pevil

We can probably over think these things because lets face it, if you've got a calorifier in the system, which is copper, that would be connected to the water tank by the water in the pipes, the water in the calorifier is connected indirectly to the engine via the coolant flowing through the coil inside, the engine is connected to the negative side of the battery, the same thing applies as to whether to bond the hull, the engine 'which already is' will be connected to the hull via water in the engine and skin tank, via the exhaust pipe and as said already via the calorifier, this being the case why aren't all our boats corroding away? do we need to introduce some stray positive current to this mix in order to trigger corrosion? I don't know and now my head hurts it's all very technical, oh the joys of boating

I do plan to get the pitting welded but having just had the boat blacked I'd prefer to leave it until she comes out again, for now I'd just like to find out what's causing the corrosion, stop it and get it painted. Thought about a tank liner, even got a quote but at £672 it's a bit beyond my budget, probably go down the two pack route once I get the welding done. There's no copper in the tank, only other metal is the brass filler cap but that's not actually in the water. My first thoughts as well but there's nothing in there, I did wonder about a current flow through the water pipes, the outlet is on the worst side, then I'm thinking should I bond the negative or not, don't think it is at the moment but there's loads of different views on that!! I'll have to do some checking with a multi meter. Anyway thanks guys for your input, it's all welcome.

Got an integral water tank on my narrowboat, nothing strange in that it's been about 6 years since I last painted it so decided I'd better have a look and probably do it again, when I got in there (nice big hatch) and cleared away the rust deposits I found quiet a bit of corrosion and about 6 x 2mm to 3mm deep pits on the port side plate along with shallower pitting to the bottom plate, particularly in the corners, the metal looked like it had been cleaned with acid! I'm not sure what's caused this, no AC just 12volt, has anyone seen corrosion like this before or got an idea as to the cause, I want to stop it getting any worse. As a side note the boat has just been out for blacking and new anodes and there was no sign of pitting to the hull, in fact it looked very good for it's 13 years. Thanks.

That's interesting almost the same scenario except my gearbox has done 3600 hours so gears should be bedded in lol, I do wonder though if the old plate wasn't doing it's job i.e. allowing the gears to rattle a little even at speed and now with the high deflection plate the gears are in constant mesh, hence the whine, a long shot but having changed the oil back to 15-40 I think I'll run it a while and see, you never know. Thanks.

Got in touch with PRM Monday but the lady I spoke to just told me to call Lancing Marine, spoke to Mark who seemed quiet knowledgeable but at the end of the day all he said was "it's got to be the drive plate, that's the only thing you've changed" well not exactly as the oil was changed to ATF, so still no closer. I'm going to change the oil again for something like 15-40 and see if that helps, the box has been run on engine oil for 12 years with no adverse effects so can't see a problem, I don't think it will cure it straight away but if it quietens it down it'll be better. Another ex Isuzu dealer I spoke to suggested changing the oil as well, he also said he thought the whine was preferable to the gears clattering as that could do more damage. Right, off to the boat.

Well in my case the High Deflection plate has totally eliminated the gearbox chatter, I just need to get to the bottom of this whining and I've cracked it!

Hi Simon, Seems you have experienced similar problems to myself with the 3 cylinder engine, they're not very well balanced as a rule, I've been through 3 sets of engine mounts in 12 years but back to the gearbox/drive plate, you say you had a medium plate fitted, was this the Hammer Head with 9 deg. of deflection, when I spoke to R & D that one wasn't mentioned.

We had the stiff (standard loop) plate on before this one and had a lot of gearbox chatter, what engine/gearbox do you run in Bulrush and do you have any such problems. Cheers.

Thrust bearing on the Aquadrive sounds fine, it's certainly a mystery. Hi sbillis, I'm not sure they do either, may give them a call on Monday, R&D certainly do, I'd already spoken to them and they recommended a high deflection.

Doesn't seem to whine in neutral and I have a Aquadrive fitted so no misalignment problems and no thrust to the gearbox.

Hi bizzard, the drive plate fits in a register on the flywheel and the gearbox is bolted to the bell housing end plate so everything should be in line, also the high deflection centre plate moves easily. Thanks bigste, I was thinking that too, if I hadn't changed the oil and it whined after fitting the drive plate then I wouldn't be thinking oil at all but......

Hi All, Wonder if anyone can help me with this, PRM80 gearbox whining in forward and reverse, attached to a Isuzu three cylinder 3LB1. The story so far! Had a lot of gear rattle at low speeds, suspected drive plate deterioration so ordered a high deflection R&D. also clutch was slipping on first use, fine once oil warmed up, decided to change the oil to see if that would help, I'd always used engine oil as per the manual but discovered that PRM now advise using ATF so that's what I used, ATF seemed to help a little and we cruised on for another day and a half to pick up the drive plate, I changed the drive plate (on the cut) dropped her into gear and the whine started, first thought was drive plate tight and maybe it would wear in so we headed home, however five days later and the whining was still there. Once home I decided to remove the gearbox and check it out, I've changed the clutch cone, the input and output bearings (although they seemed fine, as did everything else in there) The gearbox is now back on and still whining! I'm sure it's the box as I can hear it with a sound stick but why would changing the drive plate cause the gearbox to whine? or is it the ATF? I've thought about putting the old drive plate back on but to be honest I'm sure it's not that making the noise, it's the box, I know that straight cut gears (as fitted in the PRM80) can whine but they never have before, well only slightly at high engine speeds on the river but nothing like this, anybody have any ideas because I'm stumped. Thanks.

I read about this and it looks interesting, they say it sticks really well, I may give it a go also.

18 miles a year is continuous cruising, what a joke!

"Why should boaters be allowed to fish from their boat anywhere they want? I can't see the logic." Me neither.

I've used 'Paramo' for years now, not the cheapest but very good, a bit warm in summer rain but great in winter, had my waterproof coat for about 18 years and still going strong and that's Lake District walking as well as boating, highly recommend.

I'm with you on this, couldn't agree more.

You make a very valid point IMO.

(I guess another dimension to this is that compliant, law-abiding boaters who stump up large sums of money like this for a home mooring in order to comply with the rules, get jerky when they see other boaters flout those rules and save themselves those same large sums of money) Too right, apart from the cost of the boat itself mooring fees are the biggest outlay, lets all give up our home moorings and join the throng, how long would C&RT and the canals last then.....ther's always people who are prepared to bend/break the rules or just totally ignore them and you'll not change that/them.

Some pictures of Torksey today, quality not that good as taken on mobile phone, level well up and the Trent's even worse, lets hope it stops raining.

Thanks guys I'll ring and see if I can get in, try Paul Barber first I think, closer!

Hi All, I'm sure this type of post has been up before but hay ho, looking for recommendations of places to get boat blacked, moored at Totksey Lock, Lincs. but will be on the cut next spring/summer so anywhere around the midlands area would be OK if we could stay on board, obviously looking for good value as well, thanks in advance.

Update; Been at this all afternoon, checked flow from outlet side of pump (useless) connected hose to inlet side which was fed from a bucket, bingo good flow so it had to be the pipe from the tank to the pump, removed the stop tap (bit tricky with half a tank of water) tried again still poor flow, only thing left was tank connection, would take a month to empty using the Shurflo so had to remove water filler complete (three screws) so I could get the pipe in from a 240v water pump, pumped out most of the water then finished off slowly with the Shurflo, disconnected the pipework and spent a hour mopping up remnents still dripping from tank outlet, when it had finally stopped I checked the outlet and it was almost blocked, it's a steel tank and the builder has welded a steel pipe in for the outlet, guess over the boats 8 years the inside of the pipe has rusted and blocked it up, anyway got it cleaned out and reconnected the pipework, put some water in and tried the pump, gooood flow now even with the stop tap in place, brill, all I've got to do now is put everything back, tidy up and fill the tank, oh and check for leaks (very important)hope this will help others with an integral tank if suffering from poor water flow, sorry Shurflo I take it all back!!