Tony Brooks

As a routine test of coolant hoses (not exhaust hoses or spiral reinforced hoses) check the ends where they extend beyond the clips. This is where perishing often first becomes visible. Then squeeze the hose somewhere away from the ends. It should just squeeze in a bit with no or little resistance. if it crunches then it tells you that the inner layer(s) have perished, so the hose will need changing very soon. To get the "feel" try it on sevearl hoses.

The engine number says it is an LPW4 Google says the LPW3 fuel lift pump is NOT an electric one and has a priming lever, so as I said turning the ignition on will do nothing. This is the wrong way round, it is return from the engine to the tank. This one does not need bleeding as such because any air in it will be pushed into the tank by fuel flow once the Engin is running, there it will simply disperse. This bit is correct, but to get it to make the fuel flow into the filter you need to pump the priming lever on the lift pump. If the lever feels as it it has a lot of slack an dnot much pumping action turn the engine by about one turn, because the slack means the internal pump lever is sitting on the back of the eccentric on the cam. Once air free fuel flows out - prime for at least 30 seconds once you think all the air is out in case there is a bubble in the pipe work. Tighten the bolt. On that engien if you then try to start it there is every chnace it will, it may well start and then shake about a bit whileany air that has got inot the high pressure injection system clears. If it stops spin on the the starter in 30 second bursts a few times. On other engiens and this one if you want to, rather that trying to start it right away, after bleeding the filter you can loosen (about half to one turn) the big nuts on the injector pipes at the injector end and spin on the starter. When fuel drips or spts from the loose unions tighten them and it should start.

First of all Google does not recognise Lister Petter PW4A48, but returns hits for an LPWx where x is the number of cylinders. Google also shows LPW lift pump as mechanical, so turning the ignition on will do nothing to help bleeding. I think that you need to clarify exactly what engine you have, you also need to clarify if you have a mechanical or electrical lift pump. If you don't know, then post photos of your engine showing both SIDES so we can identify the lift pump and advise. Bleeding engines is not usually particular difficult, and those Lister engines seem to bleed automatically, but I would not do that if the lift pump has a priming lever. I think we await the clarifications.

Please explain why the quote of the question means he did not want information about spare hoses.

Thanks, but no thanks. I lost too much work with encrypted hard drives when they or the computer crashed, so I avoid encryption if at all possible. Anyway, my time and hence the site's days are numbered. (nothing bad at present, just old age) To be honest, in a number of respects the site is out of date and needs a fair bit of revision, with some stuff like CAN bus and lithium battery system where I don't have sufficient experience or knowledge. I can no longer summon up much enthusiasm, not helped by the way a few posters here treat my best efforts to help others. I have to ensure my wife/children will not be left with trying to close the site down when the time comes, so I must eventually shut it down while I am still able.

The tractor moulded hoses are very likely to be specific to the tractor, but you might be lucky enough to find a car spares place (not Halfords) who will try to match them up. Also, hoses to and from the skin tank and calorifier will NOT be Beta or JD parts, so a decent chandler should stock them by the metre. Filters and fan bets should be available on-line or from car spares places, as long as you have the filter number. they c n be cross-referenced to another filter/belt manufacturer.

FWIW, I was told yesterday that Chrome flagged my website as unsafe. How the blankity blank can a text website with absolutely no way of interacting with it, apart from browsing, can be "unsafe" is beyond me. Especially as Chrome is Google, who in my view are one of the biggest exploiters of individuals privacy on this planet. I am sure it is the vested interests trying to force every site to be HTTPS, rather than HTTP. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might conclude Google are flagging it as dangerous because it does not carry their adverts. Firefox makes it relatively easy to set an exception, so it does not flag HTTP "dangerous site" messages once set. If Chrome wants to play silly beggars than as far as I am concerned I will save myself about £200 a year in hosting and domain fees and delete the site. Thanks to our member, who I think is @Redhawk106, who contacted me and kindly offered to sort it out, but I am too old to jump through hoops imposed by third parties like Google and other browser vendors.

I can see some benefit if it is a totally separate system from the domestic water system. It could be used for toilet flushing, general cleaning and cloths washing provided it was got very hot first. It would save a little tank filling, but as for cooking, drinking and washing up, I think it is asking for health problems. I would remind the OP that many years ago Thames Water was reported to have done checks in domestic properties, and they found that those with plumbed in water filters had worse quality water than those without because of nasties build p in the filter and the filters not being changed frequently enough. I also know what I found when I removed one of the ceramic filter drinking water taps when we bought our boat - lucky SWMBO did not see it. If the OP is intent on using canal water for general use that he investigates ultraviolet sterilization, but dread to think about the electrical demands.

The flow can be reduced the next time the boat is out of the water by cutting two or three discs of rubber with a hole in the centre to fit around the rudder stock. Then cut through, one side to the centre and slide them around the stock above the blade with the slots 180 to 120 degrees apart. Push them up against the swim plate. However, as David says, not uncommon and nor really a problem. Not if the tube has been properly welded to the plate work under the bearing housing. I would be more concerned about how well the housing mounting bolts are sealed in the tank top.