AARON'S TRI CABIN UPDATE, 06 NOV 2010
Posted: 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
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
