Karen Lea Rainey

I recently did my blacking above the waterline with wickes butumen paint for metal and concrete. I like to read reviews for all paints before using them, some reviews are invaluable, to save wasteing time and money, but the reviews for wickes bitumen were from a couple of narrowboaters amongst others. So i bought a 5 ltr tin for £17.25, very good value i thought. Anyway i applied 2 coats and wow, it was as good as the reviews were saying, i put it on with a 4" brush and it made a big difference to the look of the boat, only time will tell now how long it lasts but its worth checking it out in my book.

Stay where you are, you have a choice of at least 5 great chinese /indian restaurants, 2 of the best pubs in the area, the plough and the tuns. Tesco express, a garage, a good social club, chip shop and whats more its very safe with lots other boats either long term mooring or just passing through. If you want a few days of solace go less than a mile in any of 3 directions. Fazeley is a great place to moor, why move ?

Just ended a 6 day cruise down the cov and up the ashby to sutto wharf, i noticed that when we pass a boat coming in the opposite direction, the person on the stern always turns round about 5 seconds after passing. You could literally count the 5 seconds and watch them turn around, it got me thinking we were towing something, there was something to look at but it happens to all boaters. Is it courtesy, to see your ok or is it just habit, everyone seems to do it, why?.

it is the cav dpa injector pump 3246f857

hi thanks for your replies so far, after investigating it further yesterday, i tried to tighten the large hexagonal bolt on the bottom housing only for it to break the housing off , there must have been a fracture / crack in the housing for it, which is why it kept dripping. now i have a problem ive had to seal it with gasket seal until i i can source a replacement piece. it is just the bottom section with the advance and retard springs in. i have tried to load a picture for your input, and have looked at replacement pumps at around £300 complete on an exchange basis. the pump ran perfect apart from the leak.

sorry i meant to say wound it round the bolt (not the nut)

i thought the ptfe tape went very wet/ dissolving when i got it near the diesel aswell, i wound it round the nut about 3 times which made it very difficult to centre it in the union and i pulled it back out to look at it , it was virtually disintegrated. so with the stuff ive already purchased, a few extra winds of ptfe and the red gastite sealant together should be my next try!

hi everyone, i have an annoying drip / leak from the cav fuel injector end plug, it has only three or four threads on the end cap,, within this end cap is a bleed screw which seals fine, the problem is it looks like the threads are a little to worn, damaged. i have tried 2 separate O rings, neither have sealed it, i have tried ptfe tape but it kinda melted when it got near the threads and the diesel. i have tried a holymar type Red sealant that never sets, still leaks,it was a carplan gas tite product which is ok with diesel. yesterday i tried a thread lock sealant the blue one which is also ok with fuel but it still leaks as bad as ever. in my distant past i used a glanville clear rubbery sealant on motorbike oilboxes / clutches and on my water thermoastat on my bmc 1.5 . iam running out of ideas to seal it, is there anything on the market that seals threads tight or where could i get a new nut/cap from. it does look a technical nut as it has 2 springs slotting inside it and the middle bleed nut. help greatfully received thanks keith, ( husband of Karen).

i made it down Napton, there were no volunteers anywhere on the flight but there were 2 guys showing a hire boat how to go through the first lock, at hillmorton this morning there were 2 volunteers on the bottom lock, very helpful to everyone, well done guys and gals on the help. just atherstone tomorrow Thursday and i know that they have lots of volunteers there everyday,, should be a nice easy cruise into Tamworth tomorrow.

hi, i will be going through the Napton flight up the Oxford tomorrow tuesday around midday and will be single handed, does anyone know if there are volunteers on the locks to help a little bit?

Hi just looking at a boat that has 2 missing windows, this being a major project for the summer. hopper type mitred top, radius to bottom in the old dull grey finish. 1x 48 x 21 and 1x 36 x 21 inches, i thought about going to streethay to ask if they keep any that are changed etc, any other thoughts please

Hi all , just thought id share a recent problem, my RM4210 lec fridge worked fine on the leisure batteries but drains them to quickly if you dont have the engine running, it also works perfect on the mains, but i couldnt get the fridge to switch on to gas. Today i was going to sort it out, plenty of gas in the bottle, safety valve shut off is open, i depressed the gas in button, have the temp turned to 8 (fully on), then you flick the schiezo spark button and hopefully you see it light in the sight glass. ive tried it many times but it just didnt ignite. Today a fellow boater called Rico at our boat club checked all the lives and earth, all was good, so we suspected dirty contacts somewhere on the back of the fridge. low and behold i got the fridge out, removed all the wiring spades etc and tracked the wire back to the burner. THERE WAS THE PROBLEM, THE BURNER AND ELECTRODE WERE COVERED IN RUSTY DEBRIS, SPIDERS,DUST AND GENERAL RUBBISH, hoping that it was the fact that the electrode was covered in c r a p, i cleaned the jet burner, the spark electrode and the flue, i put it back together. FINGERS CROSSED, PUT IT BACK TOGETHER AND SWITCH ON. guess what success, it now works and is superbly cold after 3 hours. pleased as punch i am, reminder to self, get the fridge serviced routinely, ive owned this boat for 7 months and it now all works superbly.

I had a similar card for fathers day, i framed it and it hangs with pride on my boat. Lovely card it is to

Do you think that the moss will not grow on any exposed /scraped areas aswell as an intact and unbroken covering ?

Hi, my narrowboat was bitumen blacked (2 coats over 7 days) by a local marina in April this year, It looked like a very thorough job and has only just lost its new shine, My question is after approx 5 months there appears to be the start of small moss growth just below the waterline. How long does the bitumen last before the growth starts. The boat has been blacked every 3 years, and i plan to do it on an even more regular basis.

Just went on the classic oils Aylesbury website, MorrisGolden film GF 30 now £18.95 + £9.00 delivery (48 hour cheapest delivery) or you can collect for free.

Hi Alan , i was comparing it to the last time i brought Morris golden film £26.99 SA 30 ,i cant remember if i paid delivery on top of that, but even Amazon traders list it as £20 + with delivery on top making it around £27-28. Regards keith. Yes its API SF CC , thats why i got it, i will remember Aylesbury next time though at that price.

Hi all just to say that Halfords have a really good deal on there own brands of 5lr oils. you get a free quality 8 piece screwdriver set (yes completely FREE) for purchasing the oil for £19.99. Its a green mineral oil thats especially made for diesel engines or petrol engines made in the 60's,70's or 80's. Just put it in my 1.5 bmc and its impressed me. i did however have a little difficulty identifying which oil filter to get because they now only stock their own brand , crosschecking which was their code was the problem. They didnt know how to advise unless you had a car. anyway the crosscheck by googling from asap supplies and other sellers revealed it was the same as code champion C160, or ZZ88 And will fit a diesel Ford Orion from 1984 to 1990. Halfords code is HOF203. The screwdivers look pretty handy and will go in the bottom drawer for now, would have cost £15

Ive got a 1.5 bmc but dont have enough access to get to the bottom hoses (to empty the system) without ripping out the fixed stairs, i hope these hoses dont perish sometime soon or it will mean a rebuild of a staircase / fixed pannels. When i had a top hose go some months ago i got a 5 ltr concentrate antifreeze and i had to remove the return pipe hose by the thermostat. It took about 3 ltres from that point, then i had to run the engine until the thermostat opened with the pressure cap off, with a few blip, blips on the throttle! It cleared any blockages of air. I have since added a bit more antifreeze to increase the strength but it has been less than 5 ltres without radiators and heaters tank.