Thundercat Help

[bobdyer77]

Have a problem with the hijacker valve on my Ceasar Thundercat, valve fell apart inside the tube and can't seem to get a replacement anywhere, on top of that it looks like the ring that the valve seats/screws? into has also disappeared inside the tube. No help or ideas how to fix forthcoming from the various Thundercat groups on FB etc or any of the commercial RIB repair/boatyards I've contacted. Any current or ex thundercat owner's on here experienced this also or got any suggestions?

[Roflhat]

Can you lift the nose of the boat up and fish the parts out?

[bobdyer77]

Originally Posted by Roflhat

Can you lift the nose of the boat up and fish the parts out?

Seems like the ring that dropped inside which the valve seated/fitted into was fitted/sealed against the interior wall of the tube and must have been fitted, glued maybe, during manufacture of the tube and not inserted after? As it's bigger than the hole it needs to come out through I can't see any way to get it out. Bad design?

[bobdyer77]

For anyone with an ageing Ceasar Thundercat, possibly other brands too, I've figured out a sound workaround to replace the no longer available original valve which fell apart leaving a big hole in the end of the hi-jacker. By cutting out the entire old valve seat using a hole saw a Leafield D7 valve can be fitted using a "valve doubler" patch, both can be obtained from RIB Store. The hole needs to be slightly larger than the back of the D7 valve and must also remove the raised hard plastic rim of the old valve seat. The outer circumference of the doubler patch will need to be trimmed down by about 1cm to avoid any "puckering" of the patch which could be caused by the dome in the hi-jacker end but once trimmed allows a good 1-1.5 inch area all the way around to glue the patch down with two part PVC glue. The protective kevlar on the keel that wraps round and up the back of the hi-jacker will also need peeling down first, careful use of a heat gun and scraper blade will achieve this. The kevlar will need re-heating to soften it before glueing back after. Job done, holding 62kpi nicely and confident it will continue to do so. Not a bad finish either, doesn't even look like a repair has been made! Hope this helps if anyone else has the same problem, now or in the future.