Stanchion

[TBOT422]

Does anyone have any idea what size the large lifeline stanchion nut is? The weld has broken loose at the bottom on the stanchion and I want to have it repaired. Luckily it is one of the stanchions that you have some access to and I have cut away some of the paneling to be able to get to the nut, but I can't get any standard wrench on it. I suspect an offset wrench or a crow's foot or similar would work, but I'm not sure what size I need to purchase.
Thanks for any advice.

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[wolfe10]

Gary,

Those large nuts are not torqued very high. Even a crescent wrench should work just fine.

Yes, you want it tight, but if over-torqued it will squeeze out all the caulking.

[Wisail]

Janet
I don’t have the wrench size as it is at the boat but I think it was a metric 22. I would suggest making your life easier by using a ratchet box end wrench with a flex as you have very little ratchet “throw” and getting a Cresent or even open end in there repeatedly was a super pain. You should be able to confirm size with a cheap caliper.
I found a single cobalt tool at Lowe’s was available. The inner ring will get it done one or two clicks at a time.
Trimming the teak moulding was needed as clearly stanchions were installed on deck before mating to hull.
PM me if you have questions about wrench or my thoughts on trimming teak to get clearance.
Jeff

[TBOT422]

Jeff,
I hadn't thought about a ratcheting box end wrench. I'll take a look at that option. I believe you are close regarding the size. The Catalina Direct site says the through bolt is 1/2" which would make the nut 7/8" or about 22mm. Now that I have some idea of the size maybe I can set a crescent wrench before going up into the rat hole and get a few small turns on it so that I can remove it by hand. Given that this is probably not the only bolt that is nearly inaccessible on the boat, I probably need to buy a set of both crowfeet wrenches and ratcheting wrenches. By the time I get enough wrenches to work on it, I will need a bigger boat to haul around the tools.

Who came up with this idea? I'm just glad the one that is broken was somewhat reachable. I have no idea how you would get to most of the others or the bow rail if they became damaged.

[R.B.]

On my boat I used an 11 mm and 3/4” stubby wrenches to loosen the nuts.

[TBOT422]

I finally determined the large nut is a 3/4" hex. I needed to heat it with a heat gun to soften the 4200 in the threads so that I could turn it with an open end wrench.