Hello. I bought a 2001 3500 SCR at the end of the season. I was surprised to find that it had no drain for the bilge. I noticed that there is some water entering around a few of the bolts that hold the Cutless Bearing Strut to the hull. Will I be in danger of creating any alignment problem if I loosen 2 or 3 of these nuts and reseal around the studs ? Or should I just layer some sealer over top of the washers and hope for the best ?
The strut should be properly re-bedded otherwise the leak will return. This requires it's removal to do so. Checking/correcting alignment should be part of your normal maintenance plan.
Update: I found a few of the nuts were loose. Tightened them up and added some 3M 4200 sealer above and below the bolts/nuts. So far, there is no more leakage and the bilge is almost always dry now (still get some water intrusion from rain/rub rail leaks)..
Water leak at Cutless Bearing Strut
Linear Mode
