StephenA

Thanks for the info David Am away from the boat at the moment so cant check the pulleys easily. I seem to remember putting the pulley on the new pump last time and spinning it and seeing a slight wobble - but as we were stuck in the middle of nowhere at the time I think we probably ignored it. The comments about the length of the belt puzzled me - there is no way on our engine that anything much longer that a 1013 can be used due to the closeness of the alternator to the heater plug... is this the same on other peoples engines or is there something wrong?

No - crankshaft pulley is not eccentric Its the water pump pulley that would seem to be out of shape. It seems flat if you lay it on a flat surface but when its on the pump there seems to be some movement in the belt path (the sort of movement you'd expect if the pulley was bent)

With the flange on the waterpump sheared the alternator is currently being held in place by the rear steel bracket (which is secured by three bolts to the cylinder block) and the tensioning strut. The connection to the water pump is currently only staying in alignment as everything else is bolted tight. Obviously this is not a good situation to be in which is why I'm going to fix it - once I've worked out the correct configuration.. I've never seen anything but alloy water pumps for the BMC and do they come in the right shaft length (which is something that has caught us out in the past - one pump we got had a shorter shaft on it so the pulley didn't line up with the crank pulley).

A 1050 would just fall off The 1013 slips on easily with the alternator pushed all the way down. By the time the belt is worn out the alternator is up as far as it will go (if it swings up any more it hits the heater plug on the end cylinder) The Alternator has a standard pulley on it and the water pump pulley looks totally standard. Its been such a long time since I looked at another BMC closely that I can't state for sure that the large pulley on the crank is the right size. Which all points at the alternator mounting being wrong. Which is why I came on here and asked the question in the first place.

We are using Halfords HB1013a (or is it b?) Its the only belt that is the right length. Which is the reason I asked here about mountings. Belt life is sometimes months (the current one has been once since Easter and has only been adjusted once and is charging quite well considering the front bracket is sheared) but has been known to be weeks (I think last year we got through one in less than a week. I'm sure it would - I'm trying to work out (from memory) if there is any way to mount the alternator without having to use the water pump bracket.. If only it was all self adjusting and reliable like the serpertine belt on my Saab ;-)

I've tried lots of combinations of searches before I posted trying to see if anyone had an answer. As I've got : a) a broken water pump bracket (and thus will need to replace the water pump) a continual problem with belt wear (which I suspect is down to not having the right profile belt or a belt made of the right material) c) an eccentric/wobbly water pump pulley It sort of seems sensible to get everything right from the ground up rather than replacing the water pump (there is more than one type - different lengths of pulley shaft) and the pulley and then finding out that actually what i needed was a new (different) pump, with a different pulley (I've seen double grooved ones) and a different alternator... I assume people out there are successfully running 60Amp alternators off an "original" BMC 1.5

Ever since we got the BMC back in 1985 its alternator configuration has always been problematical and to be honest its made going on holiday a bit of a pain as it eats belts and doesn't charge properly after a few days as the belts have either stretched or have worn away. The engine was obviously fitted originally with an dynamo. There are two pulley on the end of the crank - a big one which drives the water pump (and the alternator) and a smaller one which does nothing at all. For the second time in 10 years the Alternator has thrown itself and taken the waterpump bracket out (which idiot decided to bolt an alternator to a bracket on a waterpump made from grotty alloy I do not know). Some of the problem with the belts being eaten is that I'm sure the waterpump pulley is actually slightly eccentric/warped so it chafes the belt. So are there any after market kits that we can get that will allow us to use a 60amp alternator, that preferably doesn't involve bolting anything to the water pump If it involves dropping the pulleys off the crank and putting new ones then so be it.

The oil filler cap on our BMC 1.5 has gauze in it and is obviously designed to help vent the crank/rocker. We do get problems with the air filter - if that gets clogged up at all then the engine tends to suck in from the crank case breather pipe. It might be worth checking to see if there is any sign of oil in the inlet manifold. The amount you are getting through would however suggest that its not oil fumes getting burned but you either have a leak or there is something worn in the engine. Oil could be getting in via worn valve stem seals or round worn piston rings. Leaking valve stems do tend to show up at startup when oil has been able to pool in the cylinders. We've had two sets of work done on our BMC in the past 21 years - it had a bottom end rebuilt at Calcutt who did a minor rebore and new rings - that was about 8 years ago and then 2 years ago we had the top end overhauled by Starline at Upton Marina. I can't tell you how much the bottom end work cost but Starline came in at a couple of grand (including some other work) Since the top end rebuild we get a tiny little bit of smoke when its cold and apart from that its pretty smoke free. Which isn't bad for an engine with lots of leading zeros on its serial number. Starline did however tell us that parts for the BMC 1.5 are now becoming harder to get.. which implies that costs can only go up.

Norbury was 44.1 on Friday when we called in for a pump-out (£14.50) Not sure what the price was at Wheaton Aston. Handy to know that Orwells do pumpouts as we are on Tom's Moorings so its only a short hop. Is there anywhere to turn at Orwells?

Well apart from the fact that CanalPlan AC doesn't have Bristol to Sharpness in it. If you do : Best route from Sharpness Lock to Bristol - Lloyd's Amphitheatre via Stourport, Barbridge Junction, Skipton Bypass Bridge No 175A, Keadby Junction, Nottingham and Brentford (River Thames) You get: Total distance is 723 miles, 2½ flg and 473 locks. There are at least 91 moveable bridges of which 7 are usually left open; 51 small aqueducts or underbridges; 13 tunnels and 1 major aqueduct. Made up of 114 miles, 2½ furlongs of narrow canals; 318 miles, 6½ furlongs of broad canals; 48 miles, 2 furlongs of commercial waterways; 68 miles, 4½ furlongs of small rivers; 124 miles, 6½ furlongs of large rivers; 48 miles, 4¾ furlongs of tidal rivers; 88 narrow locks; 339 broad locks; 45 large locks. This will take 339 hours, 21 minutes which is 37 days, 6 hours and 21 minutes at 9 hours per day. For calculation purposes, this is taken as 38 days. However I suspect this has not done Selby and down the Ouse and up the Trent.

How old is the water pump? When you turn the taps off how long does it take the pump to shutdown? How often does it cycle? The pump on Mintball started doing this and when we took it apart it was pretty gummed up inside.

Possibly - I suspect getting spanners up into the gap between the lockers and the hull could be a bit of a pain. Its not something we've looked into with too much detail - it was starting to rain and sticking my head under the deck and trying to work out the best way of doing it wasn't the first thing on my mind :-)

Boat is at Market Drayton. I suspect the big problem is going to be drilling holes through the hull, running pipe through for the drains then welding it at both ends - the gas lockers don't actually have any contact with the hull apart from where they are welded on at the gunwale level.

We've got a similar problem on our boat - both Gas locker bottoms are pretty corroded and one of the "drains" has collapsed. We've worked out that two steel "trays" with sides a few inches high welded into the bottom of the gas lockers and then new holes drilled through and drain pipes welded in is the "sensible" way forward. The only problem is getting anyone to quote on the work (which can't be carried out at our moorings due to restrictions in the mooring agreement) and getting it done.