wren

Indeed, the path as pictured no longer exists...

(Giant's Other Half here.) We paid £170 for a 29" prop reconditioning nearly 2 years ago as part of the larger job of replacing the shaft, etc. Have had no problems with it since. T. Norris were super easy to deal with and very polite when it turned out the prop had been bodged onto the shaft with tar and cement.

The Other Half here -- I believe that's more gunk -- the sides look much cleaner now. (The unused tank on the other side is pitted in the sides. I think the previous woner may have coated the interior of one tank with something black.)

It's not grubby, it's historic! (The Other Half.)

Aha! So if I need more Whitworth nuts, I should start unpicking Monkey's Fists?

The pump will kick in few minutes after the tap is opened (it depends on which tap & how much of course) and continues running for "a while" after the tap is closed. I will try to get more specific numbers, but that's all normal operation as I understand it. The original question is about the way the pump spontaneously runs without a tap being opened, though.

Neil: No dripping taps. First thing I checked.

> Wren does fancy going back to Waddingtons colours. In honor of Victor Waddington's legendary thriftiness, however, I am prepared to wait until we've run out of the red and cream paint before reopening that debate. The (untouched since her working days) bollards I hope to repaint to appproximate original Waddy blue sooner than that. I had not thought about restoring the red on the front -- a bit hard now that it's all epoxy?

At the moment, I am learning to accept what cannot be changed: the weather in the North Sea...

I certainly hope repairing it is an option! Because of the extremely peculiar nature of the mooring in London, it would be massively preferable to get to dry dock and on the mooring ASAP.

Sad morning here in Goole, last night we excavated a hairline crack on the port side of the engine block. (Not, I specify, on the top face, but on the side face.) So she won't be going to sea under her own engine, for sure. We really appreciate all the advice and time and help you've given us on this thread, and are pretty devastated that the sea journey isn't going to happen the way we had hoped. So now, I need advice on people able to repair cast iron and/or tugs for the North Sea...

I am remiss in thanking you (I can offer only that I have spent the last few days chained to the workbench in the engine room, cleaning mating surfaces...), it has cleared things up completely, thank you very much! We are now slowly getting to the point of reassembly...

I would really appreciate it since, having taken it all apart, the next job is to put it back together! Without leaks. Going off-manual makes me a little nervous.

To follow up, it looks like the hole for Stud A and the one to the right in previous pictures is a wider (3/8 W) threaded hole at the top, and then closes up to a narrower (5/16 W) threaded hole. Does anyone know (can this be extracted from the CAD model?) the original depth of the hole? We are wondering if we are dealing with an original hole which has been extended at a smaller thread or if there has been a helicoil inserted. (More precise visual identification is not really possible due to massive amounts of hardened bodging compound.)

Giant will be back in a little bit with the news and photos of the rest of the engine. I'm on cleaning detail tomorrow, armed with rags, a variety of brushes (nylon, brass, steel), a big red tin of GUNK, and WD-40. Any specific recommendations for cleaning, particularly the big studs still attached to the engine block and the vast amounts of red stuff we think is hardened haldite? It's red, it's solid, and it's all over the gaskets and block... My cleaning background is lab chemistry where we clean things with an ultrasonic bath and a variety of controlled solvents, all unavailable outside specialized laboratories.