Timleech

I find that putting on the (electric) kettle for a brew works a treat

Fair enough. My tacho sometimes cuts out during a prolonged bit of sunshine. Tim

Have you added solar panels, or any other means of charging? Tim

Be a bit careful if you simply tee in. I was working on the greaser on a barge a few weeks ago. This has a three-way cock instead of a simple tee, and the habit for years had been to leave the cock in the position where it fed both ways at once, in other words acted as a plain tee. A little bit of experimenting led me to the discovery that much more pressure was needed to get grease into the gland end than into the stern bearing, result being that bu**er all was getting to the gland. Tim

There would be no harm in it, and hopefully it would make it more certain that grease properly reaches the long bearing. Not unusual on working craft. Tim

There's more than one river Tame

As originally built, the reduction box was intended to have its own separate oil sump with gear oil, as described in the 'manual'. I've owned a couple of non-canal boat Nationals with Bruntons boxes, they were indeed like this. I think that the 'seal' between reverse and reduction will have proved especially inadequate in working Narrow Boat service, with its very frequent ahead/astern operation. The mainshaft slides back and forward for clutch operation, and heavy use soon wears any 'seals' (felt rings IIRC). In typical sea boat use, the separate lubrication will have been more viable. Tim

So far as I can tell, the sealing system between the boxes never worked terribly well. All the ex-GU/BW Bruntons boxes that I've come across have had a link pipe added between the bottom of the reducing gear and the bottom of the engine sump. An admission of the inevitable, that the reducing box gradually fills with engine oil and this allows it to find a common level with the engine sump. Tim

I'm convinced there will be a difference, because the gears' freedoms are more limited with the ahead clutch engaged. Mind, you, without the mechanism in front of me It's more of a gut feeling than a totally rational thing. He says it's the same in neutral as well, I still think the reduction is the most likely source. As I said, I'd be more concerned about the 'clonk' than the actual backlash, but one person's clonk could be another's gentle meeting of gear teeth. Tim

Not sure how desperate he is I think he said it was being done 'as a favour', so I dont suppose it's a high priority for them. Tim

It's the clonk in the box that would worry me. Some backlash is to be expected, in fact needed for the wellbeing of the gears. Can you narrow down where in the box the clonk originates? The fact that it's the same in all gears implies it's within the reduction box. Are the reducing gears noisy in service? That would imply wear in the gears, not much you can do about that without spending a fortune. It's not unknown for the small pinion in the reducing box to work loose on its shaft, or the output half-coupling could be loose. Or, there could be nothing wrong at all, that amount of play sounds borderline to me. Tim

OK, thanks Tim

Ah, but it was part of an experiment which was not pursued.... (AIUI)

Had the engine seen service in the GU/BW fleet? Tim

I've been aware for many years that there were differences between the cylinder liners for the two brands of engine, but until now never had to deal with the issue and didn't know exactly what the differences were. I'm posting this in case it's helpful to someone else contemplating fitting new liners into their National. Here's a National liner alongside a new RN liner:- Actually the difference visible in the pic isn't what matters. Old RNs had the same sealing system at the bottom, a gland screwed up from below which compressed a rubber ring The new liners use the more conventional O rings sitting in grooves in the liners. Thde significant difference is that the National liner is 1/8" bigger in diameter at the top, both the shoulder and the machined area just below. The RN liner has diameters here of 5.125" and 4.875", while the National uses 5.25" and 5". Both have the same 4.875" diameter for the lower landing. The National arrangement is far better, as anyone who has had to pull corroded liners out of an old RN can tell you. Having the same diameter top & bottom can mean that force is needed all the way up, until the liner is pretty much clear of the top of the block. Worse, with the conversion to O-ring seals, these have to be forced through the same diameter at the top, when fitting new liners, as the diameter they seal in at the bottom, and with no 'lead' to help them in, so there's a serious risk of the rings getting damaged before they even reach the bottom. That's not a problem with the National dimensions - the trouble is that National liners are to the best of my knowledge an extinct breed (someone will probably post now that they know where there's a shed full!). The issue is how to make the RN liner fit properly into a National? As with most engineering jobs, there will be more than one way to skin the cat, but this is what I did. Why not use the tops of the old, worn, National liners as they already have the correct dimensions? 0.2" was removed from the lower face of the top shoulder of the new liners, this meant that the sleeve could have some useful strength with that 0.2" included. These sleeves were fitted into place with Loctite 638 high strength retainer, though probably simply assembling into place with a good dose of Wellseal would have been fine. Finished product:- After cleaning out the sludge from the block, some lead was put onto the top of the lower landing to ease the entry of the O-rings:- This pic shows the splash plates mentioned in my earier post, they sit on the ends of studs which also serve to compress the liner sealing gland (just about visible):- Tim

Aren't all pounds 'lock free' ? Tim

You really do love the melodramatic exaggeration, Dean. Tim

Skipton area, I believe. A bit of a trek under tow, but not utterly impossible. In my yoof, we bowhauled our Short Boat from Sale to Tarleton for a new engine. We were young and mob handed, though. Tim

It appears that he was later towed to his present mooring. Maybe they took 'as long as they want' too literally? Tim

Not a very good one, they need a corrugated surface.

Pencil anodes that I've dealt with screw into a holder, your holder would need to have a 1/8" NPT male thread. Suggest finding a plug/holder of about the right size but with a bigger thread, then drilling out & tapping your item to suit. Tim

I do.

Curious that there has been no stoppage notice. There was a section deliberately drained below you last week, that might just possibly have some bearing on things? I have a personal interest in what the water supply situation will be in a couple of weeks. Tim

How many boats? Literally reversing? Where were they trying to get to? Tim