New stainless steel hardware

[ferdly1]

I am putting my 1997 75 hp force back together after kingpin replacement. A lot of the bolts need replacing do to salt water damage. I want to replace with stainless steel bolts. Having hard time finding hardware of the exact size. Parts breakdown calls for 1 3/8. I can find a 1 !/2 or 1 !/4 bolt. Is it better to go with longer bolt and add washers or a shorter bolt and hope it is strong enough. There are other bolts with odd sizes. I have found Bolt depot to have good prices for standard size bolts. Does anyone know a place where i can order these odd sizes. Ordering thru the boat dealers they cost about 5 bucks apiece. or some other ridiculous amount.

 

[dingbat]

You may or may not be doing yourself a favor.

There are over 300 grades of stainless steel. Use the wrong grade and you might as well replaced them with zinc plate. Use 316L stainless. Not cheap and hard to find outside box lots

 

[ferdly1]

bolt depot has 316. Just doesn't have odd sizes. Is it better to use longer bolt and add washers or shorter.

 

[pnwboat]

Just buy a slightly longer bolt and you can use washers or just cut it down to what ever size you want. For maximum clamping power, the bolt should be protruding at least a couple of threads past the end of the nut.

Be aware, using stainless hardware won't necessarily guarantee the elimination of corrosion issues. Sure, the bolt won't corrode or rust, but the aluminum around it can corrode. Using Stainless bolts will help some but not eliminate the problem. I've seen some stainless bolts on the transom mounts where the thru holes in the mount were so corroded that the stainless bolt were locked in place. It was almost like they had been welded.

 

[ferdly1]

I understand completely about stainless. Problem i had was removing old steel bolts they were rusted so bad. Even had to drill one out.. These bolts go into the engine adapter plate and midsection. i opted to go shorter with the bolts. I don't think !/8 inch will make that much difference. Plus i always use loc-tite medium strength. Forgot about cutting bolt shorter -good idea. Thanks! and thanks for your help and quick replies. Check out Bolt depot for stainless steel hardware, they do have good prices. the dealer wanted 23 dollars a piece for 2- 1/4 28 stainless steel bolts. I paid 43 cents apiece. and it was 316 grade

 

[pnwboat]

Dealer prices always amaze me!

If you want maximum protection, you can coat the bolts with some non-reactive ant-seize for stainless or some TEF-GEL. This will minimize water from getting into the area around the bolts. The TEF-GEL works really well but is kind of pricey, but if purchased in small amounts it's not too bad.