Monday 19 Oct, HHN, boat winterizing day 19:
I’m sure the subject of servicing hydraulic gearboxes is starting to wear a bit thin. But unfortunately, today’s activities were all about the same. So feel free to tune into a different channel, if you wish.
Up bright and early, I set about the task of contacting various Selden touch points. Selden hold the information on their hydraulic systems very close to their chest. Even their service agents don’t seem to have schematics or parts lists. I manage to get hold of a very nice guy in All Spars, UK, the top UK Selden service agent. He will look to see how he can help with schematics and part numbers.
Next, I call my friend at Hallberg-Rassy to see if I can attack Selden from the Swedish angle with the same request. Somehow, I have to put part numbers to the items that I need to replace in these gear boxes. Maybe I’ll just line them all up on the table, take a photo, then photoshop comments as to which parts I need replacements for, and let Selden work out what is what! That’s if they will even deal with me, having dismantled their sacred hydraulics by myself!
But I’m not quite there with the gear boxes yet. I still have 2 that I cannot get the damned worm wheel out of. They obviously need a special pulling tool. So off I head to the various engineering workshops with trolly in tow, full of the heavy gearboxes.
First stop is A&R Engineering where I meet a rather too enthusiastic “Eric”. He so wants to help, and whisks off one of the gear boxes to a vice, with me trying to keep up. I only just manage to stop him putting the beautifully anodized housing into the ugly metal jaws of his vice. We find some wood and cloth to protect it, then continue. He tries the pullers he has, none of which fit, then declares the task is impossible.
He thinks the only way is to hit the shaft with a rather large hammer, instead of pulling the worm wheel off the shaft. In the few seconds he gives me to think about it, the hammer is already striking. 2 very big hits and the worm wheel budges only 1mm, no more. He wants to hit more, harder, and with a bigger hammer, but I somehow manage to persuade him not to! With the reasoning that “I’d better take a look at the schematic (which I don’t actually have!) before any more strikes or a bigger hammer”.
And I leave with my beloved gearbox cradled in my arms. Poor thing. Eric does say that if I can’t get it off, he is sure he can make a pulling tool OK …. And I imagine something like 2 trucks doing a tug’o’war with my gearboxes in the middle. I need to find a solution that does not involve brute force!
Next stop, with my trolly of babies, is East Coast Rigging where Steve takes a look and make some suggestions. At least he encourages me I’m on the right track.
Back at Cloudy Bay, I set about thinking. I try to adapt an impeller puller that I have. That moves one worm wheel a few mm, then no more. But this slight movement does allow me to lever from behind the wheel rather then pull it. And low-and-behold it slips off like there was nothing stopping it! Brill! Clearly it just needed a more gentle, loving approach. Maybe it liked the music I was playing?
I apply the same technique to the remaining worm-wheel, and eventually that gives way too. Fantastic. Now I have all 3 gear boxes apart and I spend the rest of the day cleaning the grease off the remaining components and assessing what needs replacing.
The worst water ingress is on the mast furler. It has a clear design fault, where the rotating shaft exits the housing to join the furler tube inside the mast. The oil seal is placed inside the housing in a way that allows water to gather on top of it, with no way for it to drain out. Years of dirty rain water and salt build up on top of the seal and eventually (and clearly, too soon) the seal fails from the abrasion of grim/salt and all that water, then enters the gearbox. How dumb can the designers be? No wonder the housing was full of watery grease.
Before dusk, Payless Detailing come by and kindly give me some left over bits of shrink-warp plastic. I spend some time to cut and join it altogether in a long length to go over the mast ready for winter. I want to come back next year and find it as clean as I left it. Not full of water and bird’s nests!
Tomorrow I will hopefully finish these damned hydraulic gearboxes. And while I degrease myself in the shower during the evening, I decide that the estimated 12 hours per gearbox (at $100/hour) was probably a realistic time schedule from the Selden service agent. I’m very happy that I’ve managed to do it myself, with a likely save of at least $4,000. That will pay for my plane ticket over here … oh, no, it wont. I got my ticket for free using VISA points! I really should have been born Scottish, right? 🙂
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