hider

I am heartily sick of watching him stop and start that noisy old Lister.

You have a leak, are using water somewhere, you have just not found where yet. Check the PRV on the calorifier.

Steve Williams, Middlewich based.

At the north end of Harecastle tunnel there are showers and at the south end there is water and a shop selling ices, drinks etc.

A 3mm or 3.5mm drill is too small the clean out the heater plug hole, it needs to be 11/64" When did the water start coming out? Before you cleaned the hole, or after you vacuumed, or when you turned the engine over with the plugs out? I think you vacuuming could have pulled raw water in through an open exhaust valve. Can you not close a valve to prevent raw water entering via the cooling system? You will have to leave that plug out whilst you turn the engine over to get rid of all the water before you try to start the engine else you will lock it up and do damage.

I would pack the assembly with silicon grease and grease the ball regularly to make it last longer.

Much too overpriced for a '77 boat with 6mm baseplate and value considerably reduced by over-plating of unknown quality. Its very old and by narrowboat standards a thin hull with severe problems. I would never buy an over-plated hull. You will do much better elsewhere, run away from it at any price.

No, straight B series OHV 4 cylinder in various capacities and stages of tune. Twin cam was a different model.

1.5D was made in India and the 1.8D in Turkey. I suspect that production may well have ceased. India used the engines in the Ambassador cars which were based on the old pre Farina Morris Oxford.

As I understand it, there is a set shut down voltage which is programmable with the custom cable and software. The marine problem is exacerbated by the volt drop on longer cables in a boat than in a vehicle.

Socket tester? Does the same tester trip the shore line? if so I doubt that there is an RCD on the inverter.

It is possible that the RCD you have is only on the shore line and that there is no RCD on the inverter or the travelpower. A Bad idea if so. Inspecting how it is wired will be the only way to be certain.

How many RCDs do you have? Does it trip out on inverter as well as shore? Is there a earth bond to the hull immediately after the external shore socket but on a separate bolt from the battery negative cable? Or is there a galvanic isolator before the earth to the hull?

I doubt its an rcd as I cannot see a test button. Not an rcbo either. Looks to be a double pole isolator switch or a double pole mcb.

How do you eventually get the engine started in the morning?

Bedford St staircase is on the Cauldon canal not the T&M, which way are you going?

Its a surface cooler, not essential if you are not running at high power. It is a self contained cooler box so no need to blank off if you are not connecting it to the water circuit.

If it still drips too much ( one or two a minute is acceptable ) nip the 2 nuts ( there are lock nuts on them ) up a bit to put the pusher into the tube a little but not so that the shaft goes tighter to turn.

I know this land on the Tame Valley canal well. There is no access from the road which runs through the industrial estate. There was at one time, in the top corner from the car park used by the unit selling coffee machines further up the canal. That is how all the junk got there. The seller is a Cypriote gent who owns (?) the food factory in the bottom of the picture from where he supplies the electricity and water I think. He uses a tiny GRP boat to get to the land, there is no other access other than by water! The story is that there was a falling out between the two unit users, the coffee guy fenced the access from the car park off. The noise from the motorway is never ending of course. As is the vehicle traffic to the various industrial sites. All rights to the supposed end of garden mooring cease upon the change of ownership under CRT rules so there will be no rights to the buyer. CRT may allow a new application but I would think that most of the bank would have to be leased from CRT, as it is likely to be their maintenance strip, as a garden ground as well as any mooring fees. How the buyer would get rid of all the rubbish, scrap vehicles, caravan and junk by water only is another matter!

The easy way to find where the under pressure leak is to divide the pipework into sections by isolating parts. For example, isolate the hot water system from the cold as a start. If the leak stops, it is in the hot system. Then divide that part by fitting an isolation valve in the middle. As a first check though, check where the PRV for the calorifier discharges. If it is not overboard, or in the engine bilge area, it could be your problem drip.

The starting instructions in the BMC and Leyland books do say full throttle on starting. Whether this is to ensure full fuel or just to get maximum compression is debatable. If you can compression test the cylinders It may give you a clue to the poor starting. A diesel will start if you give it fuel, turn it over fast enough and has good compressions. I know of one engine that has compression pressures of over 400psi which starts instantly from cold at tick-over with no heater plugs and no accelerator set. If the compression is low due to bores/pistons/rings or the cranking speed is low due to low battery/poor connections/starter motor then you will have problems starting especially in cold weather. Heating the air going into the inlet manifold with a blowlamp greatly aids cold starts. Better than spraying ether in.

I think you will find that its a long series 11/64" drill. A 4.5mm will probably do but is a little bigger.

Incredible. The question, if that is what it is, makes no sense. Commiserations to the OP as he obviously would benefit from therapy.

The studs or machine screws that fasten the Centaflex M4 to the gearbox output flange are known to tear out. Best is to get an engineering shop to bore them out bigger, thread the holes deep and get 4 stepped studs made up that fit the new threads and the holes in the flange. Fit the nuts and studs into the coupling with Loktite. Using Helicoils seems not to work, they rip out again. New M4 coupling is around £400. Measure the shaft carefully, it could be metric or imperial and it matters. The coupling is held on the prop shaft with a tapered collet which is bolted on the output of the coupling with 4 or 6 bolts depending on model. Remove these and screw one of them or a longer one into the hole that did not have a bolt in and it will release the taper collet from the coupling.

Shirwin-Williams epoxy doesn't seem to go very grey even after several years. It certainly lasts well, never had any peel off. Dad put me on to it years ago and I have been very pleased with it. Its not expensive either if you can collect from Bolton.