Sat 8 May, HHN day 25: Changing impeller on the deck wash pump leads to a complete strip and rebuilt. Rogue fitting on generator finally fixed, and hydraulic furlers all set up for testing.
Woke to pouring rain and chilly outside. Fleece and socks back on this morning, and even a wooly hat first thing. Looks like it will be a day of sunshine and cold showers. At last I get a good excuse to tick some inside jobs.
First job is putting the aluminum flooring plates back into the engine room after their acid wash to clean them. Without them in place it’s like doing gymnastics every time one enters the engine room, and I’m no gymnast. Yes, the plates will have to come back out again when the Aquadrive returns from its spa treatment at Marine Authority Propulsion, but today I want to change the impeller on our deck wash pump. Its first new impeller since new, 12 years ago.
I previously removed the impeller and now I have a new one from Hallberg-Rassy Parts. But as I open the impeller kit for the first time, I discover it has an O-ring seal, not a fiber washer, as I need. Here we go again: another kit that doesn’t fit our purpose. Just as I’m in the middle of firing off an email to Hallberg-Rassy Parts, I have a brain-wave.
What about the fiber washers used in the generator raw water pump? I have plenty of them. But chances of them fitting a completely different pump are about zero right? Surprise, surprise, my devil’s advocate is wrong, and my hunch is right. The fiber gaskets that I have for the generator are in fact an exact fit for the deck wash pump! OK, that’s surely my luck done for the day.
While getting a good look under the pump, I pull on one of the brass pipes and a fitting joint moves. Uh-oh. That’s not good. And a pull here and there on others have the same result. Leaks waiting to happen. So decision made, the whole pump has to come out and the fittings rebuilt.
Once removed, some connections undo easily, others take a blow torch and a good grip in a vice. Hallberg-Rassy use Loctite 275 on pipe connections, which is pretty strong stuff but becomes brittle over the years. With everything undone, I wire brush them to a new condition all ready for reassembly, with new Loctite to seal them in place.
Once the dismantling part is over, it doesn’t take long to get the new impeller installed and the deck wash pump remounted in the engine room. And lastly, the pipe fittings put back in place with Loctite 275. Lovely, job done.
While doing this in the engine room, I am reminded of a raw water fitting on the generator that had been constantly weeping ever since we bought the boat. But until now, I’ve never dared touch it, just in case I can only get it half out and it gets stuck or something. Well, today I’m feeling bold.
And for my second pleasant surprise for the day, the fitting comes out relatively easily. I’m really elated to get this particular fitting off and cleaned up – it’s been bugging me for years. It seems it is always the things you expect to be challenging that end up easy and the opposite for those jobs that at first sight seem simple.
Late afternoon the sun comes back out, so I attempt to rivet some of the fittings back onto the top of the mast. I get all set up only to find the damned rivet gun does not work. Aaaagh! I take it apart a few times but it still won’t grip the rivets and I cannot see what is wrong with it. I’ll just have to return it to Stephen on Monday and try this again next week.
In the evening I use the skateboard to get the 3 newly rebuilt hydraulic motors up to the front of the boat. Mast furler to the mast area and cutter and genoa furlers to the bow. All done with me crawling because up forward there is only headroom for a 5 year old at best! I attach all the new hydraulic hoses and snap them into the deck quick-connect fittings.
First thing tomorrow will be the big test for them. Will they work after my rebuild, I wonder? Will they sound smoother or will they sound like grouching metal parts badly installed? I’m actually quite nervous about it.
But tested they must be, because I don’t want to find there is a problem with them only after the mast is back up. Better to know the bad news now… if there is to be any.