[bastro69]

Hello,

First post to the forum - seems like a great place to get / share advice.

My 1996 Talari 210 passenger side captains chair is very wobbly. The bolts that hold the pedistal base down have started backing out. The two bolts nearest the boat's centerline can be reached through the ski locker. These appear to have spring loaded anchors (like you might use to hang something heavy on your wall at home) on the backside of the decking... for the bolt to tighten up against. However, the other bolts go through the deck into blind holes. Any idea what is backing the fiberglass deck? The bolts are 3" long, and appear to be machine screws (as opposed to wood screws). There is quite a bit of rust (or other buildup) on the threads of the two I've removed. I read on one of the other posts that there is an aluminum plate backing the decking below the chairs. I thought about drilling and re-tapping with bigger bolts, but the holes in the pedestal are just big enough to accomodate the current bolt size. I also thought about rotating the base and drilling new holes between the current holes, but (a) that sounded like a lot of work and (b) I wanted to know what was under the deck before I did (again, if metal, I'd have to tap it for the screws.

Thanks for any assistance you can give!

Cary

[mikeyt]

hi Cary

You have basically hit the nail on the head. There is an aluminum plate (12" x 12" i believe) under the decking floor that the pedestal screws go thru and yes that plate is tapped. You can rotate the pedestal but, as you pointed out, you have to drill & tap again. You might consider putting some locktite on the threads of the screws that go thru the plate and for the 2 that you mentioned have 'spring loaded attachments', you could remove those & put some sort of metal backing plate & use lock washers/locking nuts to secure. I'm not sure what kind of base you have but i'm able to enlarge my holes probably by one size if i wanted to increase the bolt size. Just dont increase the bolt length!