Bow Eye Replacement Parts
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:36 pm
Here is some useful information about a bow eye replacement as found on a c.1978 OUTRAGE V-20 and perhaps other classic models. I found replacement parts on Amazon from Marine Parts Depot. The quality of the stainless steel components is superb. See Figure 1, below.
About a week ago, I removed the old eye assembly, only to discover that Boston Whaler customer support gave me the wrong information on the length of rod needed. The threaded rod is 6.5-inches (not the 4-inches they told me). I think they gave me the length of rod for the transom eyes.
I contacted Marine Parts Depot, the Amazon seller I had ordered from. Marine Parts Depot only offer 3.75-, 6-, and 8-inch threaded rods. I asked them to send me the 8-inch rod to be cut down, which they promptly did--good service from them.
Now the big gotcha: the new parts have metric threads and the old ones are SAE.
The OEM parts (from 1978) are threaded 1/2 X 13, and the new ones are 12M x 1.75 thread.
The original Whaler parts are (presumed} chrome-plated bronze, and the new ones are solid stainless steel. You can’t replace just the bow towing eye, you have to replace both the towing eye and the lifting eye since the new stainless steel parts cannot be re-threaded to match any of the old parts.
The old towing eye wore out because the tow hook was a rough steel casting that vibrated while on the road and gradually ground down the eye opening, as seen in the illustration above. I’ve been towing from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico for the past ten years, and that’s over a 2,500-mile round trip, or at least 25,000-miles of highway towing. All in all that’s not bad durability for a 42 year old part.
- FIg. 1. The original towing eye, lifting eye, and bolt from a 1978 OUTRAGE V-20 bow stem (upper) and Amazon-seller replacement (lower). Note wear on the original towing eye, almost breaking through. The 8-inch long threaded rod was cut to necessary length.
- towingEye.jpg (68.23 KiB) Viewed 6824 times
About a week ago, I removed the old eye assembly, only to discover that Boston Whaler customer support gave me the wrong information on the length of rod needed. The threaded rod is 6.5-inches (not the 4-inches they told me). I think they gave me the length of rod for the transom eyes.
I contacted Marine Parts Depot, the Amazon seller I had ordered from. Marine Parts Depot only offer 3.75-, 6-, and 8-inch threaded rods. I asked them to send me the 8-inch rod to be cut down, which they promptly did--good service from them.
Now the big gotcha: the new parts have metric threads and the old ones are SAE.
The OEM parts (from 1978) are threaded 1/2 X 13, and the new ones are 12M x 1.75 thread.
The original Whaler parts are (presumed} chrome-plated bronze, and the new ones are solid stainless steel. You can’t replace just the bow towing eye, you have to replace both the towing eye and the lifting eye since the new stainless steel parts cannot be re-threaded to match any of the old parts.
The old towing eye wore out because the tow hook was a rough steel casting that vibrated while on the road and gradually ground down the eye opening, as seen in the illustration above. I’ve been towing from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico for the past ten years, and that’s over a 2,500-mile round trip, or at least 25,000-miles of highway towing. All in all that’s not bad durability for a 42 year old part.