Replacing my swim ladder on my '07 310SS

[Daycation]

So while climbing up the swim ladder on my 310 Sun Sport, two of the three Stainless hinges broke at the weld seam. All 3 hinges are rusted but the middle one is still intact…. for now. So I decided to try taking the ladder off and taking it to have someone weld the hinges back together and that could save me the hastle and cost of buying a new one for almost $200.

But I went to unscrew the 4 bolts and they just spin in place, as if they are stripped. However, the mounting brackets won't budge. The mechanic at my marina said he thinks the screws are through bolted and the nut on the inside of the fiberglass is what is spinning, which is making it impossible to get the screws out. Has anyone run into the same challenge? Any suggestions on how to get the ladder off?

 

[2006_31PC]

Look in the bilge, behind the motors, into the hollow inside of the swim platform. You should see the nylock nuts that are threaded onto those bolts.

Now reaching them....that's the problem. I had some brackets from a davit system that I removed from my boat that were in the same general location that I couldn't reach due to the hot water heater being in the way in the bilge. I put a box wrench in a 5' piece of PVC pipe (with some duct tape to keep the wrench from falling out) and used that as an extention to reach the nuts as someone turned the bolt from the outside. If you have to go this route, you will have to figure out a way to hole the nut on the wrech ehen you re-install. maybe tape the nut to the wrench ?