BEngo

What are you wanting the Wakespeed to do? If it is to control the alternator for lithium battery charging you need to disable the existing regulator. How you do that depends on exactly what sort of alternator it is. If it is to control the charging of lead acid batteries it can be fitted in parallel with the existing regulator. Again exactly how you do that depends on the model of alternator. N .

A drop a second is not unreasonable for an original springer stern tube, when going along. It should cease when the prop shaft is still. It is OK provided it ceases when the prop is still and the tube well greased, but you will need to check it frequently. Worth purging the grease pipe if it is full of old grease. Turn the greaser down hard. Disconnect the grease pipe from the stern bearing. Wind the greaser down till fresh grease appears at the pipe end. The greaser should turn easily. Reconnect grease pipe. This also proves the pipe is clear and the greater working. The original Springer stern tube packing was a small handful of well tallowed plumbers hemp twisted into a rope that fitted the hole and forced in. You may find proper tallow hard to come by these days🙂. If you undo the nut and slide it forward you can find the size of the gap by poking drills into it until you find one that is too large. You want some packing that is the same size as the largest drill that will fit. N

Check the Ruston and CAV part numbers for the injector bodies, the springs, and the nozzles. If they are all exactly the same then the VSH injectors are good to go in the VRH. If not you need to find bodies, and or springs and or bodies and nozzles or just nozzles, depending on which numbers don't match. The size, number and orientation of the holes in the injector nozzle are of great importance to smooth running, easy starting and longevity of the engine. They also have a big effect on its power output. The injector body positions the injector nozzle in exactly the right place in the combustion space. Finally the spring sets the injection pressure which is important for effective combustion and easy starting. Installing the 'wrong' injectors, nozzles etc.to see what happens is not recommended. It may apparently work, but if, for example, one of the diesel spray jets is wrong and is hitting the cylinder wall there will be rapid wear to the bore ( because the diesel will wash the lubricating oil away) . Other possible problems are localised overheating, burning of the nozzles or valves and carbon build up in th combustion space, the exhaust valves or exhaust passages and bearing trouble. All probably accompanied by clouds of smoke and funny noises. Rustons will have (or maybe someone like Ricardo will have been paid lots to have) spent much time and effort to get the right injection set up. You change it at your peril. N

I wonder if the boaters facilities will survive the redevelopment? N

They appear to be a Northampton based outfit. The Google picture of their HQ does not look to have foundry tendencies, but might be suited to an assembly operation. IMO such would be based on imported cast parts. They describe themselves as stove builders. The first thing the OP needs is an OEM collar. This is pretty important because it involves/ makes the stove to collar joint, which must be CO tight. It might be possible to clone a collar, but it would be wise to have a sound OEM item to be sure that any special features are included in the clone. N

Agree with Tracy. The collar is the cracked bit next to the stove top. You need a new one. The rest is a bodge to fit a small diameter flue. You need a piece ofjoj flue pipe the same outer diameter as the outside diameter of the lodging piece. Seal the collar to the stove as the manufacturer intended. Probably stove rope in a groove. Seal the flue to the collar with stove rope and Envirograf. The roof collar should be like this: https://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/products/ag-cast-iron-roof-collar-for-6-diameter-chimneys-flat-cabin-roof-hc-701-flat?cid=17612310910&adgpid=&itemid=&targid=&mt=&loc=1006739&ntwk=x&dev=m&dmod=&adp=&gclid=CjwKCAjwvfmoBhAwEiwAG2tqzLKVnurfiTMKlnCHjGOHvo9r6w5XUVKaxHrNzcFBKKBA8di4eGN5AxoC200QAvD_BwE I have never heard of a lily king stove. Is it a Chinese device?? N

Immediately on seeing it my thought was "Alvechurch boat". Either ex-hire or built to the hire fleet hull design. The main cause of the rippling looks like cross-winding on entry to narrow locks. The most heavily rippled area is just where the lock mouth would contact an out of line front end, and ther are plenty of abrupt lock entries with vicious cross flows on the W&B where the ABC hire fleet originated together with a few abrupt heads and tails on the Stratford.. N Beaten by Francis!

Yes, definitely set to the pump cut in pressure for greatest benefit. N

You need a collar on the stove, to take the bottom of a flue pipe, which may be straight or cranked, a roof collar that sits on the roof and takes the top of the flue pie inside it and a detachable chimney outside it and a suitable exterior chimney with rain hat ( aka Chinaman's 'at) . Then you need about 2m of stove rope that fits in the gaps between the flue and the collars, a tube of Envirograf high temperature flue sealant and a gun for squirting it. Some masking tape may help with getting a neat finish. The flue pipe will be straight if you can get the roof collar directly over the collar in the flue. Otherwise you will need it to be welded up with a couple of bends. The stove rope wants to be a bit bigger diameter than half the gap between flue and pipe. So for a 4.5 inch outside flue in a 5 inch inside collar you want 7 to 10 mm stove rope. Pack the rope in to the gap firmly and fill the remaining space with Envirograf and tool off neatly. Repeat at a the top. Fire cement is made from the Devils droppings and is wholly unsuited to boats. ( It cracks and is then useless.) N

This is quite common. In His Majesty's war canoes it is known as starved horse effect, (because you can see where the ribs are.) N

Always worth looking at Tracy Tools website for a 2 or 3 mm left hand drill. Used in a battery drill in reverse, these will often catch in the screw and the whole thing comes out. If not, they still make a hole you can enlarge to tapping size. Tracy Tools are also very good for taps and dies, as are The Tap and Die company. N

On the face of it it is simple. However, once you have boxed the heater in (out?) you are no longer able to get at the controls, have gas joints inside the box which in BSS speak are not readily accessible so are a failure point and you will have a right rigmarole of dismantling and reassembly if/when you need to service the heater. The gas inlet pipe will need to be sealed as it enters the box and there also may be electric cables which need to be sealed where they pass through the box walls. Extending the controls through the box to make the thing useable will mean more holes in the box so it is no longer room sealed and are a modification which I doubt is RCD compliant unless the OEM approves it. So, no, it ain't as simple as it looks! N

Have a look at the website of Morris's of Shrewsbury. They will probably have an oil that meets the spec you give, including the API CD element, and they are usually reasonably priced. If not Morris's try Classic Oils ( Bicester) based. N

On the door it does not matter if you go right through. Just trim the new securing screw(s) off level with the door using a Dremel and give the door a coat of HT black. Going right through makes the tapping easier as you can do it from outside to in which is easier for sitting the door down, and you only need a taper tap. Blind holes need at least taper and plug. N

No, no, no. You misunderstand. These are not leaks. They are the continuous corrosion prevention system at work. N

I got mine from Aquafax. They seem from their website to still have them. If you look for the deck wash version it comes sans pressure switch so is cheaper and you can fit a Square D adjustable pressure switch to have a better set up. N

Also get a tube or tin of copper grease and apply liberally to the screws when doing final assembly. You may find it effective to partly grind the heads off the screws. This normally gets them red hot which loosens them and the stub can be unscrewed with a Mole grip. Buy A2 or A4 stainless hex socket cap head replacement screws ( the use an Allen key type) rather than morso standard items. IIRC they are M5 as standard. N

A traditional stern tube is meant to drip. About one drip every 10 seconds is fine. A continuous flow is too much🙂. The water mixes with the grease to leave an oilier substance to lubricate the stern bearing and it cools the packing. To check, run for a while. Then feel the gland follower. It should be no more than warm. If it is hot it is too tight and needs adjusting. Many folks find that a 4 litre ice cream tub or a cut down milk bottle are handy for catching the drips. N

Squirrel door stove rope is, or should be 7 mm. Size matters and 8mm is too big for the hinge side, so it won't close, especially if there has been any rust build up in the groove. You can get away with 6 mm, but you may have to push the locking handle right down to get a proper seal. If you can, take the glass out then needle gun or angle grinder disc brush round the door to stove seal groove. That makes the groove the full depth again. Dont force the door to close. They are surprisingly flexible and ths glass will break, again. N

That is a major hurdle. Canalworld is not a legal entity, so cannot open a bank account among other things we cannot do. We did look at becoming a legal entity and whilst it would be relatively easy to incorporate a Limited Company, that brings a lot of things in train: Returns to Companies House , HMRC paperwork, ( my own limited company had a filing cabinet drawer full of HMRC stuff within a week of incorporation), filed accounts and more. Not worth it. Nor can we easily become a charity or CIO. We just dont tick enough boxes, and again, there is massive additional admin overhead for little gain. N

One of the things you will encounter is leaves. It is the leaf fall season. The Shroppie and stretches of the T&M have lots of trees. The effect of leaves is amazing. Instead of continuing to float and look pretty they form themselves into a ball around your propellor. This makes the engine sound funny and the boat will slow down. When you stop to investigate, all the leaves come away from the prop before you can get the weed hatch lid off and nothing is obviously wrong when you dive the hole. Once you get used to the symptoms the solution is just to shut the throttle, wait two seconds then take it out of gear. Wait 5 seconds and resume normal cruising. This fools the leaves into thinking you are stopping and they all leap off the prop as soon as you take it out of gear. N

Cracks in drawn brass tube are commonly stress corrosion. All sorts of triggers cause failure along the grain boundaries and the remaining stress from drawing the tube does the rest. I have seen a demo where the end inch or so of a piece of drawn brass tube was dipped in a weak ammonia solution. It opened up like a flower for about 6 inches. N

I assume the crack is in the big brass cylinder of the greaser. If not just part replace the bit of pipe which has cracked. If the crack is into the threads at the top or bottom of the cylinder, forget it. Other wise, the crack is full of grease, so brazing or soldering it up directly is likely to be difficult. You could try drilling a hole at either end of the crack, to stop it getting bigger and then brazing or sweating a patch over the outside. Only someone like me would bother. Much easier to buy a new greaser. Any of the chandlers, or take a risk with some online cheapo sold by a bandit. N

How about the Rochdale? I think that large chunks of that are owned by local authorities and maintained under contract by CRT. Not sure when they went into LA ownership and what the route was as the Rochdale Canal Co certainly owned at least part of the canal until the Millenium restoration. Not forgetting the Stratford, which went from BW to NT and back to BW. N