Rackingman

Thanks for your help Guys - unfortunately I haven't been able to get the damn thing going and have now got to go back to dry land for a couple of weeks. I am most grateful to Rob for saving me endless hours with the overheat sensor and fuel pump which he says are not in circuit straight away and therefore cant be causing the fuse to blow instantaneously. I will check the blower motor on the pins as described as a priority. Thanks to Jelunga for his input and info on the fan - the unit did work for 1 1/2 hours on return to the boat a couple of weeks ago, then just blew the fuse and gave up - but I will check it anyway and give it a drop of oil. Thanks to Pete, I have had the boat from new, 20 years ago, so the fuses are known to be correct. The motor case will also be checked - good point!!! Regards and Thanks to all, any more info most welcome - Peter

Thanks Rob - I've pulled the double block in the centre of the control box unit, white and green, I think it controls the fuel pump and the thermal overheat sensor and the fuse does not blow, the timer lights up but nothing else happens when the start up is pressed. I think the overheat sensor "pops up" the little red button if it's activated. In my case it is still down so I hope that's alright does anyone know the resistance value of the overheat sensor if I stick a multimeter in ohms on it? Thanks for you help and interest. Peter

Thanks for that "Smilypete" can you explain that a bit further - by plug do you mean the glow plug, if so how do I get at it - where/how do I disconnect it to try the restart. In the fuse box there are 3 fuses, an 8 on the right (which is the one that blows instantly on start up) a 10 on the left and a 16 in the middle - I thought the 16 controlled the glow plug so perhaps I can disconnect it by just taking that fuse out - is that correct? Many Thanks.

Thanks - the fuse is the 8amp one inside the grey eber box.

A word of warning though - make sure you have the anodes welded onto studs and no foam behind them. That way replacement is simply grind off the old one and re weld the new one to the studs. I usually keep a fire extinguisher very handy and vent the cabin by leaving the doors open - just in case

Hi everyone - help please. I have a 20 year old Eberspacher D5W on a 60' narrowboat. I returned after the winter to check it over, sort it out, and go cruising. Everything went well, no problems at all. One and a half hours in; the heating stopped. On investigation I discovered the 8 amp fuse had blown so I simply replaced it and pressed start. Nothing, funny I thought, checked to find the 8 amp fuse had instantly blown again, and again, and again. Checked all the wiring, overheat had not popped up, all looks fine, topped up the header tank, tried again and blew the 8 amp fuse instantly, not even a noise except for the pop of the fuse. Any ideas please?

My 60' boat overheats to 90+ above 1500 revs with a Perkins MC42 engine but it used to be a lot worse before I cleaned 7 coats of blacking off the outside of the skin tank swim when it was in dry dock. You can't expect the canal water to cool your skin tank if you insulate one from the other - just an idea!

Good Afternoon - thank you to all who have responded so far - all very useful. My boat has a Perkins MC42 engine with 2 in line filters. I think I will try Marine 16 first and then add a bit of 2 stroke. Many thanks for all your help.

Morning All. As the EU seems to have given us yet another problem. Has anybody found a "cure all" diesel additive for the new spec. red diesel that provides the correct lubrication and guards against the growth of diesel bug. I am about to fill up again with more of the expensive stuff red stuff and want to add "something" to it to make it "as it used to be" Thanks in advance.

Hi - I've read this thread with great interest and have had 2 Squirrel stoves, neither with back boilers. The first one in 1994 cracked at the back and then the top and was finally replaced in 2002. I blamed the heat expansion of the sides and back for the cracks and decided to put in a couple of extra fire bricks, - (cheap from Wilkinson's and exactly the right size for the sides) - the "new" stove shows no sign of cracking after 9 winters. However, the new Squirrel had an internal cowl fitted inside the stove to cover the flue. Apparently the idea was to get more heat from the combustion gases by leaving it longer in the top of the stove. It proved to be a nightmare, it worked fine for a couple of months and then some clinker came off the flue pipe and blocked it off at the stove. I spent a few hours trying to clean it out and eventually it worked OK again - then summer came and it was forgotten. Next time we lit up the smoke was everywhere and the CO2 alarm was going beserk. I couldn't split the stove from the flue because of the stupid design of the flanges so I ended up cutting the cowl off in situ with a disk cutter and an awful lot of mess. It has worked perfectly ever since. Just a thought - has your flue got an internal cowl? they should be removed prior to installation if the stove is to be used with a short flue - but it didn't say that in the book!!!!

That looks a fine dry dock - lucky you!!

For what it's worth. I've had both and the Sterling made a nice splash when it went into the water. The Adverc has been brilliant for 14 years - fit and forget I think it's called.

Many years ago I looked at this problem in great detail and finally decided on fixing an Acrylic sheet in a 3/4" hard wood frame. Stained the frame to match the woodwork, stuck some double glazing seal around the outside and pushed in tight into the window recess and secured it with a brass turnbuckle on each of the four sides. Each window unit was made separately as the sizes varied slightly and then marked to suit. It worked a treat, OK we occasionally got condense between the panels and the glass but it's a simple job to simply remove the panel, dry the window with kitchen roll and replace. The improvement in warmth and general feeling of home in the boat was amazing in the winter with frost outside and in the summer the panel are simply removed and stored in my case I made a rack for then on the gunnel side. The major cost was the Acrylic and I remember cutting it to size without cracking it was a bit tricky but apart from that it was no problem. The panels have now been in use for 15 years and we lived on board for 12 of those. The key is Acrylic, Perspex just goes cloudy with age, but Acrylic just cleans up like glass.

There is a guy at Valley Cruisers, on the Coventry Canal who is pretty good with inverters.

I wish I had replaced mine!! could you PLEASE tell me which plug you used, what thread it was and where you got it from. I did try to email you direct last week Allen but you may not have picked it up - many thanks anyway. Regards Rackingman