Broken CB cable

[jdoorly]

Forgot to put the centerboard up before recovering the boat on the trailer and broke the "down", aka damn cable. Launched the boat in the back yard and careened it over to access the centerboard. Popped out the pivot bolt and pulled the CB out and found the 2 cables had been wearing away the bit of CB between them and very little fiberglass was remaining. I decided to replace both cables, and since the cables's (excuse my hobbit) anchoring mechanism was worn away to rebuild it.

The "UP" cable is 1/8" x 20.5" and the "Down" cable is 3/32" x 32.625", both measured from the loop (for the block) to the closest edge of the stop ferrule. The stop ferrules both live in a epoxy filled 1" dia hole in the CB that needs to be chisled out and the stop ferrules cut off the cables's ends to free them. My cables also had washers above the ferrules to increase holding ability. The cables are routed through drilled 1.5" long channels out to the edge of the CB, the "Down" cable exiting about 2" forward of the "Up" cable. The cables cross each other just above the CB on their way to exiting the wet side of the CB box.

In the "V" shaped area between these channels I mounted a small 1.5" long plastic wedge to prevent wear, and re-epoxied the "V" area (not the circle for the ferrules yet). I re-drilled the channels when the epoxy was set. BTW, I use U.S. Composites epoxy, at $65 for 1 gallon of resin and 42oz of hardener it is the cheapest, I've tried them all and see no reason to spend more. I added West 404 filler to make it non-sagging.

I reused the blocks from the old cables's, making their cable loops's with a double ferrule. I didn't have a pressing tool so I just bashed the ferrule with a hammer on an anvil. Later I machined some flats in the jaws of a cable cutter and now have a press tool.

When mounting the new cables I found the "Down" cable had worn a groove in the top of the CB box just forward of the cable roller and the cable was getting jammed. I used a rat tail file to open up the groove then mounted a small piece of metal there to prevent further wear.

I had measured the old cables's and marked the new cables's for length, and having pulled the cables's through their channels crimped the stop ferrules and cut the excess cable. On testing the board was stuck and wouldn't move. Found that the UP cable was getting caught on the side of the CB. Pulled the board out and flipped it 360 degrees so the UP cable was held up by the down cable (boat is still careened on side). The cables now worked smoothly, but since I've read many posts about this problem I know just cause the cables's are smooth now doesn't mean they will stay that way. Nothing I could think of would definately work, so I would just have to try something and see. I mounted a circular clevis ring to the 2 cables's right where they cross so one cable would always hold up the other cable. Hope I can remember to let you know if it jams again...

I filled the stop ferrules's circle with epoxy, and that's all I have to say about cables's.