Helen was leaving me today to go home for a week. Our son has just returned home so she will be able to catch up with him too, plus she has organised plenty to fill her time whilst there. You can imagine we were very relieved that the threatened railway strike was called off for the Bank Holiday. Helen's train was 1110 so we set off too early to make sure we found the way okay. We walked through the shopping centre and it seems to have plenty of shops and it didn't seem like there were too many closed. I'm sure that I will be having a wander round, and I found the Weatherspoon's too.
The mainline rail way station is not quite up to that of the Severn Valley Railway station building that was shown in yesterday's blog!
Helen was travelling to Birmingham Snowhill than a short walk to Birmingham New Street and from there Doncaster and then change for Hull. Everything was on time and she arrived home in good time.
On the way back to the boat I called in to Wilco's for one or two things. I sat and read the Sunday paper for a short time before girding my loins and headed to the engine hole. The oil changes and filters were over due. The oil in the engine and gear box is to be changed every 250 hours along with the lub. oil filter. I started by running the engine for a short while to warm the oil up so that it would run out more easily. I also had it in gear so the the gear box oil was also thinned. The engine oil is the easiest to remove as there is a little oil sump pump that you can work to pump the oil from the sump into a container. Remember to take the oil fill cap off or a sort vacuum forms and the oil wont run. I got out as much as I could and then went to remove the oil filter for changing. I am not one to worry about changing the oil bang on the 250 hours when it is due but the colour of the oil coming out makes you realise that it does need doing regularly. I have never been able to fix a plastic bag round the oil filter to prevent oil leaking over the deck and of course that was another job to do at the end, mop up the oil.
The sump pump can be seen at the black air filter inlet to the right of the engine. The oil filter is right at the back of the engine to the right , below the red battery cables that can be seen. Fortunately the engine and the gearbox use the same oil. I had got in a store of 15/40W oil from Wilco when I was at home. At £15 for 5 litres it is a good buy I think. As you change the oil every 250 hours I believe there isn't much to be gained by putting more expensive oil in the system.
Close up of the PRM 150 gear box in the above photo. The worn nut at the top is the filler and the dip stick. I find it almost imposible to read the level on the dip stick though. I have a hand pump that I can use through this filler but I can't get my hose down to the bottom so I pump out as much as I can and then drop the sump nut underneath into an oil drip try and then pump that out. It all doesn't take too long.
The gear box takes 1.4 litres and the engine 9.5 litres. I checked the air filter and reckoned it looked a bit mucky. I had turned it round once for the last oil change. They aren't that expensive so decided to change it again. So now I have two very full 5 litre containers of dirty oil. I will have to do a little research in to where I can get rid of it. Whilst I was in the area I decided to tighten up the stern gland stuffing box. It had been dripping a little. This entailed me finding two spanners that were small enough to fit in and hold back the first nut whilst slacking back the locking nut so that I can tighten it up a little. I then thought I had better fill the screw greaser. In turn that required me to find the waterproof grease. It is amazing how difficult it is to find a tin of grease on a 60 boat!
Looking aft you can see the weed hatch and to the right the brass screw greaser that forces greases into the stuffing box for lubrication and to make a barrier to prevent water leaking through at the drive shaft. I tightened the two nuts at the metals part where the copper tube goes to from the screw greaser.
It was then a matter of cleaning up all the mess I had made and sweeping up round the the shelf that used to hold the batteries but now store all that stuff that doesn't go in the boat. old oil, empty containers to but the next oil change into, bigger fenders, paints and cleaners etc. I then tested everything and all seemed well and that was another job done.
2 comments:
I'll be doing my first oil change in a couple of weeks, Tony - I'll pick a cool day so I don't get overheated in the engine bay! Ours has to be done every 100 hours so I'll get plenty of practice this year!
Hi Marilyn,
You only need to run the engine for about ten minutes so it shouldn't get too warm down there. 100 hours seems very expensive on the oil and filters, are you sure? It must be more of a sewing machine rather than a tractor like ours. Maybe it only takes a pint or two of oil. Ours is just over 10 litres with the gearbox included, and that is £30 plus about £7 for a filter. I would hate to have to do that every 100 hours. Glad to hear that all is working smootly and that you have seen the light with the loo.
Cheers for now, Tony
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