Keel upgrades

Finally getting around to showing all of my upgrades to the keel system. Started by removing and refairing the keel itself and them repainting it.



Before



After, hanging in place.

Also upgraded the roller to a bronze unit with sealed bearings.





The keel pivot was upgraded also. I fabricated a UHMW bushing in 3/4" oversize and bored the pivot bolt to include a grease fitting piped to the center of the bushing.





In reinstalling the keel I painted each quadrant around the pivot a different color. This allowed me to tell where the keel was and needed to to in order to line up the pivot bolt holes.



The final result.



In addition to all this I rebuilt the winch and replaced the cable. Lots of fun!!!

Very impressive accumulation of work!

Thanks. I wanted more pix of the process but the work got in the way.

Where did you find the bearing and the keel bolt?

I am trying to restore CM 26 that was badly stored.

Thanks,

Mike Connor

I turned the roller out of bronze and added the bearings. The bushing was turned out of black UHMW with a 3/4" id and 1" od and was cut to length after insertion. The roller is designed to self-center the cable and is my own design.

Oh yeah. the bolt. It was a 5" X3/4" dia. stainless bolt that I drilled and cross-drilled, then added the zerk fitting. Rough going in stainless but relatively easy machinework to do.

Excellent work!!

Good enough, it will stick where everyone can see it! Bravo!

Hi. Mine was without roller. Guess its why my cable just broke.would love to get one of those!also have to drillnew hole in keel to attaeh shackle. Old metal rusted away on edge of keel. Any suggestions?

HI,
I havent tested it yet but my keel was very rusted and falling apart. so i wrapped it in fiberglass and gel coat it. the weight that the keel still needs is there but the fiberglass exo stops your rust issues... then if you hit anything your damaging the fiberglass not as much as the metal keel. I did put a primer on the metal after buffing it to help the fiberglass stick. I also epoxy filled the cracks.