loose pylon

thank's for all of your replys! do you think it is still strong enough to ski behind a few more times this year? at the top of the pylon i measure about 1/2 inch of play when i realy lay into it. i would like to wait till the end of the season so i can pull the engine to get more room and do a rear main seal while i'm at it.

Hey 77,
This past winter I discovered my pylon was loose around the base as well. In my 69 the pylon base was set on the hull floor and then layers of fiberglass were layed up over it to secure the base. So, I used a variety of hand tools, from scrappers to caulk removers and chipped away the old fiberglass. (I'm sure there are better ways, but I usually do things the wrong way and the slow way.) I chipped away the loose fiberglass until the fiberglass was solid to the hull. Then I used epoxy resin and mat to rebuild the support. I also mixed some resin fibers with epoxy to make a slurry to put around the base, then layed fiberglass on top. It's now solid as a rock, we've been through the course several times this year with it.
Chuck

bump for David F

I recently bought a '77 ski nautique that appears in every way to be in excelent condition structurly however the pylon was loose. so with the help of this awsome web site, i removed the pylon and found the metal pin in the pylon to be rusted and pitted. i used the epoxy repair method that was mentioned in a previous post and it worked excelent. but after skiing behind the boat i was able to move the pole front to back again. i noticed that the plate that is gell coated to the bottom of the boat is loose. no cracks in the gell coat that i can see. how do i repair this?