Pylon "Cup" Please Help

This past summer I broke the cardinal rule...I took some neighbors tubing...oh yeah 3 of them in a tube...NEVER AGAIN...either learn to ski or sit in the boat...any way my pylon was pushed back..leaning toward the engine...I took it to a friend and he mentioned that the cup had in fact moved forward...how important is this cup...can I use the pylon as is ...that is with the 2 "u" bolts attaching it to the metal frame...I am not very technical ...and I do not welcome the idea of taking this to the dealer to repair ...your thoughts as always would be much..much...appreciated...thanks ....basically what is the function of this cup...there was a 3rd u bolt attaching this to a 2 hole thing fibreglassed into the bottom of the boat...

The year and model of your boat would help too.

Cups can't really move, unless you mean "detach".

this is a 1999 air tique. or 176 Ski Nautique....

skiguy27 wrote: you can see that flat piece with the hole in it the u bolt goes around the bottom of the pylon and into that angled metal that is fiber glassed to the floor it seems it has moved a bit...pushed forward with the fiberglass....the other 2 u bolts will they be strong enough on their own to hold the pylon in place...surely the fibreglassed portion wasn't providing that much retention.....

The answer is no, as explained, the anchor point to the keel is required. If it wasn't needed, do you think CC would have installed it? Grind it out and re glass it to the hull/keel.

Are you sure there was actually a movement here? These pylons have some natural bend to them anyway.

3 people on a tube wouldn't put more load on the pylon then 3 footers, which is been done many times. Unless the tube flipped over and the skirt became a water parachute?

I'm not condoning tubing by any means, but when I worked at a summer camp, I pulled two 200pound plus counselors on one tube, no problem with a 90HP two stroke merc. That boat struggled more with one 150 poundish wakeboarder.

It's hard to imagine your skinautique would even notice unless like I say, the tube capsized and it had an open skirt that parachuted.

I'm also curious how a tube could put enough force into a pylon to break that lower "cup". That doesn't seem right to me. If that thing has come loose you will need to get it fixed correctly. That lower point really does align everything and it important to how the pylon functions.

Sorry, but I can't really see in those photos what has moved. Can you pull the camera back a bit to get a better view of the entirety of that area?

this is what has moved it seems maybe it just holds the pylon down..

it is still embedded in the fiberglass but it has moved forward...I was able to use the pylon to knock it back to its original position

It's not rocket science. You need to remove the pyon entirely. After the cup is out, you can use coarse sandpaper to etch the mounting area. Then use epoxy (lots of it) to glue the cup back in. Reassemble & go skiing.

I have a 4 person tube (haven't used it in years) that wants to 'submarine' - it could break the tow rope if you didn't let off on the throttle in time.    So don't feel like you did something wrong!

Geez, why not cut the throttle as soon as he fell? Should be standard practice anytime anyone falls, pretty much ever. Then idle back. Unless you need to protect your skier from getting run over by another boat- that's the only exception.

Tubes can put an incredible amount of stress on the tow point. Way more than any combination of barefooters under the right conditions. They have a lot of surface area and that can be used against the boat when overloaded or when positioned just right. And the rider usually doesn't have much control over it. Good news is there's an easy solution: don't pull tubes. Bonus points awarded to those who make tube pullers feel ashamed for doing so.

SNobsessed wrote: It's not rocket science. You need to remove the pyon entirely. After the cup is out, you can use coarse sandpaper to etch the mounting area. Then use epoxy (lots of it) to glue the cup back in. Reassemble & go skiing.

Chris,
You forgot to mention a couple things. I would solvent wash the area several times during the sanding (I would prefer grinding) process since bilges can get pretty greasy. Then, I would also suggest grinding the bonding surface on the angle to clean it up. The epoxy is good but I'd also like to see some glass over the angle too.

8122pbrainard wrote: TRBenj wrote: Tubes can put an incredible amount of stress on the tow point. Way more than any combination of barefooters under the right conditions. They have a lot of surface area and that can be used against the boat when overloaded or when positioned just right. And the rider usually doesn't have much control over it. I totally agree with Tim about the stress. It sounds like some of our members who disagree didn't do well in their high school psychics class.

cs

Or spelling.....apparently. Or was there a course on psycho chics in your school?

A good adhesive for this project would be Plexus MA310. I had to do this to my boat this spring when the Pylon bracket at the floor came loose. It was pretty easy but a pain with the motor in the way but it can be done. There is a great adhesive kit that mixes the epoxy as it slides down the tube. .http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=38217

Also build up a small wall with fiberglass in front of the plate. Becareful that you don't make it to big because the wall can get in the way of the pylon. I built most of the wall up to the left and right of where the pylon attaches to the plate and sanded off some of the excess wall to get the pylon to sit back in place. This will help keep it in position and take some of the stress off the epoxy

Also order a quart of bilgekote to paint the fresh fiberglass you'll be laying in there.

This seems to be a little bit of a different design than the cups I've seen on the older boat rebuild threads.

This seems to be more of a bracket than a cup, if I'm seeing this correctly. Maybe since it's a newer model boat?

I'd like to see some pictures from under the doghouse (engine cover) with the camera faced towards the bow (backside of this bracket).