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Pretty interesting measuring the difference between the old Sherwood pump and the new JMP one. The old pump was 5mm short of fully engaging in the camshaft slot. The new JMP is only 1mm short (which is probably about right). This is all accounted for by the fact that the key on the new JMP pump is longer than the key on the old Sherwood.

Maybe the Sherwood was the wrong one?

Hi Raymond,

Welcome to the club! I was in your position 2 years ago and opted to splash some cash on a Raymarine system comprising Axiom chart plotter, i70 multifuction display, new Raymarine tri-sensor (speed, depth and water temp), a new Raymarine anemometer an AIS700 and a Quantum radar. I decided to keep the old Raymarine wheel pilot and it's head unit. Big mistake.

The advantage of buying a whole new set was that it was child's play to set up. Literally plug and play, though you do have to do a bit of boat yoga to run the cables.

I can have the chartplotter repeated on iPad but it's pretty clunky. Instead I run Navionics independently on the iPad and iPhone which gives me additional displays,  while ensuring system redundancy.

A NEW Raymarine wheel pilot is an OK autopilot system, provided you use it for what it's designed for - light coastal work. It is not up to the job of sailing downwind in large swells. Ours broke 150 miles offshore leaving us to hand steer for two days. No fun at all. An old system is a breakdown waiting to happen. I wouldn't like to rely on even a new one when singlehanding during a gale.

One good reason for linking the A/P to the rest of the gear would be to let it steer by wind angle. But in two years I've never bothered.

If you need to save money go for the wind and water sensors, an IS70 multifunction display, and a new wheel pilot bundle. Use an iPad for a chart plotter and don't worry that it's not linked to the rest.

Next in importance is an AIS transceiver with Axiom chartplotter. This is an almost indispensable safety aid. We use it actively every time we sail.

Last, if you can endure the expense and pain, get a below decks A/P. Not easy to install in a Catalina but lovely to have.

Finally, whether you have a wheel pilot or belowdecks A/P, a rudder position sensor greatly improves the accuracy of the A/P.  It's included in the below decks bundle, not sure about the wheel pilot bundle. (You can save a ton of money buying kit bundles rather than individual components).

Radar is used the least. But on one night passage with thunderstorm cells all around it was massively helpful and allowed us to steer a passage between them.

I'm 99% certain that the emulsified oil is the result of a failed seal in the water pump. That old pump is completely and utterly shot. I'll check the inside of the rocker cover, of course. Hopefully there's been no major ingress into the engine block.

Haven't done them yet KW. Been away a lot recently. Hopefully, I'll get back down to the boat within the next two weeks.

But first, I've got a good bit of work to do including: cleaning the land, investigating the emulsified oil, repairing the camshaft slot and replacing the cooling hose with its almost rusted-though hose clip.

Then remove the HX and descale, replace aging hoses and replace the leaking exhaust hose. Should keep me busy during the winter🙄

It really pisses me off that the PO let it get to this state. I went across Biscay twice with this heap of junk last year. 50 hours of motoring and it could have failed at any point.

The trouble with finding a problem like this is the loss of trust in the boat. Now I'm wondering what other vital maintenance has not been done. Really, the only option is to go through the whole boat and replace every lifed item that I can't personally account for.

Looking forward to installing my new JMP pump. At less than $250 it's a bargain. It seems pretty solid so hopefully it'll give me good service.

Great write-up, thank you! What's the thickness of the fibreglass elbow?

Like Jim's the dipstick on my M35BC (2006)  is on the starboard side just behind the air filter and goes directly into the block.

I've just bought a replacement standard hose from CD. I'd seen a post recently about hump hoses being better so I researched them. In my ignorance I was looking for a long one! Your set up looks quite good. Perhaps I'll do that next time.

FWIW I can only think that you've got the wrong dipstick.

Sorry, can't help with your oil problem. But I am puzzled by the apparent lack of water injection between the two bump hoses.

Another $ or two and you'll be approaching European prices 😉

On the top of the wet locker next to the chart table. Port side almost under where the side-deck is. Drilled a hole in the top to feed the cable down to the AIS unit. Works just fine - no issues. No superfluous holes in the deck.

Hi Guys,

The pump doesn't spin silky smooth but it does spin relatively freely. Maybe it went through an intermediate phase of being very stiff until it wore itself down to nothing.

Either way it's toast. My new JMP pump arrives on Saturday. Given its very low price, I'm very interested to see its build quality and how it performs.

Still debating whether to risk running it with the damaged camshaft end provided that I can get the new pump to seat properly. Maybe with epoxy to fill the holes. Any thoughts?

Got a quote for a new camshaft from the Kubota main dealers - $536. This is a whole lot cheaper than buying one from Westerbeke.

Hi Ken,

Yes, I've also been looking at that reinforcing ring quite closely. It does appear to be sitting proud of the camshaft slot.

One of the first things I'll check when I get back to the boat next weekend.

I'll also take those measurements!

Sorry guys, but I have to disagree with you both there. There is no way that forcing a misaligned tang down onto the slot could have caused this. The end of the tang is still pristine with the original machining marks.

The indentations must have been caused by the cutting action of the edges of the tang (like the action of a router bit).

The reason why is because the tang hasn't seated down fully into the slot. If it had, then the torque forces would have been taken up by the full two faces of the tang and thus would have been spread over a much greater surface area.

What I need to explore now is what caused this less than full engagement.

I've bought a new JMP pump ($360) and some engineer's marking blue to find out what's going on. If I can achieve a full engagement, then I might risk running it without replacing the cam shaft.