Armstrong Bracket Cracked

[otolith]

I noticed some cracking on my 2300CC's Armstrong bracket.
Has anyone seen this before?
Does anyone know how to address it?
I had the boat in for service at West Coast Marine, a Parker dealership with a fantastic mechanic. No one had ever seen this happen to an Armstrong bracket. The mechanic said (exact quote) "no way this happened in the water, this is from towing". It makes sense, I keep the boat in Baja and the road down can be terrible.

If small "checking" is common with the Armstrong brackets, ok but this looks a little more serious than checking. It seems to me the correct fix would be to grind out the cracked area and weld it completely. This would mean removing the engines and bracket because the entire bracket would need to be re-powder coated. I hope I'm not there! That being said, there's no powder coating in the cracks / checking :shock:

The port side is a "crack" but it's barely visible. At West Coast Marine, even after I told them about the cracks, I had to point it out, they couldn't see the cracks standing there next to the Yamaha. The crack does go into the first weld on the underside of the bracket but stops there.

The starboard side isn't a crack, it's more like checking in the powder coat but sure looks like it's going to be a crack to me. You gotta know that checking is from the aluminum flexing more than the powder coat is able to.

The photos show both the crack and checking well because I tweaked the images in PS.

Advice?

 

[otolith]

Checking

 

[DaleH]

Could be the paint/finish ...

 

[otolith]

I hope you're right. We'll see, I'm taking the boat back to Baja as soon as I finish make the mods / improvements.

 

[warthog5]

I've seen brackets cracked before....Usually they are in a lot worse shape than yours. [pulling away from transom, Powdercoating flaking.]

I'd just keep a eye on it.

Pretty sure it's Powdercoated and not painted.

The Normal fix on one that is in the condition that I describe is remove the motor, Remove the bracket, Sandblast the bracket, and gouge the crack and reweld it.Then decide if you want to have it Powdercoated or painted. Then redoing the transom in the boat.....As what caused it to pull away from the transom is a rotted transom.


Your's can be gouged and welded without all the disassemble, but doing the finish.....That's a different matter.

Again....Just keep a eye on it.

 

[Brent]

Did you open the bracket hatch and inspect the area?

 

[otolith]

Brent

Both spots are outside the enclosed area accessible from the hatch; therefore I can see the underside or back of the area shown in the above photos. On the port side, the crack appears to invade the first weld. The crack into the weld "could" be powder coat crack only, although with it being visible on the opposite side of the aluminum (the crack shown in the photo), I think that would be wishful thinking.