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Metal connector piece dropped into gearbox


Tony1

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2 minutes ago, Slim said:

When the box is removed is the engine sitting securely on all it's mountings? If so I can see no reason why the engine cannot be started to give you a bit of charge. Mind you I've not seen your set up so may be talking rubbish.

 

Thanks Slim, I hadn't thought that through.

If he at least gets the gearbox off tomorrow, I would imagine I can then run the engine safely. 

I will ask him about this if its starts getting late and its not all put back together.

 

I have a feeling that if I ask him about that issue when he first arrives, his target for the day will be to just get it taken apart, and not necessarily reassembled. 

 

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4 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

Wow, I had no idea that was the inspiration for the roses and castles art.

I suspect very few canal boaters end up on salt water, because the truth is that cruising across oceans on a 35ft sailboat is way more hardcore than CCing on a 57ft narrowboat- and why would anyone put themselves through that ultra minimalist lifestyle just to see lots of waves and emptiness? Especially solo sailing, with persistently interrupted sleep, limited food options, very limited water? 

I spent a week on a tall ship decades ago, and I was as sick as a dog for the first 18 hours of rough weather- it was a nightmare.

And I was amazed to hear that in some parts of the Southern Oceans, the nearest human beings might be the people on the international space station, as it orbits about 200 miles up, and you may be a thousand miles from the nearest land. 

Most people, quite sensibly, would prefer to take an airliner, and get to their destination in an afternoon.  

To be honest I could stand the isolation, but crossing the Atlantic with the same size water tank as I have to cruise the Llangollen might be a bit too hardcore for me. 

At the moment it seems unlikely, but it is an idea that has been poking at me. 

 

 

When, many years ago when my wife died we had a 29' yacht I considered very seriously taking early retirement and taking off around the world. Who knows how far I would have got!  Only got put off by the fact that I had a trusty dog. I wound  up getting a narrowboat.🤔

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33 minutes ago, magnetman said:

A life under canvas on the open seas without a care in the world must be a beautiful thing.

 

If it existed! 

 

Like Tony points out, a life on the open seas strikes me as one massive long series of worries. Starting with where will I next find a supply of beer. I mean drinking water. Then diesel, then sausages, flour, and on it goes....

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

Thanks Slim, I hadn't thought that through.

If he at least gets the gearbox off tomorrow, I would imagine I can then run the engine safely. 

I will ask him about this if its starts getting late and its not all put back together.

 

I have a feeling that if I ask him about that issue when he first arrives, his target for the day will be to just get it taken apart, and not necessarily reassembled. 

 

I know that with my BMC 1.8 / PRM 150 I could do it 

1 minute ago, MtB said:

 

If it existed! 

 

Like Tony points out, a life on the open seas strikes me as one massive long series of worries. Starting with where will I next find a supply of beer. I mean drinking water. Then diesel, then sausages, flour, and on it goes....

 

 

 

Wind

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3 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

If it existed! 

 

Like Tony points out, a life on the open seas strikes me as one massive long series of worries. Starting with where will I next find a supply of beer. I mean drinking water. Then diesel, then sausages, flour, and on it goes....

 

 

 

 

The beer and the sausages would definitely have been a significsnt issue. Not sure about the flour.

 

Maybe it was a wise move to avoid being anothe Slocum.

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8 hours ago, Tony1 said:

 

Wow, I had no idea that was the inspiration for the roses and castles art.

I suspect very few canal boaters end up on salt water, because the truth is that cruising across oceans on a 35ft sailboat is way more hardcore than CCing on a 57ft narrowboat- and why would anyone put themselves through that ultra minimalist lifestyle just to see lots of waves and emptiness? Especially solo sailing, with persistently interrupted sleep, limited food options, very limited water? 

I spent a week on a tall ship decades ago, and I was as sick as a dog for the first 18 hours of rough weather- it was a nightmare.

And I was amazed to hear that in some parts of the Southern Oceans, the nearest human beings might be the people on the international space station, as it orbits about 200 miles up, and you may be a thousand miles from the nearest land. 

Most people, quite sensibly, would prefer to take an airliner, and get to their destination in an afternoon.  

To be honest I could stand the isolation, but crossing the Atlantic with the same size water tank as I have to cruise the Llangollen might be a bit too hardcore for me. 

At the moment it seems unlikely, but it is an idea that has been poking at me. 

 

 

Best to start with reading up about it, I think you will find Sail Life on YouTube is currently discussing watermakers, a technology that has been around for years.

Surprising how many men have some sort of romantic dream of sailing off in to the unknown never having done much sailing.

Personally I don't really enjoy sailing singlehanded when there is a lot of pilotage and rocks involved, but I understand that crossing the Atlantic involves quite a few weeks of boredom, quite a few days of leisure and a  lot of disquiet if you stray out of your comfort zone. 

"Take some honey,

        and plenty of money"

 

Edited by LadyG
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The PRM 120 gearbox has drain and access plugs at both sides and the bottom. If you take them all out I am sure you will be able to fiddle the metal thing out through one side or the other with a bit of patience. That is providing it was small enough to drop past the gears into the bottom. There is a lot of clearance at the bottom.  

 

See  https://www.prm-newage.com/media/File/PRM120.pdf

 

I would try to establish whether this is so by slowly turning the engine over by hand with the gear engaged. If you don't feel it snag in the gears its either stuck up near the top where it went in or its dropped through to where you can get at it through the access holes.

The gears are robust, you will not damage them doing this even if it snags but do not use the starter motor, just slowly by hand listening and feeling as you go.

Edited by Tracy D'arth
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37 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

The PRM 120 gearbox has drain and access plugs at both sides and the bottom. If you take them all out I am sure you will be able to fiddle the metal thing out through one side or the other with a bit of patience. That is providing it was small enough to drop past the gears into the bottom. There is a lot of clearance at the bottom.  

 

See  https://www.prm-newage.com/media/File/PRM120.pdf

 

I would try to establish whether this is so by slowly turning the engine over by hand with the gear engaged. If you don't feel it snag in the gears its either stuck up near the top where it went in or its dropped through to where you can get at it through the access holes.

The gears are robust, you will not damage them doing this even if it snags but do not use the starter motor, just slowly by hand listening and feeling as you go.

 

Thanks a lot Tracy, I'm going to try and haul the boat closer to the services now. 

The RCR guy seemed pretty set on having to take the box apart but I'll discuss these ideas with him first. 

 

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1 minute ago, Tony1 said:

 

Thanks a lot Tracy, I'm going to try and haul the boat closer to the services now. 

The RCR guy seemed pretty set on having to take the box apart but I'll discuss these ideas with him first. 

 

 

Remember the RCR bod will need a fast job and knows he could spend a long time trying to extract the part and still need to take the front plate off the box so don't be surprised if he ignores the  suggestions and goes straight into taking the box off. I get the impression that the suggestions are directed at you trying them where your time is not costed.

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22 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Remember the RCR bod will need a fast job and knows he could spend a long time trying to extract the part and still need to take the front plate off the box so don't be surprised if he ignores the  suggestions and goes straight into taking the box off. I get the impression that the suggestions are directed at you trying them where your time is not costed.

True, or he will wash his hands of it and order a new gearbox. I reckon if you take out both side and bottom plugs it will come out very easily, look at the drawings, it has direct access to the bottom of the gearbox.

 

I will not let any RCR bed near my boat, ever.

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18 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Remember the RCR bod will need a fast job and knows he could spend a long time trying to extract the part and still need to take the front plate off the box so don't be surprised if he ignores the  suggestions and goes straight into taking the box off. I get the impression that the suggestions are directed at you trying them where your time is not costed.

 

I had a quick chat with the bloke, and he does want to try looking for the part using an endoscope-type thing. 

I stressed that I need a solution ideally by close of play today, whatever options he goes for. 

For me, worst case is for the gearbox to be off but engine still runnable by 5pm.

Best case is the gearbox is back in one piece by 5pm, and I'm ready to charge/cruise etc. 

Batteries are at 60% so I could get through another night without charging, if I leave the fridge off- but I'm not telling him that- not yet anyway. 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

Batteries are at 60% so I could get through another night without charging, if I leave the fridge off- but I'm not telling him that- not yet anyway. 

First thing I would have done in a situation like this is turn the fridge off. At this time of year fresh food will keep well enough in a cool spot, and if you do have to throw away the odd item the cost is trivial in relation to the costs you might be facing for the gearbox.

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26 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

Well, I'm glad to say it was a happy and prompt ending.

The chap had a butchers down into the box with an endoscope thing (he said it was a tenner on ebay), and he was fairly sure he could see the connector in there. 

He tried to get it with a stick with a blob of sticky stuff on the end, but being covered in oil the connector wouldn't stick to it.

But he managed to fish it out with one of hose flexible grabber things (as David and Jon illustrated). 

So once again thanks for all the replies and advice, and as it turned out it was a grabber and an endoscope that did the trick, just as you folks suggested.

 

 

they are good to have in your tool arsenal - handy for looking under engines and also great for tracing wires in voids...... glad you were able to sort!

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1 minute ago, robtheplod said:

they are good to have in your tool arsenal - handy for looking under engines and also great for tracing wires in voids...... glad you were able to sort!

Thanks Rob, I'll have both items on order by this evening!

 

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8 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

Lucky you, bet you are a  happy man.

 

Absolutely- I can't tell you how glad I was to see the grabber come out with that damned bit of metal. 

If anything, the RCR guy was even more relieved than me. His demeanour in the previous ten minutes was decidedly negative, but he was all smiles when he got it out.  

 

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