Brand New AR190 - Tower Bolt Won't Secure

[Seattle-Wind]

We have a brand new '19 AR190 and the port side tower bolt will not secure. It will not screw in no matter how many different ways we've tried, including trying to re-align the base to the right by nudging it with a hammer. It doesn't appear to be misaligned. I tried cleaning the threads as well. It very well may be stripped at either the bolt end or threading end, which is bizarre considering it's only been raised or lowered by myself once. It had problems when we tested it at the dealer initially when we bought the boat, but we were able to get it figured out. Has anyone experienced this before and do you have any suggestions?

 

[2kwik4u]

First and foremost - DO NOT OPERATE the boat with only one bolt in place. Structurally the hull, tower, and other pieces can take the load, but your safety factor drops considerably, and it's not worth the risk. We've had one member injured with a failed tower attachment in rough waters. Tower happens to land right around the back of your neck/shoulder interface when standing at the wheel.

Now, for the technical side. The thread on the bolt looks OK from here. That first thread isn't great, but I've seen worse bolts in other applications work acceptably. The insert in the base looks VERY torn up. Unsure if this was cross threaded, or otherwise damaged, however I would say that is the problem of the two. That is a stainless "thread in insert" in an aluminum block.

My first step would be to contact the dealer. This is 100% a warranty issue IMO, and I would be asking for a replacement mount and replacement tower hardware. My suspicion is that Yamaha will fight you on that, but it's hard to say for certain. It's the place to start though, as getting these replacement parts from the tower vendor is impossible (had a few members try). The towers are made by XTP, which is a subsidiary of Monster Tower, and they won't sell around Yamaha.

Second step if the dealer is of no help, would be to remove the hardware from the tower, and see if you can thread the bolt in WITHOUT the tower in place. This will tell you if the insert or bolt is damaged beyond repair. Once there, we can probably figure out a solution to repairing either. If available, you can run a tap through the insert, and a die over the bolt to attempt to repair the threads. Be careful with that, as removing too much material can lead to the bolted joint not locking properly, and this is a vibration prone joint.

 

[Sbrown]

Make sure you're pushing up on the tower as hard as you can, or the bolt won't line up with the threaded hole properly. It either won't thread in, or worse, you'll crossthread it.

 

[swatski]

We have a brand new '19 AR190 and the port side tower bolt will not secure. It will not screw in no matter how many different ways we've tried, including trying to re-align the base to the right by nudging it with a hammer. It doesn't appear to be misaligned. I tried cleaning the threads as well. It very well may be stripped at either the bolt end or threading end, which is bizarre considering it's only been raised or lowered by myself once. It had problems when we tested it at the dealer initially when we bought the boat, but we were able to get it figured out. Has anyone experienced this before and do you have any suggestions?

This is a known issue with the yamaha AR towers, unfortunately, albeit the 240 towers seem more prone to this problem due to size/weight and more aggressive angle forward. This is potentially dangerous so I wouldn't neglect it.
The handwheel bolts can be modified, which for me was the last resort given no help from yamaha.
I posted a "fix" which has worked for me very well. However a drawback of the that fix is I no longer fold the tower as it would take some work and gymnastics to loosen the bolts under the hull cap, as per the "fix".

https://jetboaters.net/threads/2015-ar240-tower-fix.16089/

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[anmut]

I would drop it at the dealership and make them do the work.

 

[haknslash]

I always had to align the starboard side of mine. I didn't touch or beat the base with a hammer but rather pulled (I think) the tower towards me as I turned the knob. Mine wasn't off by much but that's all it took to prevent the screw from threading in.