AARON'S TRI CABIN UPDATE, 06 NOV 2010

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:01 am

PESKY CABIN LEAK SOLVED!!! the other day phil and i were on the boat during a nasty, rainy day and i fianlly got to see where the drip above the galley counter was coming from. at the very left hand side of the removable strip that is used as an access panel for the windshield bolts. phil and i removed the strip and watched the water cascade into a bucket i placed on the counter. he went topside and the only thing he could see was the small wire pass through for the hailer. he tapped onto it as i looked up and sure enough, there it was, a steady, and i mean steady drip of water. the rubber seal was bad and so was the caulking job around the screws holding the plate to the fiberglass. he came back inside and jury rigged a foil 'downspout' to collect the water, and drain directly into the bucket i had placed beneath it. then, we noticed a very oh so slight drip coming from the center portion of the access panel cut out. i looked up and it is where the anchor/running light mast attached to the boat. the drip was coming from inside the hollow portion of the mast assembly. i went top side this time and what was happening was fairly simple. there is a small upside down U shaped piece of stainless that attaches to the mast with self tapping screws. this inturn attaches to a V shaped wire holding the entire assembly in place just below the windshield. water was coming into the screw holes and travelling down the hollow portion of the mast. yesterday, i fabricated some rubber gaskets to go below these screws, thus forming a water proof seal. (hopefully). as for the hailer pass through, i removed the entire unit and placed a large piece of self sticking closed cell rubber over the holes and placed a clam shell over this. i used small rubber grommet bushings (plumbing section of home depot) to go under the screws to form a gasket. hopefully this will address those pesky problems.

GENSET UPDATE... the genset never really ran right from the get go. always 'smelled hot' and never enough water going out the exhaust. so yesterday, my mechanic and i tackled the water pump and as it turned out, the impeller had shredded and was running on 3 out of 6 vanes. we dug out the remains of the impeller and found all the pieces. next, we tackled the thermostats. one was completely missing and the other one was really nasty. we did our usual marykate on and off acid flush, but, water was still not going through the system. after diagnosing that water was indeed going into the system we then concentrated on the cylinder head assembly. using a small pick, we cleared out the marine crud in the bypass hole (roughly the diameter of a pencil) and then using a funnel, poured the acid bath into the thermostat hole. after 5 minutes, it finally started to bubble and the stench was horrible, the result of the acid bath eating away at the marine growth. repeat for the other side. once that was clear, we then ran more marykate through the cooling assembly and let it sit for roughly 30 minutes to clear out the crud. fired her up and TA-DA!!! plenty of water out the exhaust, the system was running much cooler and the diatomaceous ooze made its way out the exhaust in the form of a nasty, smelly, yellow substance. a simple soulution, but it works. every time. it just took a while for the crud to clear it's way out of the system. i mentioned to john that it's a pitty that we went through all this just before the layup at the end of the month, but his reasoning was simple. ''yes it will be winterized soon. BUT, it will be winterized as a clean, flushed out system. much better for next season. alls thats needed is a tune up and she will be running in tip top condition'' can't argue with that logic. next up--- changing the oil and filters and winterizing her.

aaron in baltimore

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:59 am

You we all what to know about the prop . There has to be some diver up there needs to work ( Aaron has called some but they have not gotten back with him)

Anyone know a good diver in Middle river ???

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 7:03 am

prowlersfish wrote:You we all what to know about the prop . There has to be some diver up there needs to work ( Aaron has called some but they have not gotten back with him)

Anyone know a good diver in Middle river ???

that wont cost an arm and a leg and a left one?

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 7:13 am

Forgot the key words Good and Cheap

rbcool · Post by **rbcool** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 7:35 am

Aaron, give this guy a call. Everybody on my pier uses him and they're always remarking how low his prices are. Don't know where he hails from but I've heard he comes from north of here. Worth a try!
Dive works...... 410-600-5333

Ron

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 7:44 am

rbcool wrote:Aaron, give this guy a call. Everybody on my pier uses him and they're always remarking how low his prices are. Don't know where he hails from but I've heard he comes from north of here. Worth a try!
Dive works...... 410-600-5333

Ron

thanks ron. appreciate it. i go back on duty today at 1500 until 2359 on the 10th. not sure if i will be flying or not or just playing the 'reserve waiting game' for the week. will attempt to contact him eventually. what do you think of my post and solutions to the problems?

aaron

rbcool · Post by **rbcool** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:12 am

Oh ya.... I was going to respond there too. Excellent detective work there Sherlock!!! I'm going to completely eliminate EVERYTHING on my Sundeck (thats what my wife calls it) except for the anchor light for now. It will eventualy go on the Radar arch. TV antenna doesn't work and I have no need for a hailer.
Glad you got the gen figured out. I had to do the exact same thing on an old 454 merc one time.
I stick to this philosophy : "If I didn't have the boat to work on I'd probably be out getting in trouble !!!"

Ron

RWS · Post by **RWS** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 9:13 am

It just goes to show you, ya gotta be viglant on the diatomaceous ooze.

RWS

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 9:21 am

Aaron -

Good work on finding and solving those pesky problems and especially glad that you found the leak. They can usually cause a lot of damage.