Jump to content

marmaduke

Member
  • Posts

    109
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Occupation
    Musician

marmaduke's Achievements

Contributor

Contributor (4/12)

2

Reputation

  1. Ah brilliant, thank you all for the advice. What would the gasket look like and where can I locate it? Would it be something visible to the eye?
  2. I should also say, the steam (when running) all tends to come from one of two tubes that empty into some jars. I guess these are overflow from oil and water? Why would it be steaming from one of them?
  3. Hi all, I was moving the boat this afternoon and the engine cut out following a lot of steam emanating from the bilge. It stopped as if it had run out of fuel and wouldn't start again for about 20 minutes. There's plenty of diesel so I don't think it's a fuel problem. She's running (stationary) fine now but I think she might have overheated. I hadn't been cruising long, maybe 1km. Any ideas what might have caused this and what I should check for? Cheers, M
  4. Great, thanks Steve, I'll do as you suggest. M
  5. Hi all, I'm about to change a faulty water pump and am looking at my current setup wondering if all of it is needed. See the picture below. I've been looking at trusted diagrams, and they all seem to say strainer > pump > accumulator > heater. I seem have some strange grey box attached between the pump and accumulator which has the electrical connections going through it. I'm guessing it is some kind of sensor for water pressure? The pump in use is not the original one. The original pump did not have a pressure switch, so perhaps this had something to do with it? I don't recall it doing anything noticeable though, before I changed it for the pressure switch water pump (that I am about to replace). Can I take it out do you think? I'm also wondering if I should change the accumulator for a new one, as this is from 1979. Any recommendations on what to get? The new pump will be a shurflo 30psi pressure switch pump. Any comments are greatly received. M
  6. By the way, I cut a hole in the floorboards and removed the ballast...there was some more I could take out after all. She is now listing no more! Hurrah. Thanks all for the advice
  7. It is probably 34 years old, so maybe it is worth getting a new one. Thanks all for the confirmation. M
  8. It's the horn that gives off smoke
  9. The horn of my narrowboat has stopped working. When keeping the horn switch engaged, it seems to give off smoke like it's overheating. Any ideas what it could be? The connections all seem sound to me and I can't see anything particularly suspect. Though I've not dissected a boat horn before, so what do I know. Here's a pic of it. Any ideas?
  10. Thank you all for a thorough run through of the solutions. I'm pulling up the floor as I type...
  11. Gas locker vents are still high above the water, as are the drain holes. Looks like I'll be taking up the floor then...
  12. Unless I filled them with helium... Damn. The answer is not the answer I was hoping for. Such is boating life. Cheers
  13. When I bought my 36ft narrowboat, the surveyor recommended a brand new steel base plate to be welded to the bottom. This was because of the sample readings of the hull thickness he'd taken. If I remember correctly the thinnest reading was about 4mm. At the time I was new to boating and trusted the surveyor without question. In hindsight I realise that perhaps it wasn't such a necessity to have a brand new baseplate welded to the bottom of the hull. The surveyor was new to the job too and was probably being over cautious. As most will know too, in order to get insurance, you have to satisfy the surveyor's Essential Points in their report. So I didn't have a lot of choice even if I had wanted to forgo this steel plate. 4 years on, I'm now dealing with a very heavy boat due to this extra thickness of hull, along with personal effects and a fit out. The water tank is at the front of the boat under the front deck. When the water tank is full, the drainage holes on the front deck now come right down to the waterline. When the water tank is empty, the weight is all at the back, and my weed hatch starts leaking from the pressure. Not ideal...especially if I need to use that weed hatch when I have run out of water. I'm fairly in tune with my vessel and know through instinct what state she is in, and keep the weight balanced to avert potential disaster. However, it would be nice to come up with a more satisfying solution to this problem. I've removed as much ballast and personal things as I can get away with. A solution I've been pondering recently is some sort of buoyancy aid. I was thinking I could put some empty large water bottles with their caps tightened firmly in the watertank. As the roof of the water tank is the floor of the front deck, which is at the waterline, I believe this should raise the bow. Obviously it will leave me with less volume in the water tank too. My questions are then as follows: - is this a reasonable solution? - will it make much of a difference? - if empty water bottles in the water tank will raise the bow, how can I apply this to the stern? - any other ideas? Any comments are much appreciated. M
  14. Hi all, thanks for your help. I worked out what the problem was finally. Instead of actually looking at every element in the chain, I decided to replace every bit I could see. a complete waste of time...a lesson learnt there! So in this instance I had to jigsaw away a bit of floorboard to see properly what was happening when the feeder pipe was coming in. Once I could see that, it turned out that there was an ancient filter/strainer attached to the mains valve which was dripping. I suspected from there that this was the source of the air getting in. I removed it, tarted it up down there and switched everything on. Would you believe it, a quiet pump, constant temperature in the shower, and a pressure I've never before witnessed in the 3 years living on this boat! Feeling simultaneously heroic and imbecilic. If anyone else has this sort of problem in the future, check for leaks between the feeder pipe and the pump before doing anything else. Thanks again all. M
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.