What boat projects are you working on?

[numbknots]

Geoff,

On line the other day I came across an advertisement for a new trans to engine coupling.
This part was more like a cv joint and gave you much broader tolerances than the stock
coupling originaly used at this junction. I wish I could remember the name of product but my crs is getting the best of me lately. Goodluck Numnbknots

[GeoffSchultz]

I spent all of yesterday afternoon trying to get the nut off of the transmission flange. Luckily I was just able to fit a 1/2" socket wrench and 30mm socket into the space and I cut down a piece of pipe so that I had a 28" extension handle. My biggest problem was keeping the flange from spinning. Everything that I tried didn't work and finally I decided that I needed to keep the engine from spinning. To make a long story short, I borrowed a hand-made tool from a mechanic which has pins in it. I removed a bolt from an unused pulley on the front of the engine that used to drive a refrigeration compressor, placed 1 pin in that hole and another pin jammed up against this same pulley. The handle then jammed against the hull and I could finally put enough pressure on the nut.

This worked great, but even with the extension handle, I couldn't get the nut to budge. Dave Balfour stopped by to see how I was doing and the two of us tried to break the nut free. Note that neither of us are small individuals. Finally, with both of us pulling on the handle, we heard a loud snap. We knew that we had either broken the wrench or the nut had come off. Luckily it was the later! I got the flange off and upon inspection you could see that it was bent where a tool had been inserted between the two flanges to get them apart. I could be mad at the yard or I could realize that the flanges had rusted together and it took a lot of pressure to get them apart.

A machine shop owner was at the marina, so I talked to him about this. I was hoping to have him face it, but he said that he could try, but there wasn't any guarantee that it would work. It would also take 1-2 hours of time at $75/hr. I went back to the boat to search for a new flange. I had been told that they were special order items from Japan and cost about $315. I found that I could get one for $169 and have it here the next day. Oh, the nut costs $26...That was a no brainer, so that should arrive today and I'll have it installed within a few hours.

Then there's the issue of "Where did they ship my life raft?", but that's a story for another day.

-- Geoff

[GeoffSchultz]

Today I found out that I have a KM3A1 transmission instead of a KM3A, despite what's stamped on my transmission. The difference is in the flange (and nut) that it uses. There are 2 different transmissions that are used on the 3JH2-TBE motor with 2 different flanges. Of course I ordered the wrong one and realized it as soon as I saw it as the splines where much thicker/deeper and the nut was different (requiring a special tool). The guys at the part store were surprised too, as it wasn't at all obvious from the drawings. Anyhow, I returned the parts (only $30 due for the %15 restocking fee) and had the correct one over-nighted in. It's only money...

Oh, now to the story of my life raft...It appears that they shipped it to the Army Core of Engineers in Texas. The person who received it was supposed to have shipped it back, but they've gone on vacation and my sales rep can't find anyone who can tell them if it's really been shipped and/or a tracking number. Of course the sales rep has been avoiding my calls with great success and I can only figure out what's going on by blocking my caller ID when I call...

I did manage to get my dodger windows up after washing the boat to get rid of any buffing compound and rebedding some some snaps/pins, loaded my dive compressor and tanks aboard, and put the final coat of varnish on the companionway. It's getting close, but it keeps feeling like 2 steps forward and a shuffle backwards to about the same place.

-- Geoff

[GeoffSchultz]

I picked up a new transmission flange and nut yesterday and install it using my new 1/2" torque wrench (hey, I had to have gotten some new tools out of all of this work!) After watching the a mechanic from the yard align the shaft, I felt pretty confident that I could do it myself, so I undertook the task. I swore that I had it down to about .002", but when I took it out for a sea trial, I still had more vibration than I'd like. I'll tweak it again today to see what I can come up with.

As I had previously mentioned, my life raft ended up getting shipped to the Army Core of Engineers in TX and they couldn't tell when it was going to make it back here. They offered to 2nd day ship another raft from FL to here (one can only imagine how much that would have cost them), but instead I was able to get better raft at the same price. Today I get to pull the old cradle off and install the new one.

-- Geoff

[GeoffSchultz]

The projects are all done (yeah, right) and BlueJacket is provisioned to the gunnels. Today we depart for the 1st leg of a many year voyage. I guess we'll find out how well I did on all the various projects...

-- Geoff

[Michel]

Geoff,
I wish you all the luck and fun you want during your cruise. If you visit the Netherlands, please honor me with a visit....
Bon Voyage!

[Ereiss]

Safe trip and fair winds, Geoff. Looking forward to your travel updates.


Ed Reiss
Being There
F38
out of Bristol, RI

[GeoffSchultz]

Here are some photos of my tricked out dinghy. While you don't need these in the N Atlantic/Caribbean, you sure need them here due to the huge tides and beach landings. These are very strong with solid struts.



Dinghy Wheels Up



Dinghy Wheels Down



On Davits

-- Geoff

[GeoffSchultz]

Just replaced my steering cable. When was yours last replaced? No...really...I replace it about every 5 years.

-- Geoff

[Ereiss]

Busy spring.
1. Putting larger vent hose on holding tank. Going from 1/2" to 1". Think it will help the aerobic process (at least so says Peggie Hall).
2. Putting in variable speed control on refer.
3. Installing new radar, chartplotter. Going with simrad broadband. Maybe in the future will add new depth sounder to it and a heading sensor. But that can wait.
4. Installing wind generator.
5. New house bank batteries, 2 AGM group 31.
6. replaced primary racor filter and added vacuum gauge. Had too many surprises last year when bad fuel suddenly killed the engine. Oh, cleaned the fuel tank out.

Other than that, not much to do other than normal, paint bottom, clean and wax. Yard will replace cutlass bearing.