The garboard plug on my 2016 R-23 recently got stuck. I had been religiously removing this at every haul out on the trailer….this time no luck. I bought a special 9/16 square socket and tried my luck with a 400 ft lb. impact wrench. Nothing. I then tried the socket with a breaker bar and true to its name, it broke off the end of the plug.
I dreaded removing the assembly, but it turned out to be quite easy. The are two # 2 square head screws and one threaded screw that goes all the way through the transom, and to which is attached a grounding wire. Once those are removed the assembly comes right out, as it fits snugly inside a rubber T grommet pressed into the transom. (A rubber sleeve with a flange) I managed to gently pry out the garboard assembly without disturbing this grommet.
I then searched for a new assembly which had to have an internal sleeve (the part that goes into the transom) that corresponded to the diameter of the rubber grommet. Unfortunately, the Perko model from West Marine was a tad too small in diameter. I found a MARPAC garboard drain (part 7-0322) that was a tiny bit larger than the original and it fit very snuggly inside the grommet. In a pinch you could easy out the plug with some heat and use the old one.
Not finding any marine silicone or other product that would seal rubber to metal, I bought a small tube of “flex seal” and coated the internal sleeve with it. I then used 4200 to seal the plug flange against the transom and the three mounting screws.
From now on I’m coating that plug with 2 4 C!
Good luck!
