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Power wedge broke!


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I know people have lots of different problems and come here to complain about customer service, but I wanted to share a positive experience. Earlier this year I was pulling up a surfer and I felt the boat kind of shudder. It wasn't major and it could have been easily missed. The next thing was that I had to counter steer a lot to keep boat moving straight. I thought maybe what happened was that the rudder came loose or slipped.

So we stopped, I got out the googles and took a look. What we saw was this:

Brokewedge.jpg

The reason I had to countersteer was because the wedge was down at an angle and was turing the boat one way, so I had to turn the rudder the opposite to compensate.

The left weld on the wedge simply failed. It would be easy for Malibu to just say I hit something and it was damaged. However, the wedge had popped straight down not back and there wasn't a nick or scratch anywhere. If I hit something hard enough to break it, there would have been a pretty massive ding in the wedge and it would have twisted backwards.

Malibu and my dealer stood behind their product and took care of the problem. It took awhile to get the part, but Stella is back in shape and we went out this weekend.

I had searched the forum for any similar experiences the same day it broke and didn't find any, so I was worried. I mainly wanted to post this for future reference in case something similar happens people can find this thread.

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I don't remember, but others have posted the year. From what I gather the bolts had a tendency to sheer off easily. Since this is the only case of the weld breaking my dealer (or I think the factory) had ever heard of, it's obvious better to weld.

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  • 2 years later...
  • 5 years later...

Happened to me as well; bolts attach the wing to down brackets.  The bolts take up most of the width of the down brackets which seems to be the weakness since this leaves a thin amount of down bracket.  Also the bolt holes are deeper than the bolts; mine broke just above the top end of the bolts.  

Actually had to have it welded a second time as we didn’t weld above the depth of the bolt holes the first time.  Second time we added 1/4 “ strap about 2” long so it was longer than the old bolt holes   

I have a 98 sunsetter lx and Malibu tells me my wedge has been discontinued  if anyone knows of a salvage yard I might get a replacement I’d appreciate the info as backup in case I need it    At this time I have about 4 hours on the latest repair; so far so good

 

  

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9 minutes ago, Harry B said:

I have a 98 sunsetter lx and Malibu tells me my wedge has been discontinued  if anyone knows of a salvage yard I might get a replacement I’d appreciate the info as backup in case I need it    At this time I have about 4 hours on the latest repair; so far so good

bakesonline.com has some.  Otherwise... know any metal fabrication guys?  People have built their own.

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26 minutes ago, Harry B said:

Happened to me as well; bolts attach the wing to down brackets.  The bolts take up most of the width of the down brackets which seems to be the weakness since this leaves a thin amount of down bracket.  Also the bolt holes are deeper than the bolts; mine broke just above the top end of the bolts.  

Actually had to have it welded a second time as we didn’t weld above the depth of the bolt holes the first time.  Second time we added 1/4 “ strap about 2” long so it was longer than the old bolt holes   

I have a 98 sunsetter lx and Malibu tells me my wedge has been discontinued  if anyone knows of a salvage yard I might get a replacement I’d appreciate the info as backup in case I need it    At this time I have about 4 hours on the latest repair; so far so good

 

  

I lost part of mine, and ordered one of the last Bakes had several years ago.  Please share exactly what parts you are needing, and I might be able to assist.  I kept the pieces I replaced.

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