Wire...

I thought to start the day by fixing the wheelhouse's intermittent speakers.  Instead I notice that the hydraulic steering fluid is low.  Why?  Don't know but I need to look for possible leaks.  Filled hydraulic reservoir.

Update 7/28/2020: The steering's hydraulic cylinder was rebuilt.

Found and fixed a broken wire on the port speaker wire.

Ran a bonding wire to the genset's seacock.

Found a crack in the genset's Groco ARG-750-P strainer bowl.  Ordered a replacement ARG-753 (through Walmart).

Removed the four wall sconces in the saloon.  We're going to paint them gold.  Fingers crossed that works.  If so the new 12V COB LEDs will go in them.

Clean and Lube the Washdown Seacock

Last year the handle on the anchor washdown seacock stopped working.  The handle would turn fine but the ball valve barely moved.  Apparently the ball valve had gotten so stiff that the square slot in the handle was turning into a round hole.

Several owners have reported metal failures on their seacock handle shafts.   Could this explain Nellie's problem?

Removing the seacock was easy.  A pipe wrench and very little torque did the job.  I was surprised to see that there wasn't any caulk between the seacock and hull.   Nor did there appear to be any sealant on the threads mating the seacock to the thruhull.  However, since the valve didn't leak, the lack of caulk and sealant clearly wasn't an issue.

After removing the top of the seacock it was obvious why flow through it had been restricted.

Mussels, one fairly big, had taken up lodging.  The valve was submerged in phosphoric acid for an hour to clean it.  Working the ball and applying some Vaseline eased the stiffness, but the ball still only moved about 95% of its full travel.  Tomorrow I'll remove the stem packing and see if that improves things.

I Surrender or Moving the Bottle

Relocated Overflow Bottle

After ten years of fighting with Cummins' plastic overflow bottle, today it was removed from the port, forward side of the engine and relocated to the engine room's forward bulkhead.  It's actually nice to have the bottle off the engine.  Not only will the bottle not be shaken to death, but the 5 pound metal bracket that held the bottle on the engine is gone too.

While blowing all the water lines today I found the potable water's pressure tank completely full of water.  There appears to be a hole in the bladder.  It was drained and reinstalled.  Need to keep an eye on it.

Attempt #4 on the Turbocharger's Gasket

The turbocharger's gasket has a small coolant leak--again.  Over breakfast we discuss what to do about it.  However, with a thousand miles of uphill river infront of us, the answer is pretty clear: repair it now.

Read the Small Print: Turbo Side

It's always nice to find a smoking gun to make you confident in the diagnosis and repair.  Turns out there were two smoking guns.   First, the gasket was on backwards.  I now know it's important to read the small print in contracts and on gaskets.

Corroded Turbocharger Surface

Second, there's noticeable pit corrosion on the turbocharger's mating surface.  Fortunately the fixes are straight forward: reverse the gasket and put RTV sealant on it.

Tomorrow we'll take Nellie out for a sea trial to confirm the repair was successful.

Kill Switch Replacement

The New Kill Switch

The Yamaha's kill switch works by grounding a white wire.  The body of the old kill switch had broken under the plastic nut (visible in the picture above).  Because of this the engine would continue to run even with kill-lanyard removed. 

The new switch went in easy enough.  The only stumbling block was running the new wires through the narrow and winding path.  So I didn't.  The new kill switch wires were shortened, soldered to the old wires, and then sealed with shrink wrap.

I'd brag that the switch was purchased for the princely sum of $5 direct from China rather than $60 from Yamaha.  However, after the recent $12 Chinese starter-relay incident--where the new cheap relay fried Nellie's new $90 starter motor--I'll hold off.

The Yamaha now has some new parts: an impeller, spark plugs, and a kill switch.  It's running better because of them.  DBH

SmartPlug Repair

Nellie's Broken Cord Seal

A SmartPlug was installed on Nellie in October of 2012.  It has worked well and we're happy to have the extra safety it affords.  In June of 2016 there was a noticeable tear in its black cord-seal.  I contacted SmartPlug hoping to purchase a repair kit.  Terry Gilliland, tgilliland@smartplug.com, asked that I send him a picture of the problem area.  After seeing the picture (shown above) he said the replacement parts would be provided free under the warranty.  A week later the repair kit (pictured below) was received.  As the picture below shows, a new socket is included with the kit.

SmartPlug's Repair Kit Contents

Today I installed the new parts.  It took about an hour.  If I had to do it again 15 minutes would be sufficient. 

Repaired SmartPlug

The new socket is definitely better than the original: the three wires are held in place with setscrews and the cable is tightly clamped to the socket.  Another nice improvement is that a weather shield is provided to protect the connector when it's not attached to the boat.  DBH

M71 Sherwood Raw Water Pump

Sherwood M71 Raw Water Pump

  I took the raw water pump off yesterday as it has been leaking a little oil.  Actually, on a clean engine any oil leak always looks huge.  I then noticed that the bottom weep hole had some dark staining.  Since there's a spare on board I put it in, with a new impeller,  and then looked into getting the stained one rebuilt.  A rebuild kit plus a seal is ~$150, to that add shop time.  A new one is $300.  It's mighty hard to justify a rebuild! 

  I ran the engine after getting the new pump in.  Wouldn't you know it, no water flow.  Pulled the pump and opened it up to find that the new impeller I'd installed was the wrong size.  It was close enough to fool the eye but not the gods of physics.  It wasn't a total loss however, I'm getting really good at removing and reinstalling the pump. 

  Nellie goes through a heat exchanger 1/2" dia. x 2" long pencil zinc in about three months.  I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

  The valve lifter cover on the engine's port side is leaking from the aft, lower corner.  Tightened the bolts.