Karen Lea Rainey

Had exactly the same some years ago with mine. I removed the fuel filter, cleared out the crud in it because it can block the passageway through the filter. Refitted the existing filter because I hadn't got a replacement on the boat and it never did it again.

I was always led to believe that a boat made of steel, fully fitted out with furnishings, white goods etc weighs approximately 1 metric tonne per metre length, ( give or take a little bit), ie a 40ft boat is nigh on 11 metres and will weigh approx 11 tonnes. Also regarding the arching of a jib relates to how far the reach is( in practicality a 50 tonne crane can lift 50 tonnes at a distance of 1metre from the central upright point of the cranes jib, then at a reaching distance of 50 metres from the upright, it can only lift just 1 tonne without falling over or being secured in other ways to its foundations. It was a matter of physics I learnt at school many years ago.

We like the social aspect of a good sized cruiser stern, you can all stand /sit in the same area even whilst on the move, but we only use the boat for short breaks and pub visits on bank holidays etc. If we lived on one I would probably go for a semi trad, if it was just me I'd probably go for a full trad stern.

With the current hot weather I would have thought that any patch of water would be dry within a couple of days, keep an eye on it, dont do any more chiseling or scraping and get some "Milliput"it can be pushed into small leaky areas and make a semi, temporary repair which should last until your boat is due to come out of the water. It will work even in slightly damp areas.

My cratch cover zip is pulling away from the plastic cratch material, would a normal sewing machine needle be strong enough to punch it's way through the zip and cover to repair it or should I get a sail type needle and do it by hand, has anyone tried either way with success, I need to stitch about 18 " worth of cover to repair the gap. Currently I have about 4 safety pins holding it together but would like to make it look good again.

I would suggest that because you have taken ballast out from this floor area that you have re balanced the boat, the steel cross members going across your boat do not go to the very edge, ie water from under the floor will continue to seep around those stretchers for a good few days yet. Put a few nappies down to soak the dampness up and you may be able to see more clearly where the water is coming from. It could have been internal water from your plumbing as well, which you need to eliminate. (A previous or continuous pipe leak). If you find a leak use some modelling putty like 'milliput' which can be purchased from places like Hobby craft and aquatic shops to get you out of trouble until you identify the real cause of the water and spend serious money getting your boat out of the water or further welding that may or may not need doing.

It sounds to me as if the water is getting passed the prv ( the knob you turned to get the water whooshing noise). The overflow pipe from this connection will come out of the t section of the pipe and almost always empty into the bulge area. Look in your engine area for a plastic hose type pipe that has no other connecting points attached. Lift it out of the standing water and see if it is dripping, give it a couple of minutes if you've raised it up a bit. If water comes out of it, that's your cause the "prv", dont worry it can easily be changed. But before you change it try lifting the valve a good 5 or 6 times and let the rubber washer try to reseat itself by closing the valve again. You do get limescale/ crud build up under the washer seat of the valve which causes the symptoms you have. I would recommend doing this anyway every 3 or 4 months to make sure it seals well in the future. Make it part of your routine maintenance is a good idea.

Hi All, I,m pretty sure I've got an air lock in the coils inside my calorifier, It's an Isuzu engine with just the skin tank and calorifier connected, the boat is new to me but the calorifier was newly installed and not commissioned prior to me purchasing the boat. It is a 55ltr upright sure cal unit. When I run the engine at about 8-900 rpm (just above tickover) I would have expected to have generated at least some Luke warm water through the hot taps. There is no bleed point on the calorifier pipes leading to the engine, there is however a T piece bleed point on the pipe from the skin tank, The skin tank gets pretty warm after 20 mins or so so I know the circulation is good for water cooling of the engine, you can feel the lower pipe entering into the calorifier getting warm but the pipe 3 inches or so above it is nearly cold, hence I dont think the water is circulating in the internal coil. I have blipped the engine to around 3000 rpm for a full minute hoping that the higher pumping pressure will force any air round the system and clear the air lock from the coils but it hasn't worked. There is no ( open valve/close valve) tap upon exiting the calorifier before the sink taps and I do have a full flow of water at the hot tap, it's just not warm. Q. Can I just remove the higher hose pipe coming from the calorifier to where it enters the top of the engine and put a water hose in the heater pipe hence forcing any water around the engine, clearing the air lock and allowing the air to escape through the expansion tank with the cap removed. Ps there appears to be plenty of water in the engine with the expansion tank showing almost full which is also the highest point of the engine and pipeworks.

Sounds like a t cut restorer and a mer type polish is the first effort. Thanks for your replies.

Hi All, the steel sides of my narrowboat have 10 year old paint on them.its still intact with no rust patches or broken flaky paint. The paint has gone lighter from the sun / weather, my darker greeny grey now looks a few shades lighter. The other day I spilt some 3 in 1 oil on it when I was putting a bit of oil on the side hatch hinges. As I wiped it off the colour came shining through and the colours looked rejuvinated in an instant. It's been over a week now and that one patch of oil which was rubbed in/off still looks better than the rest of the boat in my view. Is there a product other than 3 in 1 that will enhance the colour all over again ? Or Will a clear varnish work in the same way, Thank you

Sounds like you left something switched on, ( fridge /lights/pump/alarm) or other. The domestic side battery has died, you may just be able to recover the starter battery if it's pretty new but the likelihood of that happening is quite small. Jump start it with leads from a fully charged battery and let it run for about an hour to get it back to 12.5 v and see how long it lasts. If that's the leisure battery at 3 v bin it, it will never come back past about 7 or 8 v and wont have enough charge to power anything. Experts may give more detailed advice soon

Yes then I have an ammeter, with the pos and neg points to put on the battery terminals, to check voltage I turn it on to 20 volts for a more accurate readout. Sounds like the thing I forgot to do was rev it, instead I expected to see a higher reading when the engine is running.

How do you check the charging current ? I've only ever checked the voltage readings on the battery terminals with my multi tester. Rev it, I will have to do next time I'm at the boat and check to see if the light goes out and see if the voltage goes up through excitement !!!

The engine is running throughout the voltage recordings, the exciter charging light remained on throughout all the readings, thanks

Yes the engine was idling, but the tickover is set quite high at the moment, that is something else I need to address in the coming weeks, I forgot about revving the engine, so have I got it wrong, what should the voltage be around when I,m revving up a bit ?

Hi All, I have a problem with the alternator, I think, To start, I checked voltage at the batteries , it was 12.63 v before starting. (All 3 batteries are pretty new and wired in series). Started the Isuzu 1.2 engine after 10 seconds heating, it started straight away no problem. The charging light comes on and stays on, it is quite bright and constant. Immediately check the voltage at the batteries again, it's now 12.52 v, Wait a couple of minutes, check voltage again, it's now 12.56 v After 10 minutes, check the voltage again, it's now 12.58 v After 30 mins the voltage has now got to 12.68 volts. The charging light is still brightly lit, turned the key to off for a couple of minutes which extinguishers the charging light and checked in another couple of minutes, we've now got 12.70 v, Surely the alternator isn't doing it's job or am I wrong ? The alternator belt is tight with only a tiny bit of slack in it, the smaller cables to the alternator are firmly attached as are the other cables. I,m pretty sure the alternator has given up, the boat is new to me and has spent the last 8 years moored up in a marina being slowly refitted out. I have taken some pictures of the alternator but it is difficult to get a clear picture, from what I can make out it's an Hitachi alternator , but I cannot see any model numbers etc, can anyone tell which one it is and point me in the direction of a replacement please.

Surely, if all taps are closed off and the PRV is good the the pump would not be able to run, the water has to escape from somewhere in the system pipework for it to keep running ! Doesn't it, I can't work out any other fault but the PRV .

The new valve is probably not seating on cylinder properly, I had a similar problem in the summer, if you lift the PRV valve up and down it may after a few good "thwaks" up and down it will clear the scale that may be the culprit , alternatively the PRV valve internal washers/ seal may itself not be closing. (Which then lets water through it, instead of stopping it).

My BMC smokes a bit on start up, then within 3 or 4 mins it's clear, when I then apply a little acceleration you get another burst of smoke for 3 or 4 seconds then no smoke for the rest of the journey. I thought this was normal for a BMC!!!

Try to take up a 4ft x 2ft floor panel or similar at the back of the boat, you need to check the cross beams that the ply has been screwed down into or nailed into. If they have been sodden for a while they stand a chance of being rotten, they will need replacing , otherwise you may well just 'paper over the cracks' so to speak, sometime in the near future you may well walk over that area and feel spongy flooring, or uneven flooring which you may well regret doing when you had the opportunity.

Just to report back, put the ignition wire, glow plug wire and live wire ignition on the correct poles, checked for a good earthing cleaned all contacts, and it works fine now. Thanks particularly to Tony for making the leads diagram 'black & white.

Hi All, I have a BMC 1.8 engine that I believe the glow plug relay has given up, measuring no voltage at the actual glow plugs and after taking a glow plug out to do a battery heating up test , I surmise that it's a relay problem. Having taken the relay off, I can see no markings on the unit except for what could be a production date 021015 or serial number? My question is where can I get a replacement relay? Can I use a universal relay akin to Durite etc or do I need to buy an expensive land rover relay etc, Pictures attached to help, I would be grateful for your help.

Also surely if the lift pump was completely shot surely when the burst of easy start fuel was used up the engine would just cut out again. I thought the problem was that the engine needed easy start permanently to start the engine

Looks like there is a lot of diesel dripping / spitting around that engine from the lift pump or pipe unions etc, it sounds to me like there is a small leak at a joint or filter or pump etc. I would clean every part with dry paper towel and check every nut is tight throughout the fuel system. There has to be a leak somewhere with all that diesel visible