Tony Brooks

No you said I quote "cover it in oil". It was The Biscuits who borrow their mates and agrees with you but you said you would cover yours in oil - as you said "end of debate" as you do not seem to know what you wrote. Especially as you now claim you would not cover it is oil for cleaning the BILGE

If you imaging the gearbox off the engine. At the front it has a splined input shaft. At the back it has an output shaft with the coupling on it. If you look at the two shafts are yours in-line (judge by the centre of the flywheel housing) or is the output shaft and coupling lower than the input shaft. Now, I have never seen a PRM hydraulic box that is not a dropped shaft one but I can not say in-line ones do note exist. If yours is in-line (not dropped) then a gearbox change may put the shaft in line.

Not sure how to tell if its correct. The OP may very well have a reduction box on the end of the gearbox but I thought they all used the same oil. If it is separate then there is a good chance the dipsticks have been transposed Lister style.

In that case why did you talk about covering your mates W&D vacuum cleaner in oil. My rear bilge and engine tray are assimilate to yours but the difference is I never said anything about using a W&D cleaner in the drip tray. I said use bilge blankets to absorb the oil and the nappies to remove the water although sponging is just as effective. Seems to me its you who does not read or comprehend properly. If you did you will understand we basically are saying the same thing only you clarified your assertion that you will make your mates vacuum cleaner oily.

Yes. Velvetdrive dip sticks are on the end of what looks like an iron plumbers male blanking plug with a square to put the spanner on. I did not ask you if the oil was red, I asked if it was punk and that indicatives water contamination. Not sure how you can be so sure the oil cooler core is not leaking because that would not show on the outside but would show as pink (not red) oil or pinky oil in the engine header tank.

Is the gearbox oil cooler connected and properly cooled with cool water flow? Never heard of this before but if its raw water cooled heat exchanger on the pressure side of the pump has the oil gone pink. If so then maybe the oil cooler is holed. Overfilling so the oil aerates might cause then but you say the level is correct. The thing I can't remember is if the level is with the plug screwed in or just lodged on the top of the hole.

I am probably being thick but what is wrong with a sheet of aluminium or steel and a selection of metal hole saws, drills and files? You will have to do the layout to give to another company whatever you do so doing it direct to the metal sheet is no more work. Once you check everything fits as it should you can paint it or maybe even vinyl wrap it. On the hire fleet we used Formica glued to plywood for the instrument panels and did all the hoes ourselves..

Apart from the Aquadrive & Python Drive Zero mm radial displacement and angular displacement of about 2 degrees Max.

If this is a hand held ammeter and NOT a clamp on the wire type then my advice is don't use it because it is all too easy to wreck the meter. In fact I see plenty of multimeters with non-functioning 10 or 20 amp scales simply because of user error in connecting them. Volt meters are fine, very hard to damage. Ammeters far too easy unless they are clamp types and I doubt most cheaper clamp types would make much of a job measuring the output of a 65 watt panel.

This is really for new boaters reading this topic. Then yours is either a very badly maintained boat or you are trying to clear out a badly looked after engine drip tray. The contents of the bilge and engine tray should never meet and if by some chance they do then any oil in the bilge needs sorting. You can not avoid some oil and fuel getting into the engine drip tray when servicing or form minor leaks so a white oil absorbent bilge blanket put into the drip tray and changed after every service will absorb any oil and fuel. They will not normally absorb water so I deal with any coolant leaks with a disposable nappy. If you follow this advice on the majority of boats the engine drip tray will remain clean and only a bit damp - usually damp with an oil film. If the bilge is oily the roll up a bilge blanket and put into the bilge. I put one on each side of the engine beds as far back as i can. After a couple of weeks they will have absorbed most of the oil so the bilge water is clean enough to pump to the canal or spread along the hedge line. Bilge blankets are cheap enough online under oil absorbent pads. As for noise my old Electrolux W&D had the bilge dry ans sucked all the crap out like dead leaves (cruiser stern) in two sessions each of no more than a minute long.

This all makes far more sense now. Both items you mention are advanced alternator controllers that are supposed to enhance the charge, one on each alternator. The alternators needed a slight modification to fit them but it is of little consequence apart from when you need to fit a new alternator. One an the domestic alternator is common but the engine battery (start battery) alternator really does not need one because the engine battery will be all but fully charged well within an hour of starting. The fact you have one for both alternators makes me wonder if the engine battery alternator is charging more then the engine battery but if it is then some form of charge splitting or combining is required. Don't worry about this at present but if you can get your hands on a multimeter set to DC volts carry out the voltage checks I asked for ages ago. As long as the engine running voltages are about one volt or more higher than the engine off & batteries rested voltages all should be fine so you are ready to start your trip. If you find your domestic batteries get very discharged over night to the point of lamps dimming after a day's running or if they start to get hot or smell they have probably had it Have a good trip.

I buy from Solar Universe an so far no complaints. At the budget end of their range.

Budget or best?

65 Watts so say about 2.5 amps max. in high summer. There is no way I would want my batteries charged at 2.5 amps and when well charged at up to over 20 volts for hours on end. In my view you need a solar controller as well. A 10 amp one will do for now but if you intend to add panels a 20 amp one will give you capacity when you do. An MPPT controller is usually considered to be the best choice and there are advantages but a PWM one will be cheaper for now. Connections: Pos and neg wires from panel to controller. Pos & neg wires from controller to the battery with whichever side has the battery master switch on it connected to the BATTERY side of the switch PLUS a fuse as close as is reasonably possible to the battery in the positive lead. For convenience to save covering the panel or disconnection it from the controller you may wish to fit a switch in the panel to controller cable.. It might be OK with a very small panel that is not much more than a maintainer to cover self discharge but not with 65 watts or even 40 watts in my view.

That's an excellent point. I think it may not and if it will it may be so close to the bed there is a good chance of vibration noise where it bangs on the bed.