miq

Why not message the e-bay seller with the dimensions and ask?

Those of you with Beta engines might be interested to know, that the boatyard at Boot wharf in Nuneaton discovered the fault using a camera on a flexible stalk, and it turned out that the domestic alternator bracket had come loose and chattered it's way through the alloy engine casing. This cost us a new casing at over 1000 GBP, labour to remove repair and refit the engine and the loss of a week of our annual cruising holiday. I had seen the bracket moving slightly a couple of weeks before and tightened the top bolts but as someone else was using the boat and I presumed the problem was solved, I thought no more about it until they reported that the engine was leaking oil. Karen's "other half"

We have a serious problem with wild ducks using the top of our boat as a toilet, as we moor under a tree on the main river channel. The boats either side of us do not seem to have a problem so it might be that the ducks like our particular shade of green, or it could be because they use covers which stretch right across the boat! We are reluctant to use heavy covers as some of the people who use the boat would have difficulty removing them, but we have seen a product called 'scare tape' (no not duct tape) which claims to keep the blighters off by rattling in the wind and reflecting the light from it's holographic surface. Has anyone any experience of this tape , does it work? does it last long enough to be effective? we'd love to hear from you if you know.

I had this problem with my Lombardini engine for over 10 years and never solved it! The engine was stripped and rebuilt, by a competent fitter without any problem being found. The Lombardini agent whom I consulted and who had previously been involved in Lombardini engine renovations, had nothing to add, and in the end I removed the diaphragm unit and connected the engine breather pipe on the rocker cover direct to the air filter housing and did as you have done and diverted the 'overflow' into a container which I emptied periodically. The paper filter had to be removed and the filter housing left empty, but the engine space on a narrowboat is not a particularly hostile environment and a bit of crumpled stainless steel netting in the air intake tube prevented the possibility of any large stray items like leaves from entering the engine. The engine continued to run for some years and was still in good running order when I sold it.

Thanks for the suggestion, this is an option, as there is a manual stop lever, but I prefer the stop control to be in the instrument box, as from time to time other relatives and friends use the boat, so I try to keep everything as simple as possible. I have now sourced a reasonably priced replacement solenoid, so I think I will go for that.

Hi, does anyone out there know if it is possible to adjust the stop solenoid on a five year old beta 30 (Kubota based) the one I have still throws out, but not far enough to activate the stop lever, and I don't want to shell out for a new one without checking if the old one can be repaired.

Hi! we have the same fittings on our boat, and after searching online like you, we decided to visit our local caravan spares shop who had some in stock. I think they were just called 'window fasteners' and this was a few years ago, but might be worth a try.

I would suggest that at some time the engine has overheated, as the route the pipe follows should not get hot enough to melt it. I speak from experience as the fitter who put our Beta in, accidentally used a sharp edged jubilee clip on the hose to the cooling tank which wore a small hole and during a long days cruise on the Thames we lost most of the coolant into the bilges before the smell of hot engine permeated into our cruiser stern area. Incidentally we discovered that the warning light/buzzer does not operate under those conditions presumably because the sender is mounted too high above the 'steam' to register properly. The moral is, check your water level regularly and look for traces of rusty water in the bilges. I agree that an expansion tank would be an improvement, as our hose melted too, but it wouldn't have helped us to prevent the overheating. Luckily no harm was done and once the engine cooled we were able to go on our way.

I have done this in an emergency using a mooring rope looped around the engine and deck supports on my cruiser stern n.b. The rope was tightened (shortened) by twisting a mooring pin into it which was then secured in the tightened position using another short piece of rope. This held the engine far enough up to work on it, but be careful not to let your fingers get into a position where they could be trapped and injured if the engine fell due to failure of the rig and be aware that if the securing rope fails, the mooring pin will rotate at speed and could cause injury or damage.

The heat absorbent bricks from electric storage heaters are very dense/heavy for their size, and after dismantling a heater in a holiday cottage we built a barbecue stand from them which has weathered well over a number of years. The reason we used them on the barbecue, was because no one wanted them! so if you could make contact with a builder in a popular holiday cottage area you might well get them for the cost of transportation. They are also a useful shape and size, being flatter than ordinary house bricks.

We used ordinary one pack household adhesive (e.g tile n grout)in the shower room and around the stove. The area around the stove where the tiles were attached to cement/fibre board is beginning to fail after 12 years, but in the shower room where the tiles are fixed to marine ply, they are still firmly attached. So you probably need a special adhesive near the stove or be prepared to renew it every 10 years or so!

The heat storage bricks from old storage heaters are pretty dense if you can get them!

Are you sure the ferrous part of the system is an integral part of the expansion tank and not just an external adaptor? Sorry to state the obvious, but something similiar happened on our boat due to (previous owners)need to fit a reducer which was presumably not available in brass at the plumbing supplier he/she used!

Has anyone else out there got a 42 foot liverpool boat with a cruiser stern from the mid 90s? If so what engine is fitted? Mine has a worn out Lombardini 903, and I am looking to upgrade to something a bit more powerful and young enough not to smoke. The keel cooling on this hull is minimal at 0.47 m2 which will add considerably to the cost if I fit most readily available 30hp engines as they all seem to require up to 0.8 m2. Any suggestions?

We have had an LB hull now for 15 years with no problems, built in 1994 the roof is welded in sections instead of being one piece but the joins only show in evening light! Ours was fitted by Triton in a workmanlike if fairly basic way, and the layout suits us. We were grateful for the engine space/cabin welded bulkhead, when the return pipe from our common rail Lombardini diesel blew off and flooded the engine space with fuel. The original purchase surveyor gave the opinion that the hull would last longer than either him or me and I am hoping for another 20 years or so on the cut!

Hi all, I know this has been asked before but I can't find the thread in this years topics so here goes. Following a leak on the return to tank pipe of my common rail lombardini, the bilges became contaminated with diesel fuel. (about 10 gals of it!) Although this has now been pumped out, the smell lingers on under the cabin floor. Does anyone out there know of a way of neutralising this smell? I am assuming that some of the woodwork may have taken up fuel, but I cannot verify this and I want to avoid at all costs having to take all the flooring up to find out. There is a connection between the outer parts of the engine space and the under floor bilges, and this amount of fuel of course overflowed the seperate engine bilge into these areas! Help!

Two solutions spring to mind, a flock, flush, paddling, raft or team of ducks who wake us early in the morning disposing of the weed for us, or, (and this is the serious one) one of those rubber bristled brooms that they practically give away at exhibitions. Or just google 'rubber broom' for all sorts of offers.

Ours is made of wood and ply and is fixed entirely on the swim on one side (2 leisure, 1 traction battery) I counterbalance it with the heavy ironmongery, lock keys, mooring pins clubhammer etc; in a locker on the other side. The safety man on a recent visit, was pleased to see that the batteries were fixed down within the box, and that the box is vented near the top, otherwise his only comment was that the negative busbar which connects to all three batteries was a bit difficult to get at. If I need to get at them, I simply slide the whole box out onto a removable bar which fits across the engine space using rope handles fixed to the box. Crude but effective.

they used to make a tool for this! Basically a thin bar about 100mm long attached at right angles to a wooden handle with an adjustable dome headed bolt in the middle of the bar which could be moved up or down (in a hole bored down the middle of the handle) to the required distance. Having set the tension distance, you pressed the dome against the belt, until the two ends of the bar touched the belt on either side, and this was supposed to be the correct tension! I suspect that this was more use in the days when distances between pulleys were more standardised, but your workshop manual might give specific measurements for such a tool to suit your engine. Having said all this I rely on the 'can you make the belt slip through a pulley by hand' method myself!

Thanks everybody, it was just fluff blocking the airways to the burners, but I'll bear in mind the regulator advice too as mine is quite old. Miq

I have this boiler fitted to my boat but it has failed the safety test on gas/air mixture (yellow flame) although it lights up and runs o.k. otherwise. Does anyone know if parts are still available or whether the burner is adjustable? as I beleive the unit is no longer made. I note that there is a previous reference to this unit in relation to winter drain down, and various people commented but as that was some time ago I am submitting this as a new topic. Miq