

I really like the flanged valves but the leaky one is the transducer for the knotmeter and I don't know if I can change it...I have worries about removing this and breaking it...I don't have the funding to replace that!
First things first...I'm going to make the fiberglass spacers which I will fiberglass directly to the hull with epoxy resin...Then haul her.
Thanks a lot...