Binnacle engine control project, major project, oh no! - 2009

Yes the who would know it binnacle project. Caught by complete surprise as we were motoring out in the bay the engine controls started acting up.
So Debbie says as she is at the helm. I said OK and we just went on. I thought it was kelp or some other oceany thing. So I take over to dock it.
Debbie has since then learned how to dock the boat just fine. She really knew as she did a great job with our Catalina 30 but was apprehensive because of the shear size difference of the boats.
As we approach the dock I notice we can not slow down. Hmmmm.. we are barely moving so all went well. I play a little with the controls and figure the cable to the speed lever is broken. What that means is the binical need to come apart. So the job begins. Not then but in a couple days.
Of course we have never done this before so we get good advice from FOGers and proceed. First thing is remove the compass. OK no big deal. Some screws and wires.
Next remove the plate that covers the PLASTIC!! engine control housing. Ok it comes off. You can see the break in the plastic housing. The shift side is fine. That will break as I try to get the housing off the binical.

We remove the engine control handles.
So now we need to get the plastic housing off. Well not so fast. The screws holding it on are long and have been there 30 years. Hummm, going to need something bigger than what I have which is a large flat head screw driver. We go to “Tool Time” and pick up an impact driver. I ask for a bigger bit for the impact screw driver. They said the one they have a lot of boaters buy. I said that’s us. So armed and dangerous I am. We use the impact as a screw driver and each turn is hard. I sprayed easy out around the screws.

We get out three screws but there is that one that will not come out. I turn as hard as I can (it is part way out ) and it breaks. Should have tried to turn each one a quarter turn at a time but removed one at a time. I think it put too much stress on the last one. Any way it is broke. Sooo we now need to drill it. Another day for this. We do get the housing off.

The broken screw is under plate holding the instruments. Guess what, yep the housing holding the instruments must come up. We then need to pull up some extra wire that goes through the SS rail to the instruments. Then we need to take a plastic hammer and inch it up on the rail.

Sooo we now need to drill the broken screw out. Another day for this.
I think we are going to drill it out then re-tap a thread or helicoil it.
I get the tap and a new drill bit. I start the pilot hole and the screw turns. Wow good that is good news. It will however not come out.
We get the screw out but need to drill out the threads as they are toast.
We had to remove the binnacle so we could drill out the hole and tap a new thread. After drilling out the old hole we decided to just put through a screw and tichten it up and then steak it so it would not come loose.

After much research on the web we find a man who made about 80 of these in aluminum. He changed machine shops a few time but we found him.
Bought the new housing from him.
We sent it to the paint shop for a two part epoxy marine paint job like on our hatches.

We put it back together and getting the nut on the screw with a lock washer was not easy. Because of it’s location Debbie had to tape the nut to her finger and get it on that way.