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Repair blog: chainplate & tie rod replacement Bavaria 47 cruiser 2001 (FINISHED)

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UP:
Hello,

For the benefit of other Bavaria owners, I am staring a forum repair blog on my 2001 Bavaria 47 Cruiser port side chainplate tie-rod replacement-overhaul. I see this is a topic that has risen in this forum too, however I did not see it answered with finality. I'm not planning on losing my rigging due to this :)

To start, please see attached images of my vessels portside chainplate rod fastening corrosion. The rusty connection is directly beneath the galley top, behind the sink. Obviously, there is corrosion pitting present. I am going to replace the fittings and overhaul the otherwise good looking starboard fitting too. Just for good measure.

My first step has been emailing Bavaria to request specifications for the pieces (torque specs) and availability of parts. Also, has anyone had similar jobs done on a similar Bavaria? On inspection, I find it disturbing that the original fastenings of the deck chainplate are of A2 grade steel. I'm upping this to A4.

UP:
First update of this repair:
1) SVB24.com does not stock anything for the Bav47 cruiser 2001 chainplates and tie rods;
2) Bavaria official customer support, to whom I called, said it is a very old boat from an old era of the Bavaria company and they likely have nothing available to support the repair - drawings, manufacturer, nothing.

So that means I'll have to manufacture the part myself - which is not a problem. I'll take the rusted stuff off the boat, try to measure some torque specs, create drawings and send them off to a shop.

My main question presently is the amount of pre-tensioning of the tie rod that links the chainplate to the bulkhead. There must be some, however I'm unsure how much and how to measure it really. It must be equal or more when compared to rig tension. Bolt removal-torques will not be an adequate number as they are rusted and there is more friction when compared to a new part.

Any input on the tie rod tension is greatly appreciated, thanks!

UP:
Update #2

I got the chainplate off yesterday - in fact it was not under much pressure. I held the deck bolts with a hex wrench and undid the nuts of the backing plate to which the tie rod connects. I was fully expecting the bottom plate to "snap down" when loosened, however this did not happen. The tie-rod is still stuck to the hull. It is a rather elaborate system. Once I get it all off I'll upload a picture. I need to go buy a 45 mm wrench..

UP:
Update #3

Today I got the whole chainplate assembly off the boat. I had to remove the galley sink to get proper torque applying access to the 45 mm large nut holding the tie-rod to the bulkhead bracket. It took some large wrenches and a plenty supply of penetrating oil to get the last nut off. Now the galley is a mess, however on the upside the hardware does not look even half as bad as it did when it was still mounted to the boat.

To be honest, the parts look OK to me. However there is still two dark corners to explore - namely the stainless tie rod itself is a "free floating" piece. On the deck side it is sitting in a ball joint and on the bulkhead side it is somehow stopped in the cylinder from which the massive 45 mm threaded rod sticks out of. I'm going to look at the floating points and see if there is anything up there.

I'm having second thoughts on having anything replaced in this assembly. However, as said, I'll open up the tie rod joints, clean all the parts up, inspect them and see if I can find anything. I'll maybe swap out the tie rod, as it is the thinnest part in the whole assembly. Everything else is massive compared to it.

Again, any ideas-suggestions are welcome.

Yngmar:
Nice work. Can you show the ball head of the tie rod as well? That's likely the critical part.

On ours, one of the through-deck bolts had a crack in the head, so I replaced them all. The rest was fine, although ours hadn't been leaking for as long as this one. Polish it all up and check for cracks (can use dye if you want to be fancy). Unlikely there'll be any problems with the lower bracket, it's massive.

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