Breaking All the Rules ...

[homeless]

Another hot day, and I spent about 10 hours on deck trying to hide from the sun with hats and umbrellas and shade from the mast, but with minimum success. Any tool left in the sun for a minute was too hot to touch, my black plastic chisel handles got soft, and Sikaflex started to set as soon as it was applied.

I pulled off the hatches in the salon, head, and galley, ground off the old sealant, ground the paint off the deck flange, cleaned up the old wood, then re-bedded the hatches with new sealant and larger screws. Hopefully this will stop the last tiny hatch leaks during heavy rain. I also ground the last of the paint off the dorade boxes. Once that work was done I mixed up some epoxy primer and ran around painting the welding patches above the waterline, damaged paint above the waterline, dorade boxes, hatch flanges, and then used the remaining paint to start on the raw aluminium on the pilothouse left from my grinding frenzy yesterday.

There are another 3 hatches to re-bed and paint, but it looks like rain tomorrow so they will have to wait. Hopefully I get my engine gasket kits tomorrow and can start on the rebuild.

[Terra Nova]

Don't you clean with Alumiprep before priming?

[homeless]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

Don't you clean with Alumiprep before priming?

If the surface is fresh from grinding there is no need for acid treatment.

[nagrom snoyl]

So once you have completed the work that you need to do where is your next port of call? Just an idea if you placed an add in the crew wanted section saying that you would take that person on the next part of the journey in exchange for help with the current work you are doing it might save a lot of time, if I was back down that side of the world again I'd be more than happy to give you a hand. It sounds like your the kind of a guy once you get something in your mind you just go for it.

[homeless]

Today was a bit cooler as it was cloudy, building up to a huge thunder storm which still continues as I write this, with the boat shaking in the cradle as the wind gusts go past.

I started the day by removing the radar and HF radios and most of the cables. I also re-mounted and sealed the sonar sensor that was removed to avoid heat damage during welding. After that I bought some Jotafair, mixed a bit, and faired around the welds and some of the dorade boxes. The product seems easy to work with, though I don't like the green, and tomorrow I will sand it and if it looks OK will apply another coat of primer over it.

The rigger who quoted on my standing rigging replacement was keen to start ASAP last week but then got a job to fly over to the Netherlands to do a big job there, with the comment that they would be back in a few weeks. Another rigger was working in the yard today so I asked him to quote also in the hope he will actually deliver.

I got the starter motor back from the electrician with a new solanoid and he charged me an hour labour to clean it and get it working, and was surprised that it had worked for me at all. I will try to clean up the bell housing and flywheel before mounting the starter motor again. I also received my gasket packs from Perkins, so have started stripping the engine down. Priority is to replace the crank shaft seal that was leaking oil, and the head gasket that was weeping water, but it would be nice to take the motor all the way down to the block, replace the rubber mount blocks and hoses, and clean and paint it. Since the engine was underwater for a while the nuts and bolts lower down are a bit corroded and stuck. So far there is one bolt on the crank shaft pulley that is rounded, so I will have to resolve that before I can replace the crank shaft seal.

I usually stop work at sunset but tonight since it was raining and I was inside I setup a spotlight on the engine and kept going. A few mosquitos annoyed me while I was working, but when I stood up there was a huge swarm buzzing around the pilothouse. I swatted at them before thinking, so now there are black oily hand prints all over the pilothouse ceiling. I had a shower to clean up, closed my cabin door, and killed all mosquitos inside. Guess I will be sleeping with the hatches shut and the fan on tonight.

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by homeless

...there is one bolt on the crank shaft pulley that is rounded...

Weld a nut to it.

[CLady]

Re: Mosquitos
Get some screen door screen fabric at the hardware store and drape over your open hatches--might help. :/

[Warby12]

Also Re mosquitos (we are 150 KMs north of you and feeling your pain) Get mosquito coils from the supermarket. Light one in the boat around 4pm and your done for the hole night

Bit smoky but totally effective!

[homeless]

There are mosquito screens for the hatches, but I have removed the velcro while working on the hatches, so can't use them at the moment. Unfortunately the mosquito coils give me asthma, so can't use them either. Had a panic tonight when I closed the hatches, started sweating, mosquitos were buzzing, fell into bed exhausted and the fan would not work. It had squeaked occasionally last night, but done the job, and today it just would not work. Ran around finding screwdrivers in the dark and took the fan apart while in bed. Seemed a bit stiff so maybe a drop of oil would fix it, but then I remember that the oil is still stored off the boat after I removed everything flammable for the welding. Climb down the ladder-of-death in bare feet in the dark, get the oil, back up the ladder-of-death, and one drop onto the fan spindle and it started up again. Yet another problem solved in my long day of fix-it.

Today I took more of the engine apart. Got the head off, so tomorrow will ask a diesel mechanic to come and have a look at the head, valves, injectors, and bores. I still have not managed to remove the rounded bolt on the crank shaft pulley in spite of going out and paying $55 for some sockets that are supposed to work on rounded heads. I also started grinding old paint and corrosion off engine parts that have already been removed, dipping in dilute hydrochloric acid, then priming and painting. I will need to look for suppliers that can replace the oil cooler hoses and fuel lines.

The contractor who is cleaning the hull and applying the barrier coat turned up, and they did a good job of removing the green stains from the hull that I previously tried removing with soap and scrubbing and acid, and they also greatly reduced the flaking bottom paint. I had to work around them to sand the fairing on the bottom and apply another coat of epoxy primer over the fairing. Hopefully tomorrow they will apply the barrier coat, then the hull will look nice.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

Weld a nut to it.

If you can't get a vise grip on it, sometimes cutting a slot in it with a dremel, which makes a screw out of it will work (use an impact screwdriver, the kind you hit with a hammer), but TN's weld a nut on it is usually the best.
Sometimes you can hammer on a socket that is of course just a little too small also

[Cadence]

RE: Rounded bolt. Had you tried one of those sockets that look like they have roller bearings in them. They surprised me with their gripping power and are inexpensive.

[JPA Cate]

Homeless,

Take a file, and size the bolt down one size. It isn't elegant, but I did this one time, lying on my back on the garage floor, and I think you'll have better purchase on it than I did.

Ann

[homeless]

The hull painting contractor had cleaned the flaking paint off yesterday, but left one spot where they found some thick filler that could not be explained and which raised suspicions. First thing today they ground off the lump of filler, and underneath it was a stainless screw into the hull that had been hidden. It comes out under the gearbox which is near impossible to reach which is why I had not noticed it before. I am guessing there was a pin-hole leak in the past, so someone drilled it, tapped it, and put in a screw from outside, then next time the boat was out of the water they just faired over it and antifouled. Very annoying, as now I have to drill it out and get my welder to close the hole properly, then I can prime, fair, prime, and antifoul. Aaarrrgh. The painting contractor painted the port side of the boat, then was called away to another more urgent job, so the boat is now half painted

Regarding the rounded bolt head. There were 3 bolts that were very rusted and recessed into the crank shaft pulley, so the heads were not exposed for filing or grinding. I did originally try to hammer sockets onto the heads, but they slipped. I then hammered hex sockets onto the heads and managed to get two bolts out. The last one was completely rounded in the effort, but the smaller socket sizes can't be hammered on, and the "bolt-grip" sockets won't bite. I also tried using a chisel to try to turn the bolt or at least notch the head so the bolt grip socket can bite, but no luck. I have asked my welder to come back and attach a nut or a bar to the end of the bolt.

Aside from the one rounded bolt, the rest of the engine has been coming apart nicely. I ground back and painted more brackets, pipes, and cover plates today. I also rigged the dinghy davit blocks from the boom and lifted the head off the engine so I can clean it ready to replace the gasket and paint. The head came off very easily which is always a bit suspicious. I could not see any obvious problems with the gasket, but it came off very easily also so I am guessing that it was the overheating from cooling water loss that caused the sealant to let go, and led to the water weep that I observed. I did go around the mechanics' offices before lunch today to try to get one to agree to come onto the boat for a second opinion, but all were "too busy", so once I have cleaned the flaking paint and rust from the engine I will head out to buy a torque wrench and some gasket sealant and re-attach the head. I also need to replace the rounded crank shaft bolts, oil heat exchanger hoses that have corroded fittings, fuel hose with corroded fittings, assorted old rubber hoses, and a fuel line that was corroded.

[Dulcesuenos]

I have hear of someone doing something similar, and the welding ended up fusing various bearings thru out the motor, not sure how it happened but Id ask about it

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[homeless]

The fan that I thought I had fixed with a drop of oil a day ago seized at 11pm yesterday because it became so hot the plastic melted. I guess the heat was from friction, but there is also a chance it was an electrical short. Anyway, I sweated through the night, and today managed to replace the fan with a spare after a frustrating hour trying to crimp very short wires at the back of a deep cupboard too small to fit in.

Today was a day of small projects in an attempt to finalise some.

The old solar deck vents were made of plastic and were badly sun damaged so would have shattered with a badly placed step and left a big hole in the deck, were not bedded properly so leaked, and the fans had seized so they no longer worked. I replaced them with new stainless solar deck vents that actually work, so there should be less leaks and more fresh air.

I faired the welds above the waterline, the dorado boxes, and 4 hatch combings then sanded them ready for final prime coat.

Spoke to the painting contractor to find out why only half of the hull was painted. Seems that they ran out of paint, and have not been able to source more, so are waiting on a call from their supplier. This does not inspire confidence, so I won't be putting any more work their way. I have not heard back from either rigger I requested quotes from, and none of the diesel mechanics bothered to come to the boat. I guess the economy is so good people don't need to bother with small customers like me.

Went shopping and bought replacement anodes for hull and propellor, torque wrench, degreaser, and engine paint. The anodes will need to be drilled to fit my bolts. The welder called to say his gas had been delivered and he was available to come to the boat, but I was out, and by the time I got back there was rain incoming, so he will come tomorrow instead.

As far as I can tell maintenance stopped on the boat around 2005/6 when the previous owner bought it. The 10 man life raft on deck has stickers that are completely faded white, but today I managed to read the shadow of the previous writing and confirm that it was due for service in September 2006. I contacted RFD for a quote to service the raft, and they say it may cost $1000 depending on what needs to be replaced, but offered to check it first to more accurately estimate costs. The raft is too heavy to lift, so it will be quite an effort to get it off the boat, onto a ute, and over to RFD so I won't be in a rush.