Dave&Sarah

I had an issue the other day, rain gets through a gap in my deck boards (temporarily sealed for now) and whilst the rain and snow was pelting down my gearbox spewed it's oil through a failed seal. The engine bilge overflowed from the heavy rain and snow and I had to turn my bilge pump off as the bilge got oil in it. I keep an old wet vacuum which has proved invaluable a couple of times now, highly recommend getting one for doing jobs like this. Within an hour the contents of my bilges were emptied and clean, ther are really very useful indeed, can't recommend getting one enough. David

Hello Just a thanks to everyone who helped out with this. New o ring installed today, a little bit fiddly but got it in okay and seems to have cured the leak. Initially on putting it back together there was no drive but took the arm back off and turned the shaft through 180 degrees, put it back together and all seems good. Lost the detent ball in the sump but will get a new one, there was no spring or detent ball on there anyway when we took the arm off but will get another so it's all complete. Thanks again for all of your help, much appreciated especially as we plan to take it away on our honeymoon at the beginning af April. David

Okay, thanks very much Richard. David

Sorry, I forgot to ask. Hopefully have a look at this and try to fix this weekend, however if not, can I run the engine in neutral with the morse controller lever in the vertical position and button pushed in so it won't engage gear, there is no oil in the gearbox as it all leaked out. Or is there always stuff turning in the box that requires oil and if I do this will sustain damage? This is just for battery charging purposes. Thanks David

Hi everyone, just a thank you really for all of your help and advice. I have ordered a seal (well a few in case I destroy a couple in the process of getting the thing in) together with spare washer, nut, spring, ball bearing etc. (in case I lose the old ones or they have seen better days when I take the arm off) and will give it a go. Ordered from ASAP, really useful supplier, thanks Neil. If there is anything else to watch out for or any do's and don'ts comments would be appreciated. Thanks again for everyone's help on this (and with getting the chuffing picture uploaded, will figure it out one day, cheers Richard) David

Yes, does look like it, the pipes cross I think on the edge of the photo, but will make sure when I go back down. Thanks for uploading the photo, sorry it is a bit blurred, combination of the engine running and me using it to rest my hand on whilst taking the photo and also me shivering. Thanks Richard Dave

Many thanks for all of your help, advice and the link to where I can get the seal from, really apreciate it. Here goes again with the photo, if it works it is the nut next to the black pipe on the selector arm. Just got back as with all of the snow and the oil leak the sump was full and didn't want it to overflow and the bilge pump to kick in, all emptied now. Was just concerned that it looked emulsified, I have checked the box and there is no water in it and the cooling system level is the same, my initial fear was that the oil cooler had failed filling the box with water to a level where it comes out of somewhere like this! We haven't used the boat since September so not had it in gear, just running the engine once a week. Not sure why it had leaked as this seal is quite high up the box and wouldn't the oil just sit in the bottom or does it pressurise in neutral? Saying that we have a very slight leak from the output shaft seal. Thank you all very much again for all of your help. David [/img]

Hi, hope someone out there can help us. We visited the boat today, bitterly cold and snowing, not sure if the cold has any bearing on this at all. We did all of the engine checks as there appeared to be a bit of emulsified oil in the sump tray and ran the engine. I tried putting the gearbox into forward or reverse but no drive. Checked the gearbox oil level and it wasn't showing on the dipstick so I topped the oil up and then the prop would drive. What I did notice however that there is the drive cable feeds onto a lever which pivots on a shaft held on by a nut. There was emulsified oil dripping/running quite fast from the nut. I cleaned the area and the oil appered to be dripping from the nut itself, not from the centre but on the outside as if there was a pin hole in the surface of the nut. I couldn't see a crack in the nut itself but within minutes, the oil I had put in had leaked out. Any ideas are welcomed. I have a picture just trying to read how the hell you insert it! David

Yep, all three. Cheers

Hey Jo Yeah, there are poles and floating pontoons which are quite a bit taller than the floods of 2007. Cheers

Hey Jo We have just moved off the Avon, purely for convenience as our new moorings are local to our home and with a fair bit of work to do will be quite handy. We were moored at a small marina at Bidford-on-Avon called 'The Moorings' a small privately owned marina run by a great chap in a beautiful location with a mix of narrowboats and cruisers and all lovely people and friendly. Can't recommend highly enough and miss it really but had to make the difficult decision between location aspect and convenience and once most of the work is done aim to return. Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for help on this, really appreciated, never heard of Iroko, I'll do some research and take a look, thanks. The boat is a semi trad and the door from memory was around 20" wide with the grain running vertically and the wood has grown in width as expected but have also had to shave a little off the top as the panel is framed with wood and the frame grain at top and bottom runs horizontally but the frame strips are made from memory around 4" wide hence the minimal growth here. The wood had been stored in a garage for around 6 months, not particularly dry in humidity but certainly drier than outside. As mentioned a little has been trimmed off the top but the bulk off the side which is where I expected movement but not this much. I agree that the design needs to account for swelling but am just astounded by how much and as Alan points out, in the summer, given dry weather will the door shrink by a similar amount leaving huge gaps. I have concluded that the door needs replacing as where we have mitred the frame, due to the swelling and angle of the top bit as the door top is angled, the frame is being pushed apart by the swelling of the middle panel as RobinJ mentioned. I have asked around wood yards and they say that ash is much more stable but when I built the oak door, asked the same yards and they said it would be ideal. I would have thought the 4 coats of varnish would have sealed it up though. The last time I went down it had stopped growing, thankfully! Thanks again for everyoned comments. Dave

Hi, hope someone can help and educate me a little here!? We made a new outside door for the stern of our boat out of kiln dried European oak, very pleased with it indeed and finished it off by sealing it with 4 coats of Ronseal outdoor varnish. We made the door by biscuiting together the oak to form a panel which we then surrounded with a frame (all glued up which I understand to be an error as we should have made the panel to float) All was well through summer and into autumn but over the winter the wood has swelled by over 3/4", the overall width is around 16". On a few occasions we had to plane the door down to fit and ended up taking around 3/4" off in total. I have asked around as I think kiln dried oak is dried to around 13% humidity, air dried oak is wetter but can't seem to locate any. Is it a case that the wetter the better? Some joiners have said that this is unavoidable and should avoid large panels and design it in a way that if it swells it can be easily planed down. Won't the wood shrink back though when it dries? I have read that ash is a more stable wood so we're thinking of starting from scratch using ash. I also would have thought 4 coats of varnish would have sealed the timber but obviously not, can anyone recommend the best varnish to use for an outside application. Some houses have wooden doors but don't have this problem, oh well if I leave it growing it'll have acorns on it by the summer or I'll cut it in half and do the front doors too! Any advice appreciated, many thanks. David

Can anyone add any advice or experience with doing this? Help is very much appreciated? Dave & Sarah

Thanks for your help, guess that's the main drawback as we would need to run the engine and only stop it within an hour or so of needing the heating, may prove fairly unsociable if we need heating later on in the evening! Thank you. Dave & Sarah