crossley

They'd have got away with it wasn't for them meddling kids.. Scooby doo. Don't know how they would have got it past Lloyds surveyors though, every pressure vessel,engine,shaft,propeller,boilers etc are stamped with a unique Lloyds register number and held on the Lloyds insurance register. It was part of my job at Crossley engines to hydraulic test new marine parts witnessed by the Lloyds surveyor who would then stamp them with a unique number and put them on The register. In case of wreck, or a failure leading to claim, no Lloyds stamp, no pay out. They would literally have had to erase and re stamp everything on the ship's register. Rather like saying they filmed the moon landings at area 51. Too big too cover up. They'd have got away with it wasn't for them meddling kids.. Scooby doo. Don't know how they would have got it past Lloyds surveyors though, every pressure vessel,engine,shaft,propeller,boilers etc are stamped with a unique Lloyds register number and held on the Lloyds insurance register. It was part of my job at Crossley engines to hydraulic test new marine parts witnessed by the Lloyds surveyor who would then stamp them with a unique number and put them on The register. In case of wreck, or a failure leading to claim, no Lloyds stamp, no pay out. They would literally have had to erase and re stamp everything on the ship's register. Rather like saying they filmed the moon landings at area 51. Too big too cover up. Now I know how you double post. Now I know how you double post.

Tested three of the batteries now as described above. Worst was 17%,best 30% of the original capacity. Ironically the best performer upto now is the one with the bulging ends. Best price upto now for 4off Trojan l16p is £250 each if I collect. Looking at second hand traction cells too.

The battery box had some acid in it too,so something was leaking.some of the cases were bulging also. Rather fancy ripping it all out now and making a nice new battery box out of phenolic ply. I like the look of those tall Trojan l16 batteries,they would take up less floor space too. Really need to get some solar panels though before I get expensive new batteries, no shore supply,it's either run the main engine,or the genny and battery charger. Or I could get a hand start engine and a few oil lamps..

Yes, I've got my battery head on this evening, have been noticing a distinct lack of battery power and the need for more frequent charging for some time now. I'm running 6 alphaline dc31mf deep cycle batteries in 3 pairs on 24v. They came with the boat and are just over 6 years old. Anyway, I took them home and am testing them one at a time, by fully charging them, then discharging them through a known load,8 amps in my case, and noting the voltage and current every half hour. Today's victim only managed 3 hours, down to 10.5V on load of 7.6A. Adding together all the readings I get 268 watt hours,or 22.35 A/hrs. A long way down on the supposed 125 A/hrs capacity. Yes, I know I'm slightly over the c/20 discharge current,which works out at 6.25A. Is there any easier or quicker way to determine the capacity of These batteries? Tomorrows victim is on trickle charge overnight,ready for testing tomorrow. It's not even loading up the charger as it should,with only a couple of amps on its showing 15v across it. Not looking promising is it?

I was working in H&W Belfast for 6 months last year doing a refit on a drilling rig. Both the rig and the yard belong to fred Olsen now.there is no machining facilities on site, cook bros bought all the machines years ago, they have the big innocenti cwb floor borer that did the big slow speed two stroke crankcases there, that's a massive machine! We had two smaller ones at Crossley engines doing pielstick crankcases. The yard is in loyalist south Belfast,and they very much think of themselves as British. As regards big lathes, craven bros in reddish built some of the biggest, We were working in Devonport naval base, and went to look at a craven break bed lathe that is in it's own bay its that big, made in the 1950s for warship tailshafts, it must be 100 ft between centres,and 12 ft swing. If I remember it was double ended with headstock at each end, or could be used as two shorter lathes with two removable tailstocks on the same bed. I always wanted to work at cravens, and did three years of my apprenticeship in what was cravens on Greg street when Churchill's had a heavy machining bay there. I was a planing machine operator, but being an apprentice at the time got all the crappy boring jobs. The machine I usually worked did waste fuel boxes for bnfl,the flasks they put spent nuclear fuel rods in to transport on trains,basically a finned stainless steel box about the size of a large van. I did hundreds of the bloody things! Google craven bros reddish to see some really big machine tools.

I've just had a sterling inverter go on me too. Went dead short and blew it's internal fuse. Only a small 350W 24 volt sine wave type, they don't seem to like reactive loads either.that's the second one now. I was using it on a central heating pump, as 24v brushless pumps are so expensive. The expensive inverters don't offer better warranties than cheaper ones either as I discovered recently.

The cutting in speed of alternators do rise a little as they warm up. You maybe just on the cusp, so a few more revs are needed once it's warmed up. Mine does it too, to small extent.if it's been stood over winter too, there may be a bad connection somewhere.

It really depends on what your existing starter motor and alternator are wound for.I'd go with them. I don't think you can get small 24v starters to suit the smaller engines either. 24v does give you more "headroom" as it were, and generally any small losses in cabling and switches etc aren't so troublesome at 24v. 24v pumps,motors,fans etc are generally of better quality too, as they are made for hgv/psv applications and heavier duty.plus you can get some really big 24v alternators off busses that really whack the amps in for next to nowt. A simple low current system on a shorter boat could benefit from being 12v,and be perfectly satisfactory, but a full length boat with plenty of heavy consumers would be better off on 24volts. 12 volts for convenience and easily sourced car/van derived spares. 24 volts for heavy consumers. Trucks and busses' went to 24volts when the "heavy oil engine" came available in the 1930s, to start a stone cold 12 litre diesel on a frosty morning takes some doing!

The clue is in your earlier post about the exhaust sounding louder than usual, this being the engine struggling to get enough fuel to maintain the desired speed, some cylinders working harder than others. Once you've proven the pump has everything it needs to function but won't, then look to the pump. The brown slime is a concern, how is it getting past the filters? The back leakage from the injectors should be gradually washing anything untoward back down the return line.did you crack open the return line at the filter head whilst running? Did anything come out? Any difference? We were all just trying to eliminate possibilities before removing the pump unnecessarily. Let us know the outcome.

Check the return line back to the tank, that's caught me out many times, air cannot escape and builds up it the filter and pump causing erratic running. On some filter heads there is a little spring loaded valve in the return line,look at that also. Check the engine stop control too. Think logically and prove things one stage at a time before condemning the injection pump.

I have a tin of Radcliffe's oil based scumble in light oak, it says use with number 2 undercoat, which I take to be chrome buff no.2. Can get this mixed locally but can't find the RAL number or an equivalent name for it. Any ideas?

Sorted the inverter problem hopefully. It's bolted down flat to a panel thus blocking off the air flow through the slots in the back. The fan couldn't suck enough air through. Ran it with the top off earlier on and it coped with the immersion heater load ok. Will have to cut a hole on the panel for it to breathe through. Not obvious really, so if you've got a durite inverter, don't bolt it down flat as they breath through the base plate, not the ends.

It could be upto 12 years old now, it came with the boat. That's what I thought too. A protection device that's supposed to protect the inverter but fails in itself, in the process writing off the unit isn't much use. Might as well not be there. Durite is supposed to be good stuff,it's expensive enough. They don't deem it worth repair. Just box shifters now I suppose. Might as well go with those famous three words MADE IN CHINA if that's all the product support you get from a supposedly quality product.

I have a durite 24v modified sine wave inverter which keeps tripping on over temp, even on moderate loads. The airways are clear,the fans run and the unit gets barely warm before shutdown. It's as though the temp sensor is too sensitive. Spoke to durite tech support today, who said it's not unknown for the protection chip to have been damaged by a voltage spike,in which case the unit is beyond economic repair. Seems a bit daft using a so called protection circuit that fails rendering the whole unit unserviceable. May be lucky if it's the thermistor on the heatsink, but the fans are starting and stopping ok. Any idea's ?

About 5 years ago I got a call from work to go to orskov shipyard in frederickshaven north Denmark.an offshore standby boat, the Grampian frontier, had got a mooring rope caught between the propeller hub and the p bracket. It wound the rope around the shaft, acted like a screw thread and literally pulled the tailshaft and shaftline back and burst the gearbox casing,pulled the output shaft and thrust blocks through the back of the reduction gear casing.it stopped the engine dead. It was an insurance job, a new gearbox, shaftline repairs,etc.I was there to check over the main engine and change main and big end bearings at the insurance companies insistance. The final bill was over a million pounds. It happened again a few years later to the same vessel and is not uncommon in the north sea. Maybe it didn't have rope guards on the shafts, I can't remember now. I've been lucky upto now with my boat, not had a serious propeller foul as yet, only the usual plastic bags and leaves. It seems to munch its way through most smaller things and spits out bits of wood and twigs. I await a serious jam up with some trepidation!

Someone's nicked the water again. Was up at the boat earlier today to do a bit of painting, and found that I'm, firmly on the bottom, with the uxter plate now 2" out of the water. Got a bit of a list to port too. Good job I,m not going anywhere soon. Couldn't move it if I wanted to now. We were afloat on Thursday. Anyone else noticed the level had dropped?

There's a growing community of boats moored long term at the back of adamsons in Hyde, and the new marina in Droylsden.

That looks like a fatigue failure to me. The white metal has broken away from the tinned layer beneath, local overloading or poorly bonded spot in the white metal. Are there any signs of fretting on the back of the shell? Check the big end bore for ovality as bearings that are flexing in their housings break up like this. Mic up the crankpin too. Colehearne's in Manchester do white metalling but expensive. Trick Is to re- metal the bearing and machine it without distorting the outer shell in any way. Not easy. There's an engine parts house in Shrewsbury I'd try they *might just* have them Thorntons I think there called.

Ah, that may explain it a little,if the level was low. it was dusk going on dark when we bumped and scraped our way up on Thurs evening. Have been away on the T&M since October and got quite used to that. The peak forest is our home canal as it were, and we obviously have travelled it numerous times with but little occasional difficulty, and know it well. but that last trip on Thurs evening was the worst passage we've ever had. I was trying to think how the canal could have deteriorated so much in the 3 months or so we've been away. Maybe the level is low to minimise water loss till they fix the leaks. Aren't they meant to be injecting expanding foam or something into the leaks over this winter? It still needs dredging though. It'll take more than another zero on my license fee if we have another major breach for want of regular inspection and maintaince, like the one at disley. We went to see that, it was something Of an attraction at the time. Early 1970s? The railway, the A6,and the canal all have slips around there from Time to time, being on a hillside. Whose is that sunken boat by swizzles? Looks salvageable but I wouldn't like to foot the bill for refloating it.

Or we could have had a handraulic lift bridge and spent the change on some spot dredging instead. I'm 30" or thereabouts draught too, and get by by keeping to the mid channel. But it doesn't alter the fact that the canal requires regular dredging like any other canal, and it ain't really happening is it. Saw some new piling work though near disley, but why do they dump the spoil in the canal?

A stitch in time comes to mind. A bit of timely maintaince or it'll be closed for extended periods in a few years. Its like running a car into the ground then completely rebuilding it every 5 years at great expense, When a little regular tlc would obviate the major re builds. I'm sure it wasn't built like that. It looks like a forgotten waterway, we could have campaign cruises in high summer and things like that.the coal boat makes it up, and the trip boat runs, so that's good enough for the authorities. We have got a super new motorised lift bridge though,be nice if it was remote control by a key fob!all we need now is a bit of water under it.

Just returned to my home mooring at Furness vale, from alrewas. Had a lovely trip,with a little ice breaking here&there, set a cracking pace on the T@M @ macc canal till we got to high lane, from then on to marple junction is badly silted,in places, but the upper peak forest section to Furness vale is dreadful. When was it last dredged? An analogy would be comparing a motorway to an unmade road. On the T&M we were able to cruise at 900to 1300 rpm for miles without causing a breaking, or indeed much wash at all,at a good stiff walking speed.by way of comparison, On the peak forest we ran at idle, 450 rpm most of the way,and still caused wash at a slow walking speed. I'd forgotten how bad it was. It's getting to be barely navigable now for deeper drafted boats, but still navigable with care. It's in dire need of maintaince, never mind spending money on silly sculptures and tat like that,while the system crumbles away. Dredging is what we need, and more of it!

Danfoss make nice fully adjustable pressure and temperature switches,look in RS for something suitable or try ebay.just make sure you get the right operating range, say 0 to 4 bar press and 50 to 120*c would meet your needs. Your still going to need another connection into the lube oil pipework to actuate the pressure switch, and a probe pocket in the jacket water outlet somewhere for the temp switch bulb.don't mount pressure or temp switches directly on the engine, vibration plays havoc with delicate switching mechanisms. Mount them on a bulkhead nearby, and use flexible pipes to connect them up. Temp switches will have a length of capillary tube with a bulb on the end. There are other cheaper options like car radiator fan switches, but these Are non- adjustable.

Yes, I know what you mean, it's turned into something of a fetish for some, agonizing over the minutiae of battery charging.though the cost of some of these enormous battery banks must be eyewatering. I'd worry too if I had a couple of grand in batteries slowly sulphating in a Marina somewhere. I lost an old family friend earlier this year who worked for Oldham batteries in Denton for many years. His job was to go round all the mines in the UK looking after the battery electric underground loco's And miner's cap lamps. He was a mine of info on batteries, used to call the acid gravy for some strange reason. Nobody bought batteries back then, I think half of Stockport had knocked off Oldham batteries on their cars. They made special military tank batteries that were perfectly square in shape, about 14" square for challenger tanks. I had one in a Landover for years, bloody thing wouldn't die! Sold it with the rover eventually. He didn't muck about mollycoddling batteries either. But then again he wasn't paying for them. Were batteries better in the good old days? We had dynamos on cars when I was a nipper, everyone seemed to have flat batteries in winter time. My dad bought one of those oxford oil cooled welders that was also a battery charger. You could start a dead flat car off the bloody thing. I literally boiled a battery dry with it as a nipper. Tried to trickle charge it overnight at about 90 amps then wondered where all the acid had gone in the morning. Still got one under the bench in the shed.