Don't tell him Pike!

My boat is a dawncraft rover, which as some of you may know has large spaces under the aft deck either side of the engine room designed to be big enough to fit bunks, like the smaller dandy. In my boat the port side space is filled with a deisel tank, but the starboard side is just wasted space. the galley is to the rear of the cabin and at the back end is storage space. Now, i'd ike to put the battery box in this wasted space, but as it is very difficult to access I'd like to put it on rails so it can be slid into the more accessible storage space when the batteries need to be accessed. I was thinking the rails could come from a car seat, ideally from a people carrier as these would be longer, thus the mechanism that locks car seats in place could be used to lock the battery box in place. It would need to contain sealed batteries only as these don't need a vent, so that just leaves the cables. I was thinking the cables could be coiled like a telephone lead so that the box could be drawn back and forth, otherwise there could be a straight connection that would need to be disconnected prior to moving the box. The accessible space could then house a set of fitted containers which could easily be lifted out when the batteries need to be accessed. Does anyone have any thoughts/advice on whether this is feasible/could pass the BSS? Thanks.

Hi, My z drive was damaged after becoming trapped between lock gates last week, the swivel plate broke on one side allowing the fork to become loose and the drive shaft to pop out of the cv. A limp home bodge was done to get it back into position and this has held, initially it was very difficult to engage reverse but otherwise ok, but after using reverse when entering a lock it now won't stay in forward gear unless I stay at low revs and tug the gear selector with the boat hook. Even then it pops out every couple of minutes. Reverse works fine. Work commitments mean I need to navigate the trent in a week or so so I need to be able to trust it to stay in gear. Any help much appreciated.

Ah, Cheers. It had occurred to me that it might drain the starter battery in the evenings, but I'm not an early riser so at this time of the year the solar should get it well over 12v by the time I set off...

I've been cruising a couple of days and it has become apparent the domestic batteries are only being charged by the solar (1x100w), which isn't enough to run the fridge and isn't enough full stop on cloudy days like this. Now, when the engine is running the dashboard gauge reads 14v so the alternator is working and presumably charging the starter battery. I can't find any issues with the wiring so I suspect the box that sends alternator charge to the leisure batteries (what do call one of them?) is knackered. I was thinking I could simply connect the starter battery to the leisure batteries to make a single battery bank. Is this a good idea? What are the potential problems?

Hi, This morning I broke down when the diesel pipe that connects to the top of the injectors sheared off. The fuel line is now repaired but the pump isn't ticking. Someone suggested it has air in, but didn't suggest how to deal with this. I've tried bleeding from the filter an injectors without any luck, any ideas? Thanks!

Heh, flipped the thermostat over and now it's holding temp just above 80c, probably slightly over because the cap is still off so the system isn't pressurised. In my mechanic's defense, he's in his mid 70's and probably isn't as sharp as he once was (he eagerly volunteered his services free of charge because he hates retirement)...

Yeah the first time I started it I ran without the cap until it overheated, worth another try i suppose...

Before the work the head gasket had failed and it was overheating, but seems to be worse now. I had a professional mechanic helping with the rebuild so I doubt the thermostat is upside down...

The cooling system is enclosed, it goes into the floor and we're not sure what's under there, but I suspect there's a tank working as a heat exchanger with the canal water below.

Hi guys, This is my Thornycroft Engine - it's just had the head skimmed and refurbished, water pump cleaned out, new headgasket, new thermostat, new belt. But it's overheating. It gradually reaches about 80c over five minutes, then continues to climb. The thermostat housing (bottom right) gets hot, but the pipe you see leading to the manifold tank remains cold, and the manifold tank itsself only slightly warms. Any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm wondering if it's a duff thermostat but I'm reluctant to get it out as it's all nicely sealed. Any help much appreciated.

The reducer is for the collar, which I really don't want to have to remove because that'll mean taking down part of the ceiling cladding which though designed to be removable at the edges is likely to be an awkward job and may result in damage to the cladding. Also I'd rather not replace what seems like a perfectly good collar.

I'm replacing the old pot belly on my boat with a multifuel stove, but I'm not entirely clear about fitting the flue. The roof collar is 4" so I'm going to need a reducer on the flue, also the old flue was a tight fit into this collar, seemingly just sealed with cement. I've been looking at this thread - http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=56710 so am I right in thinking a bit of putty alone will suffice for the top? Then some sort of fire rope/putty combination for the joins on the stove and reducer? Also how is easiest to slot it all together? I'm thinking I'd need to raise the stove with a jack to slot the overlapping joins together? Thanks!

I plan on fitting a solar panel next week and pretty much know what goes where and when, but I'm a little unclear about where the connectors marked 'load' should go. Is it ok to connect the live feed to the isolator switch, so that it powers the on board 12v system but can be turned off with the switch? I was worrying it might be an issue that it is practically connected to the batteries. I also gather inverters should not be connected to it, but I'm guessing if the load output is on the same circuit the batteries are connected to the inverter will drain the extra current needed from the batteries?

Hmm. I have four wires as follows - Blue (large spade) heater plugs Brown (large spade) seems to go to starter grey (smaller spade) would also seem to go to starter red (small spade) goes to all the dials and seems to end up at the fuel pump. So that would surely mean blue goes to 3, brown to 1 (the only other large spade) grey to 4 and red...1? 2? No sign of life either way, and seemingly no other wires. My brain erts...

Brilliant, cheers Tony! Already figured I'd need to trace the wires, pretty much got that covered. I couldn't find any labelling...