kalees

So... after a frustrating afternoon undoing the wrong bolts on the Centa flex coupling, I undid the 8 that hold the coupling together and not the 4 from the gearbox, who knows what I was thinking!!!! Alignment appears to be spot on but the Stuffing box and nut still appear to be getting hot, not quite sure what else it could be? Regarding the Centa flex coupling, it has taken a lot of bolting back together as there appeared to be surpless rubber around some of the edge so have had to keep going around the blots tightening them up. Will this be an issue in the future, do I need to replace the coupling?

Just a further thought on this, is it possible that the 3rd wrap is too tight because it will still be in the threaded area of the tube where the first 2 are past that point. Dont really want to tighten it right up to push it further in without further advise just in case this damages the packing that I have just fitted and I have no more with me at the moment?

Hi Tony, No cutlass bearing although I could not comment on the others. The noise that we hear, we have heard on other boats coming by so maybe it is just an anoying feature of this set up! Have you had much to do with this make of stern gear, if so, is it possible that it is just an anoying feature? Re the stuffing box, I have just spent the morning replacing the packing myself this time. I used the drill trick to measure and 5/16 is correct so this has been used. I cleaned out all of the old black grease as much as possible and re-packed with 3 wraps of 5/16. I have just run in gear on the ropes for about 20 mins and (in the image) green tube is warm or a liitle more than but the brass nuts I would say are hot. I checked the engine mountings as sugested, bottom nut to top and they seem fine. I have not had a chance to check for further allignment as the engine is now hot and I did not want to change 2 things at once to enable a correct diagnosis. When cleaning out the box there was still no water coming through and I have not seen any while running. When adding the 3rd wrap, I have only taken the brass nut in about 3 threads and the shaft spins freely. Putting my hand down the weed hatch, I do have grease coming out at the prop end of the shaft. Keith.

Hi Steve, It is not harmonic so I am fairly sure that it is not a singing prop. It is more like a squealing bearing.

Thanks Tony, I am now wondering if this could also be the cause of the noise. I will look into checking the alignment

Forgot to mention that I also have grease coming in past the nut, I am guessing that this is due to the grease getting hot and thinning down.

Hi Tony, Regardless fo the adjustment, the shaft spins freely and I do not see any drips which is why I am wondering if it has been too tight and is stuck there. Good point about using drills as a measure, would this still apply on this system given that the packing has to pass the thread in the tube?

Afternoon all, I have 2 issues that I am trying to deal with. Firstly, a noise coming from the stern gland which can only be described as a chirping or squealing, not harmonic. As I was concerned with this, the first suggestion was to repack the stuffing box, so I had this done and this was with packed with 1/4 packing even though the original appeared to be 5/16, I was to that this was used as this style of stern tube was difficult to pack with 5/16, I believe this to be a Roy Willerby stern tube etc. When this work was carried out, the boat was in the water and not one drop of water came into the bilge. As this made no difference, I had the boat slipped and checked over, there was no play in anything, the prop is perfect and when turning the shaft slowly, no sign of any noise or grinding etc. There was not time to draw the shaft as the slip was required and this was just squeezed in for a check. As a suggestion, the stuffing box was repacked with 5/16 but had to be hammered flat to get in. 2nd issue, the stuffing box appears to be running hot, when I say not, I can hold my hand on it after a good run, but only just. I have tried to back off the nut but this does not seem to make any difference. Questions: Has anyone had any experience with this stern gear and had any unusual noises to deal with? Is it possible that the nut has been too tight and despite backing the nut off, the packing is already compressed too much? Appreciate that I am trying to deal with 2 issues at once here but any advice / suggestions would be truly greatfull Keith

All, Just a quick update on this one, new 95 amp alternator fitted with standard regulator fitted. Now run for 3 days and all appears to be fine and back to normal. Again, many thanks for all of the comments, Keith.

Hi Tony, Again, appreciate your advise. I feel that I might just revert to a straight forward replacement alternator and discard the controller, which I believe is now the Beta way, and was already looking into solar given the cost of diesel and the increase in engine hours and servicing costs. Regards Keith.

Hi all, The system seems all over the place, ok one minute and issues the next. I will take you advice Tony and have the alternator tested to see what that shows up. Many thanks for all of your help. Regards Keith

Hi all Just carried out the test and am getting 1.6 volts, just a note that there are no wires on the D+ All was good this morning but during this test domestic ignition light comes on and then goes straight off as soon as I turn the ignition on and just noticed that the volts on the battery monitor are only going up by about .5 but amps are charging at around 10 as we have been unplugged for a while. Keith.

Hi Tony, Really appreciate your efforts, the controller is switched on via a relay and appears to be working though 2 of the wires to it were affected by the burn out. Not sure if the attached helps or not? Regards Keith 1652469268659_1652469262421_BETA CONTROLLER GREEN LINE SPEC S3.pdf

Hi Tony, Just been to try your theory and I am back to an issue before I discovered the burnt wiring which I did not mention before as I put it down to the burnt wiring. When switching on the key, the domestic warning light comes on momentarily and then goes off. I am lost on this one, any ideas? Really appreciate your comments. Keith.

Afternoon all, I have a Beta 43 with what I believe to be a 95 Amp domestic alternator and a Beta controller. A few days ago, I started the engine to allow it to warm through while I de-moored and there was an occasional faint warning bleep and the domestic light on the panel was flickering. Once I unplugged the shoreline, all went back to normal no light flickering, no beeping so off we go with the intention to investigate later. As we were cruising, the faint beeping and flickering light re-appeared occasionally. With nowhere to pull over we continued and I assumed that It was the alternator failing and would need replacing. Once moored up, I investigated to find that the engine loom was burnt out on a couple of wires on the domestic side right back to the panel, the damage being so bad that I have just had to replace the full engine loom right back to the panel! I was not able to 100% establish the cause, presuming that the loom had chaffed against something below the fuel filter as this appeared to be the source. (The new loom does not have the facility to connect to the heater plug relay, Beta say this is fine as we only have a 3 meter harness from the panel and all appears to be fine) Since replacing the loom, all is fine, no warnings and both alternators are charging, however, when I start the engine with the shoreline plugged in (to provide us with hot water) The domestic alternator light is flashing in a consistent manner along with the warning beep. This never happened before the incident with the loom. I have spoken with Beat but they are not able to offer an explanation. Has anyone come across this before? Any thoughts? Is it possible that the damaged loom has damaged something in the domestic alternator? Hopping that all of this makes some kind of sense! TIA Keith.

Hi all, The reason for the question is that I suspect that the batteries need to be replaced and I was looking at this as an opportunity to provide us with some extra capacity. In terms of usage, I have an amp meter on the boat which shows the fridge drawing about 4 amps and the Webasto, when in use, another 4 amps. At the moment, beyond the charging of phones .01 amp and the inverter when on stands idle at 1 amp we currently use very little other power. Looking forward, we are looking to spend a lot more time on the boat and may introduce a TV 12 or 240 V to be decided and the occasional charging of a Chromebook which takes 4 amps and will likely be looking to moor up for 3-4 days at a time and envisage a typical cruising day to be about 5 hrs. As mentioned, we currently only have aa single 100 amp alternator and no solar. AMG deep cycle batteries have been suggested.

Hi all, I am looking to replace my leisure batteries as I would like more capacity. I currently have 2 105ah and would like to know if there would be any advantage to using 3 smaller ah or 2 larger ah to reach around 400ah, 2 would be easier due to space available? for info, my only charge source is a single 100 amp alternator for the starter, bow thruster and leisure batteries, not sure if this has any impact on the way to proceed.

Many thanks for your very prompt replies, They are a family and do not receive any benefits so should not be a problem.

Hi All, We are looking to becoming CCers and will be using our sons address for bank etc. Will we be liable for council tax at this address even though we will be living on the boat?

I have admired her many time when she sat in the water here, only a stones throw from me. Never knew that she has a Gardner in though, worked on them in trucks for years, still have the whitworth spanners!

Again not long term morning but in 1991 for my 23ft Norman, I was moored alongside a farmers field, £20 a year CASH!

You will be hard pressed to kill a Gardner engine. Once the oil is warmed through they will sit flat out all day. This is the voice of experience from my truck driving days, 5LW stick on the accelerator wedged under the dash, early cruise control!

This might be worth watching. He works in tech and this video is right up to date.

Good afternoon all, I feel sure that some of you will have suffered the splitting veneer issues as per the attached image. Just wondered what solutions any of you have come up with aside from replacing the panels? For reference, this is Ash faced ply in a Sea otter. Keith.

We currently moor at Aqueduct and couldn't be happier, also we are right next to the workshops and have never had an issue with noise coming from them as there is a good line of dense trees that seem to shield us for the noise. Some things can be a little pricey but you get what you pay for. Staff a great and always very helpful. As someone pointed out, great options for weekend cruising.