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This thread has made me pause for thought. In my time as a member here, only one poster has truly irritated me. Quite irrational really, because I am sure that in person, we had much in common. But his posting style was combatative, his presence constant. An experten on All... Last heard he moved to the other place and bought a caravan. ??

Let's just get rid of the political threads. They have just made the situation worse by splitting the left and right. Politics will creep into other threads but should be discouraged. Our focus should be on canals surely.

Guilty as charged on being combative, if I have facts to back me up I won't give in just because somebody else shouts louder. Equally if I'm shown to be wrong -- by verifiable facts or expert opinion from somebody who really *does* know what they're talking about -- I'm perfectly happy to admit it and change my mind, that's called education. And as I said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with vigorous discussion about subjects where people hold strong opinions, that's life. What I certainly never do (or try not to) is to resort to name-calling and personal abuse or accusing somebody of being something they're not, because that's a sign that you've lost the argument. But sometimes it all gets a bit too much and I lash out in frustration, because nobody's perfect... ? [I could also point out that restlessnomad's post is a perfect example of playing the man, not the ball...]

Following an incensed outburst of mine last night which has rightly been removed by the moderators, I thought I'd post my reply in the hope that this might prompt a calmer discussion about what I feel is becoming an increasing problem on CWDF. This used to be a friendly place for boaters new and old to ask questions and get answers, and a mine of knowledge about the history of the canals and the boats on them. It's moving towards somewhere much less friendly, where anything that challenges the entrenched views of some results in a shower of criticism which often rapidly descends into schadenfreude and personal abuse -- playing the man, not the ball. And I'm not going to mince words here, it's also clear that most of this comes from a few people who are effectively poisoning the atmosphere on the forum. I'm not so concerned about myself -- I'm a big boy, I can normally take robust argument and even insults without throwing a hissy fit, though recent events explain why I finally blew my top this time. I can deal with this trend by blocking people I find obnoxious, and of course they can do the same to me if they want to. My worry is about the loss to CWDF of both experienced posters and new members due to the way that discussions and in particular personal comments on posts seem to be going. Am I the only one who thinks this is a problem? If not, it would be a shame to see CWDF go the way some other forums have done and die slowly while becoming an angry echo chamber ? Dear Athy I do apologise for this, I was just incensed at some of the personal comments on the thread and boiled over after a couple of beers. There seem to be more and more cases recently of people using personal abuse rather than reasoned discussion to try and "win" what they see as an argument (on many subjects) where they're in the right, and where anyone daring to disagree is obviously morally corrupt and therefore ripe for abuse -- and having spent some time looking back over various threads where this has happened, it's obvious that this mostly comes from a small number of people, I'm sure you know who they are as well as I do (because I've blocked many of them). I can't help feeling that this has not only driven some knowledgeable and experienced posters away from CWDF but is putting off new people joining when their first post is shot down on flames for one reason or another -- and there's even sometimes crowing on the lines of "hah, we taught them a lesson, we've had the last word", which I suspect sadly means they've given up in disgust and gone elsewhere. Which is a shame because there's still a huge amount of knowledge and experience which helpful people on the forum are happy to impart, and people leaving reduce this pool (if they're experienced) or lose access to it (if they're new). CWDF didn't use to be like this when I joined back in 2012, it was friendlier and less combative and abusive. Things seemed to take a turn for the worse before/during/after the Brexit referendum, and have done so again since Covid-19 hit -- maybe the first is a symptom of increased "us and them" division in the country, maybe the second is because some people have more time on their hands to angrily hammer away at a keyboard and tell other people how wrong they are. It would be a shame if this continues, because it could be the start of a long slippery slope with CWDF ending up as a small number of angry people shouting into an otherwise empty echo chamber, who think they've "won" because nobody answers back. I've seen this happen with other Internet forums and discussion groups over the years, and I really hope it doesn't happen to CWDF. Best wishes Ian

You can download the manual from here if you need clearer diagrams. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/50989992/shire-owners-manual-06-build-33354045-50-pdf-ep-barrus

I now have visions of gearboxes springing across a field...

Maybe when diesels get really old they retire to the canals and just bimble about in slippers burbling on about when they were young in a post office Sherpa.

I read into your post that you don't understand that the water in the engine, under the radiator cap, is totally separate from the water you are drawing in from the river. Consider the engine as being in a car. The cooling system is sealed with a radiator cap, with antifreeze added. The water gets hot and the heat is dissipated to air in the radiator and dumped into the breeze. The boat is the same except that the heat is transferred in the heat exchanger matrix to the raw water from outside and dumped overboard. TD'

I think it depends on which aspects of the forum you frequent. Personally I tend to stick to technical subjects, and in those I haven’t really noticed a deterioration. There has always been an element of lack of patience with new posters, I don’t think this has got worse. What has perhaps got worse is the prevalence of new posters whose first post might be something like “I’ve just bought a boat to live on but the engine isn’t working, what is wrong with it?” and they then get a bit grumpy when asked for details. In other words, an increase in “entitlement” from new posters. IMO it is completely pointless visiting the political threads unless one’s sole aim is to have an argument for the sake of it. Political views are entrenched, and yes increasingly so since Brexit. You ain’t going to get anyone to change their views so it is pointless to try.

Please don't stop -- I love your rubbish, it's not only funny (and not abusive...) but makes more sense than some of the rest of the posts ?

I want to get better at recondition, I beleave in hands on experience so I bought three water pumps from ebay, I have two here and a third one coming, I got these two for £20. I will update the thread with the stages of the recondition, but remember I am new to this I don't expect to get everything right so feel free to correct me as the thread progresses, also allow for a delay as I am going to focus on my boat Wednesday.

I suggest you ask the mods to ban Thunderboat, then you would be happy. Oh wait a minute, they can’t. How annoying and frustrating for you that you can’t silence people you don’t approve of! You might just have to get over it. I expect you don’t like those pesky immigrants either, who come over here and stir things up. I seem to recall there is a name for that sort of thing.

As do I but they can have high maintaince issues....

But do you love it.

On this day in 2003 as far up the Thames as we could get, about 5 miles past Lechlade and just short of Hannington Bridge in the distance just past the bushes in the second pic.

Pity these are not still available

Yes deffo cannot tell how people are by their postings. I still maintain that those who I argue with on here I would get on fine with irl. As an example my mum posts stuff on facebook, every now and then it's a terribly political one sided irrational view and totally opposite to what her sons views are!

I agree but those relays today are usually in a plastic case and the guts are mounted on a plastic or paxalon base so unless highly contaminated water has got inside so it conducts from pin 30 to the coil earth pin such a short is less likely. I am not sure we are getting the full symptoms because such a short is in my view unlikely but who knows.

Thanks for all the recent replies. Today I got the hose it is very flexible and has a steel spring core, this will allow me to drop the new filter directly down as it exits the boat, something I could not do in the past due to the very stiff pipe already doing that job, I think if the filter is near to the boat body it should offer some protection from weeds, I have heat tested the pipe in boiling water and it just softens a touch so all good. I am waiting on the antifreeze and a 90 degree hose to arrive in order to complete and test the job. I have been given 2 meters of water exhaust pipe brand new, might as well just change that over.

He certainly could, but the problem then is that he has no control over the throttles/ gears as you cannot use the flybridge controls if the lower controls are in use. All he could do is steer. Many boats with flybridge also have a system where if you are helming in the lower position the upper steering is automatically disconnected* (and vice versa) so just getting up and changing helms could result in no steering, no throttle control and no neutral. * So you are not trying to turn the other wheel by forcing 'back pressure' thru the valves,

Not if the boat is under cover in a dock with a painter who knows what they are doing.Those I work with do so all year round.

We had our last boat painted at a similar time of year, so as long as it’s done in a temperature controlled environment you should have no issues

You have two water paths. The engine, gearbox etc has an antifreeze mix which circulates round and round. This 'water' passes through the heat exchanger as part of its path. Also travelling through (the other part of) the heat exchanger is the raw water which pulls the heat out of the engine coolant. The raw water gets sucked up through your filter, passes through the heat exchanger, and deposits itself into the exhaust to go back into the canal.

Pity we missed you, did you pass yesterday morning? I was out attending a hospital appointment. Maybe next time.

Oh the irony is delicious and fascinating! I am unsure whether you are doing it deliberately. I would really like to think you are. So your above post can be summarised that you proposed a point, some people disagreed with you, some people felt you were part of the problem. Your response to that is to accuse them being “more interested in sniping at people, making accusations, and trying to get a rise out of them than making positive suggestions.“ and that “I should have expected this, being mean to people is much easier than problem-solving.” Would these be attacks on the people in question rather than what they had to say on the matter, by any chance? Yes, delicious irony!

I missed it too, would be nice to have a special section where those with strong stomachs can see all the removed posts ? I missed it because I was busy boating. Circumstances caused us to spend the morning moored at the water tap, several hire boats had to come alongside to get water, non complained, I think they enjoyed it. Then did some boating sharing locks with "strangers". Quite hard boating as needed to let a lot of water down to sort empty pounds, a hire boater helped. Then went for a few beers on the boat we had shared the locks with, real world boating is much nicer than the forum. ...............Dave

Please see post #6 I'll be doing it in short stages over a year or more, as I said in post #1.

First narrowboat for us, the Kate Isobel, a 50ft Mel Davis built boat from 1998. Looking forward to making the most of the remainder of the summer !

The problem is that you can't afford to reduce one side of plate compared to the other. This is why you should be twisting it frequently as you work. 600 grit - is that emery cloth or wet & dry? I would suggest that you use course emery cloth and when nearly there switch to fine or your 600 grit wet & dry. The angle thing is especially important with the shaft being carried in the end plate. A further bit if information for you. Your pump has been modified to make changing the impellor easier. Originally the impellor went into the pump and then the shaft was pushed in from the back. This meant the key prevented the impellor being pulled out in the way you did. I also meant that to change the impellor you had to take the pulley off and push the shaft back enough to slip the key out. After a few impellor changes the aluminium pulleys used to wear so to make things easier people pulled the shat forward and repositioned the pulley so you can pull the impellor off the shaft and key. The downside of this is the shaft is only supported in about half the rear cover.