installing new rod rigging

[infinitysail]

Here is a shot from behind. The spreaders mount on heavy stainless bars that pass through the mast and have the angle already built into them. I think adjusting the angle would be difficult.

Rig is built by sparcraft. Boat is a J/40 built by TPI. I measured both sides. Spreader bends were in the same location side to side. Port side shrouds were about 3/4" longer than starboard. I calculated the bends to be 6.4 degrees for upper spreader and 13.2 degrees for lower. What is the method for putting in your own bend?

Boat is a 1990, but spent 15 years in fresh water, so the mast is in great shape. We can pull the mast in the US, but down here it is expensive, difficult and possibly risky. I want to avoid doing this unless absolutely necessary.

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
Angles are adequate. Put in the bend by putting the shroud in the spreader tip, and tightening. The time in fresh water and mild climate is something of a clock-stopper. I understand the difficulty of pulling the stick there, but note that switching in place is also risky. Why am I writing this like a telegram?
Have you disassembled any turnbuckles to examine rod ends? You will need a scrubby pad, and ideally some form of magnification and/or a camera capable of extreme close-ups, so you can send pictures. Where I am going here is we might be able to give a long-distance, heavily-qualified blessing to the rig for the trip home. There are microscopes that clip onto iPhones now...
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[infinitysail]

For some reason, I was under the impression that the fittings couldn't be disassembled. Are they put together with red loctite? If so, I would be happy to disassemble and take some pictures. I will try to find some sort of microscope that can take pictures.

Also, I understand dye can help show cracks. Is there an off the shelf dye I can put on before taking pics? I think I would be happy doing a good inspection before sailing the 1500 miles back to FL or Kemah if I can do a thorough inspection.

Would you worry about the upper end, or are failures statistically far more common at the bottom of shrouds?

Here are the fittings:

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
Those can be disassembled. Heat the terminal. A lot. You need to melt the red loctite that is securing the threads. When it has vaporized, you can unscrew the studs, and slide the rod heads out for inspection. Clean it off and post closeup pictures.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Joe Henderson]

Frank,

Yes heat the terminals, but not a lot!

You do not want much of the heat to soak into the rod end.

I usually start to heat the threaded end up near the socket first so the heat path is through the threaded end, across the loctite bond and into the fitting with the rod head the last to see any real heat.

The strength of the nitronic rod depends in part on the mechanism of work hardening as it is drawn down to size at the mill. This is fairly carefully calculated and allowed for ( or should be ) by the manufacturers.

Too much heat will bring the rod back to the annealed state, not what you want at all....soft rod ends.

I usually heat gently until I can smell the loctite starting to powder off and then give it a turn, really not a great deal of heat maybe 100 to 125 Celcius.

If you discolour the fitting brown or blue, you have gone too far.

It is more iimportant to grip the rod socket and the threaded rod REALLY securely so you can apply some controlled torque without slipping.

A couple of aluminium ( alright aluminum ) plates in the vice jaws will grip the thread longitudinally with the thread horizontal in the jaws and gripping the long axis of the thread, without damage.

Or you may, as a last resort, have to file a couple of flats on the very end of the thread so you can grip it in a good vice.

I have found that the powdered loctite acts as a pretty good lubricant, go smoothly and carefully, but let the fitting know you mean business!

Joe.

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
Thanks, Joe, I should have defined what I meant by "a lot." It isn't easy to heat rod ends enough to anneal them, but it can be done. So yes, just enough heat to make the Loctite let go. Which is, um a lot...
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[infinitysail]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to try this in the next couple days. I will go easy with the heat. I will try to come up with some way of applying torque to the threads as well. I was going to use a stainless rivet through the pin hoe, but it sounds like this won't be enough. I will try the aluminum plates, or possibly file some flats if necessary.

A couple more questions:

My USB microscope will either do 20X or 200X zoom. Is 20X enough? 200X might be hard to work with, but I will try.

When reassembling, I will use the red loctite again, of course. What about greasing the rod head? Moly grease? T9? nothing?

Thanks,
Frank