Day 224 Busy, Busy, Busy.

We went at it full force yesterday trying to get as much done as we could.

I started out ordering a repair manual from Mercury for our new 8hp outboard motor.  While it may be new, I figure it is better to be prepared for down the road when some thing will eventually happen.  Then returned emails to DuoGen and Nobeltec about answers to questions they had asked me about questions I had asked them.  DuoGen--the prop not turning when it hits the water.  Nobeltec--the "Route Wizard"(tells you how to get from point A to point B when you leave a harbor) keeps taking us over ground-like islands-instead of around it.

  It's not supposed to do that.

I then took off for the shop that welded the new stainless steel ring on the stanchion for the new hook that closes the port side gate for the life line.  The previous ring was to small. Brought her back and installed the stanchion threading the netting back on that keeps the kids on board.  Installed the new hook and the job was done.  

Onto the diesel injector pump.  It controls the diesel as it is pumped into the engine making sure it is in the right proportions and fires it in at the right time.  That's what that big hunk of red is in the picture.  It holds 12 ounces of the same oil that is in the engine.  I had studied the owners manual and learned about it in my class.  You remove the bolt in the bottom and out comes the oil.  Then you remove a bolt on the side.  This will show level of the new oil as it is poured into the top of the pump.  It drools out the hole.  Out came the bottom plug and out came the "oil".  I was holding a bowl under it to catch the "oil".  It came and it came and it came.  Far more than 12 ounces.  I finally had to put my finger over the hole to stop it as the "oil" was starting to pour over the sides of the bowl and down into the bilge.  Yuck--now I get to clean it again.  Tracy grabbed a syringe to suck out some of the liquid as I couldn't pull out the bowl as it was too full to move.  Once she had sucked out enough, I let the rest flow into the bowl.  It was the consistency of water not oil.  I took it to class to have my teacher look at it.  It was actually oil very diluted with lots of diesel.  Far more diesel than oil.  Not a good sign.  I replaced the plug and filled it with nice 30 weight oil until it flowed out the hole on the side--12 ounces and screwed in the top plug.  We started the engine and she ran fine.  So far no problems.  My instructor says to change it again after 10 hours of running the engine instead of the 50 hours that is recommended.  Do that a few times and that should flush out any metal shavings that may have accumulated.    Then back to the 50 hour routine called for by the manual.  Hopefully, I won't have to replace the pump.  While in the engine compartment, I pulled the raw water strainer out to check for "foreign matter"--seaweed and the like.  Nope, just about clean.  It needs to be checked regularly to make sure it doesn't clog.  It's the raw water that keeps the engine cool as it runs--a good thing.

Then back to the stern head.  We'd replace the macerator a few days ago.  That's the pump that makes big things into small things and flushes them overboard.  We we developed a small problem.  The stainless steel tanks outlet doesn't have any barbs on it to restrict the chance of a possible leak past the hose.  I'd put on two hose clamps and had closed up the wall in front of the tank.  Well the two clamps didn't do the trick and we started smelling a bad odor shortly after we thought we were done.  Off with the wall and we added two more hose clamps.  Now we're up to four and that seems to have stopped it.  I put a paper towel under it to see if if still leaks and so far so good so I will screw the wall back in place and hope for the best.

I bought some wire to "ground" the generator we keep on Zephyrs stern.  When we have run it before through Zephyrs electrical grid to charge the batteries, the light on the main circuit panel kept lighting up that we were putting in "reverse" power.  It's all because the ground wire wasn't hooked to the power grid for Zephyr.  Now once the wire is hooked up, I can run the generator to charge the batteries and run some of the systems.  That's a lot better than having to run the diesel engine at idle for hours on end to keep the batteries fully charged.  One of the worst things that you can do is run a diesel engine at neutral for long periods of time.

As I mentioned in a earlier post, our electric blanket(no reason to rough it)had started to fail.  The sounds of a bad electrical connection in one of the controllers made us a bit nervous.  The replacement--free--from Sunbeam showed up.  We'd bought the blanket a few years ago and they replaced it for us.  How's that for customer service.  Now it may be a yucky shade of grey, but hey, what the heck.  It will still keep us nice and warm.  Especially as they are forecasting the temps to be in the teens over the next few nights.  

Tracy cooked the last half of the our turkey for dinner.  It was Thanksgiving all over again.  Definitely  some of the best turkey I've had in years.  The dark meat on the leg was great.  Normally it is dried out.

Off to class for another three hours of learning.  The cooling system was tonight's topic.  I'm catching on.  I'm really surprised the similarity between gas and diesel engines.  One thing that made it a lot easier was the teachings of Tracys father Wayne.  He took me under his wings many years ago and taught me many things about engines.  Gas I knew--diesel was a mystery.  Not so much now.  I'm not sure what is on the schedule for tonight.

Well, it's back to work.  More to do and the forecast is for winds in the 60mph range for tomorrow and temps in the teens so I have to batten down everything that's outside.

More tomorrow.