Time to straighten the grate..any tips??

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Alrighty.....this weekend my foot look a pretty good beating. This will be my first time removing the grates and straighten. The grate is still very much in working condition, but as much as I use my boat I would like for it to be running as efficiently as possible. And since this is something routine for jet owners, I'm itching to pop my cherry on the peice of routine maintenance.

Looks straight forward enough. Punch out the pins, straighten, replace. Done a little reading on it just to make sure it was indeed that simple and it appears that it is.

On the chance that there are some tips to make the process easier, I thought I would post in here.

Looks like there's a crack in the foot in the upper left of the pic, but it's not. Just trash or a flake in the paint.

 

[user 6672]

pop the pins and flatten em out.. straight forward..

The pins might be a bugger to remove, when the grates bend it adds force via twisting on the holes the pins go through..

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Took my grates out yesterday. Did come up with a little tip to make yanking out the bent ones easier. I took a piece of rope and threaded it around one of the bent grates that wouldn't budge. Gave a quick snapping yank on the rope and popped the bound grates right out. Easy way to do it with using metal tools and scarring anything up.

 

[smackdaddy53]

I tried to remove my pins that hold the grate and i think its impossible without cracking the cast aluminum.
Maybe a hydraulic press would help?

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

smackdaddy53 » Yesterday, 10:04 pm[/url]"]I tried to remove my pins that hold the grate and i think its impossible without cracking the cast aluminum.
Maybe a hydraulic press would help?

I just used a hammer and a punch and mine came right out.

 

[smackdaddy53]

smackdaddy53 » Yesterday, 10:04 pm[/url]"]I tried to remove my pins that hold the grate and i think its impossible without cracking the cast aluminum.
Maybe a hydraulic press would help?

I just used a hammer and a punch and mine came right out.

Mine was used in saltwater before I got it. Not corroded but i know the pins are seized up like a mo fo. I tried to drive the pins out and i think it actually flared the end of the pin I hit the punch so hard. I just wanted to remove every other grate

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Yea...the SS will bond to the aluminum in salt over time. I don't have much experience in the salt. I wonder what a good preventive maintenance step would be for your grate pins in salt? Maybe take them out ever so often and treat with a non-seize product?