Pintle welds broken. Check yours.

[Tom Elsen]

Hello All

Here is a bizarre problem which may be unique to my 1990-built boat. The pintle welds were very poorly made. I have never seen this on a 7.9 before, but it is CERTAINLY worth checking on your boat.

The pintles are essentially stainless tubes which are welded into their (horizontal) brackets. Both the top and bottom bracket have two plates securing their respective pintle at the bottom. In my case each of the four welds (both welds on the top pintle and both on the bottom one) has cracked because the weld did not properly seat. The top pintle is so loose that I am quite certain it can be dislodged with a small hammer….a potential day-spoiler without doubt!

Check yours soon

[Tom Line]

Nope - it was a problem on my boat as well. I think it's something all S2's can be susceptible to.

[Jeff Bonvallet]

Had the same problem on mine, top only.

[chriscraig99]

What is a Pintle and where are they?

Chris

Some road construction workers in Chicago have yours! TE

[yves springuel]

The pintels, located on the leeding edge of the rudder, sit on the gudgeons and provide the attachment and pivot between the rudder and the transom.

[Guest]

I advise everyone to check the bottom one. I broke mine while racing offshore Ft. Laurdale, almost lost the whole rudder.

[Jim Kloss]

My bottom pintle has broken three times and been repaired twice; I no longer trust the SS after exposure to salt water and galvanic corrosion. Anybody know a source for replacements? I'm waiting to hear from S2. "Tops in Quality" has the specifications and can weld one up, but they can't bend a single SS strap to exactly duplicate the originals. Has anybody found bronze replacements?

Jim Kloss
s/v Ambivalence
S2 7.9 #8

[Jim Kloss]

Tops in Quality is preparing to weld me up a pair of pintles, but in our conversations we've discovered that the original drawings from S2 in 1981 call for a 1/2 pin -- not 5/8", which is what I have and I thought everyone else has. Does anybody have a 1/2" pintle? S2 must have upgraded fairly early in the production run since I have hull #8. Later on they switched the pintles and gudgeons around, hanging the pintles (5/8") on the transom instead of the rudder. Anybody know why they did that?

Jim Kloss
s/v Ambivalence
S2 7.9 #8

[Stef]

I have hull #146, 5/8" pintles on the boat.

[BarryE]

hull #11; 5/8" pintles mounted on the transom, I was told by the broker when I bought it in 95 that the original pintles and gudgeons (in the opposite configuration) had been replaced by the previous owner and that all subsequent boats had the pintles (pointed upwards) on the transom.
Previous owner did an inadaquate job of sealing the mounting bolts, and within an year I was dealing with core problems in the transom.
It would be nice to know just when the factory made the switch, (and others) maybe we could built an informal data base of these factory changes.

[grandillusion]

the pintles on my #216 appear to be welded by the same person that weleded the spreader bracket, and very porly, they looked nice, BUT that usually means poor weld penatration, I had a local shop repare both, the results were great and the price even better, as in $ 20 for the cracked pintle, also here is a unique problen I and ran into,I had new rudder bushinge machined, and found the the holes in the pintles were different in ID buy a couple tenths WOW we had to re -turn the OD on the top so it would fit, not normal, but it had to be done, remember most welded SS is also chrome plated