checking gearbox dip stick

[TerryH]

Hi everyone, changed the oil on my PRM 150 gearbox but when I check the oil level I find it very difficult to tell if there is oil on the dip stick. Is it just me?

 

Terry

[RLWP]

Hi everyone, changed the oil on my PRM 150 gearbox but when I check the oil level I find it very difficult to tell if there is oil on the dip stick. Is it just me?

 

Terry

 

It's not just you, our 260 is much the same. Is there oil, did I get some on it from some other part of the box, why is it so shiny?

 

Richard

[RobinJ]

Hi everyone, changed the oil on my PRM 150 gearbox but when I check the oil level I find it very difficult to tell if there is oil on the dip stick. Is it just me?

 

Terry

When you unscrew the dipstip, there should be a groove near the bottom, this represents the maximum mark. Using tissues etc., clean the dipstick so it is dry, reinsert and remove and lay the dipstick on a clean piece of tissue, you can then see how far up the stick the oil comes! There should at least be contact with the surface of the oil by the dipstick when cold.

[John R]

I wrap black insulation tape arround the dipstick which makes it easy to see the oil level. Make sure you remove when the job is done, it might come off and spoil the gearbox internals if you don't.

[plainsman]

Hi everyone, changed the oil on my PRM 150 gearbox but when I check the oil level I find it very difficult to tell if there is oil on the dip stick. Is it just me?

 

Terry

 

I painted the dipstick with white quality gloss. This has made reading easier. No evidence of the paint coming away after four years

[Woollymishka]

We need to do ours as well (first time - gulp!!)

We were advised by prm to use chalk and then you can see the level quite easily. Not sure about this - any thoughts?

Do I need to dip my stick with chalk?

John R's idea sounds better as long as i remember to remove the tape.

[TerryH]

thanks for the replies. If PRM recognise the difficulty why have they not provided a better dipstick solution? I have never had the problem reading a engine dipstick.

I tried removing and cleaning the dipstick then putting the dipstick back into the geabox but not screwing it down then remove and check. I spoke to the engineer who fitted the gearbox and he told me using this method, the oil must not go above the bottom marker. seems to work.

[Barry]

We need to do ours as well (first time - gulp!!)

We were advised by prm to use chalk and then you can see the level quite easily. Not sure about this - any thoughts?

Do I need to dip my stick with chalk?

John R's idea sounds better as long as i remember to remove the tape.

 

I used to mark a dip stick with chalk when dipping a water tank in the engine room of a ship I sailed on - it worked very well. Trying to see where the water level was on a metal rod by the light from a solitary low wattage bulb in the dark recesses was tough. Rubbing the stick with chalk worked every time.

 

 

 

 

edited to remove an unnecessary do

Edited August 4, 2010 by Bazza2

[jelunga]

I used to mark a dip stick with chalk when dipping a water tank in the engine room of a ship I sailed on - it worked very well. Trying to see where the water level was on a metal rod by the light from a solitary low wattage bulb in the dark recesses was tough. Rubbing the stick with chalk worked every time.

 

 

 

 

edited to remove an unnecessary do

 

Now you have brought back memories. I worked for British India Steam Navigation as an engineer. One day we were taking bunkers in Constanza, so I was alternating between a nice hot engine room at about 30 deg C and dipping the bunkers on deck at about - 20 deg C. Bloody cold, wearing nothing but a pair of shreddies and a white short sleeved boiler suit. But we used chalk on the dipping tape!! So cold the sea was freezing around the edges of the harbour. I did feel sorry for the Romanian navy trainees, who were working a square rigged ship into harbour, and the were all either lined up on deck or on the rigging!

 

Keith

Edited August 4, 2010 by jelunga

[Radiomariner]

Now you have brought back memories. I worked for British India Steam Navigation as an engineer. One day we were taking bunkers in Constanza, so I was alternating between a nice hot engine room at about 30 deg C and dipping the bunkers on deck at about - 20 deg C. Bloody cold, wearing nothing but a pair of shreddies and a white short sleeved boiler suit. But we used chalk on the dipping tape!! So cold the sea was freezing around the edges of the harbour. I did feel sorry for the Romanian navy trainees, who were working a square rigged ship into harbour, and the were all either lined up on deck or on the rigging!

 

Keith

 

Oh those memories! They all come flooding back. I hated dipping tanks. Most difficult was the "Oily Bilge" tank, where not only was the total tank level to be found but the water level found also by spreading a paste on the tape which would turn red when in contact with water. By the time you withdrew sufficient tape the dirty black fuel oil would have run down obscuring the red paste. It was ages before I discovered that the other engineers were taking ullage readings rather than soundings and avoided a great length of oily tape to clean off! We did have a super ullage tape with an electronic oil/water interface detector which gave a digital readout of water/oil, and oil/air interfaces on a digital display similar to those used for ullaging cargo (Oil tanker), but the chief would not allow us to use it!

[RobinJ]

thanks for the replies. If PRM recognise the difficulty why have they not provided a better dipstick solution? I have never had the problem reading a engine dipstick.

I tried removing and cleaning the dipstick then putting the dipstick back into the geabox but not screwing it down then remove and check. I spoke to the engineer who fitted the gearbox and he told me using this method, the oil must not go above the bottom marker. seems to work.

Does that mean you have two marks?

If you only have one then it should not come above the end of the stick if it is unscrewed (when cold).

[Keeping Up]

PRM dipsticks usually have two marks, intended to represent "Max" and "Min" levels. One good thing, these are the levels when the stick is screwed in; if the stick is not screwed in the "Min" mark represents the maximum level and the end of the dipstick represents the minimum level.

 

I too use the method of rolling the stick across a clean sheet of tissue paper.

[Athy]

If PRM recognise the difficulty why have they not provided a better dipstick solution?

 

At the risk of sounding facetious (me? never!), because they're a bunch of dipsticks?

I have a PRM260 but did not even realise that it had a dipstick. I'll have to try and find it now.

[sharpness]

Oh those memories! They all come flooding back. I hated dipping tanks. Most difficult was the "Oily Bilge" tank, where not only was the total tank level to be found but the water level found also by spreading a paste on the tape which would turn red when in contact with water. By the time you withdrew sufficient tape the dirty black fuel oil would have run down obscuring the red paste. It was ages before I discovered that the other engineers were taking ullage readings rather than soundings and avoided a great length of oily tape to clean off! We did have a super ullage tape with an electronic oil/water interface detector which gave a digital readout of water/oil, and oil/air interfaces on a digital display similar to those used for ullaging cargo (Oil tanker), but the chief would not allow us to use it!

 

 

Ullage - what a lovely word. We used to use it to describe someone we thought was a bit challenged. "He's full of ullage" - empty space above the useful bit!!!!

 

Steve

 

 

Edited to add I use a bit of wooden dowel suitably marked to check the level, much easier to see.

 

Steve

Edited August 5, 2010 by sharpness

[Peter R]

I have a PRM260 but did not even realise that it had a dipstick. I'll have to try and find it now.

 

Assuming that it's the same arrangement as my 'Delta' you'll find it attached to the inside of the filler plug

[alan_fincher]

Assuming that it's the same arrangement as my 'Delta' you'll find it attached to the inside of the filler plug

Hopefully! - because if it isn't still, it might not do a heap of good "floating" around unattached!

 

Another vote for....

 

1) Not screwing it in, so minimum mark actually represents maximum, when it is just rested in the hole.

2) Rolling it on a rag, (a piece of Denim gives a clear indication as to how far up it came).

 

Crap piece of design, though!

 

Another thing from the manual, not entirely obvious.

 

Oil level should be checked when it has just been run, not after it has stood unused for a while, (or so they say!).

 

Rationale is that this ensures the external oil cooler is full, before checking the level, and that no oil has drained back from it into the gearbox, artificially inflating the level.

 

Actually I can't see that happening, (how is air going to get into the external cooler to replace the oil that drains out ?), but that's what the manual says.

[RLWP]

Hopefully! - because if it isn't still, it might not do a heap of good "floating" around unattached!

 

<snip>

 

I took our PRM apart once and found a broken off dipstick nestling nicely in one corner

 

Richard

[RobinJ]

I took our PRM apart once and found a broken off dipstick nestling nicely in one corner

A chap came to me one day and said, "how do I get my spanner out of the gearbox".

I then found out that he was using it to measure the oil level because there was no dipstick.

When I used my magnet device to retrieve the spanner, guess what came out!

[Nickhlx]

A chap came to me one day and said, "how do I get my spanner out of the gearbox".

I then found out that he was using it to measure the oil level because there was no dipstick.

When I used my magnet device to retrieve the spanner, guess what came out!

 

 

The Spanner ?

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2010 by Nickhlx

[RobinJ]

The Spanner ?

 

Nope! - the dipstick!

[blackrose]

PRM could go a long way to rectifying the dipstic problem very simply by 1) making the end of the dipstick flat rather than round so that the oil level can be seen, and 2) changing the design so that the dipstick doesn't need to be fully screwed in and then out before it can be read.

[Richard T]

There has been a previous thread on this topic in which I placed a photo showing the wooden dipstick we use. This is such that we cannot drop it into the gearbox. Sorry unable search for original thread from Blackberry with not good connection. Currently boating and moored at Brockmoor Junction on good secure moorings.