re-installing mainsail track on mast

[carterskemp]

hi all,

I have searched this forum as well as all over the web to no avail. so please excuse if this is a repost of an already answered question.

I removed my bronze mainsail track from my mast in order to paint my mast. it was held on with small stainless self tapping screws. there was some kind of black gasket between the track and the mast, paper thin and fell apart when it was removed. I plan on re-installing with the same screws, and I am wondering exactly how I should do this. should I find a new gasket? use something new and improved for the gasket? no gasket? should I use loc-tite on the screws? red or blue? I have seen something in different forums called tef-gel. should I use that instead of loc-tite?


thanks in advance for any input.


-carter

[Drew]

Electrical tape would probably make a good "gasket". The point here is to keep the dissimilar metals in the track and mast from touching and corroding.

I would use blue loctite 242 on the screws. I don't like to use red 271 on anything that I cannot use a wrench, and or heat, to remove.

Drew

[carterskemp]

thanks drew,

electrical tape sounds like a good idea.
will give it a try.

-carter

[Quetzalsailor]

You can consider gasket material which is readily available with or without self-adhesive, in various materials, thicknesses and dimensions from places like McMaster-Carr.

I've got the bronze track on an aluminum mast, too. I wonder how you get adequate dielectric between stainless screws and the components? Doesn't the Loctite simply get squeezed to direct contact? Or is an adequate seal against water between components the trick?

The mast was made up out of rolled and welded aluminum sheet and painted in epoxy. The original primer and paint is mostly in good condition; it's been overpainted at least twice since. Very few areas show the telltale corrosion under the paint. Ditto the spinnaker pole. However, when I repainted the spi-pole, I removed the stainless end fittings due to creeping corrosion and primed with zinc chromate. The boom is an extrusion, also epoxy painted, but fittings and screws are going to require attention sooner than later.