Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - patchwork

#1
Main Message Board / Engine control cables adrift
March 18, 2015, 02:25:42 AM
Recently, after waiting for the tide at anchor, I was returning to the marina up a tidal creek, when I was alarmed to realize I had no control of "forward/reverse" or engine revs. Being in forward gear, I continued at idle speed and killed the engine just prior to making a once only approach to the dock. Subsequently, after disassembling the binnacle, I found that the control cable clamp, which anchors the cables to the inside wall of the binnacle tube about 10 inches below the compass, had fractured at the bolt hole, liberating the control lever ends of both cables. I was unimpressed to find that this clamping block is plastic (polyethylene?) with a bolt hole right through its middle. I have now clamped each cable with a metal saddle clamp and the controls seem to operate normally, although maneuvering tests are yet to be conducted.  My problem is how to re-assemble the fibreglass shell
that hides the mass of wiring connected to the instruments on the panel. It is in two parts, one screwed to the binnacle tube, the other being the mounting for the instrument panel. The edges of the two parts must align and each enter a slit in the rubber seal which extends around the perimeter of the shell. Some of the "tags" coupling the outer piece to the main body of the shell are broken. Even if I could get the two parts correctly coupled, holding them together would be another matter. I would be grateful for advice if anyone has dealt with this situation before. Construction of a new shell/ mounting for the instrument panel might be the only way to go.
#2
Having recently acquired C34 Mk II, #1437 ("Patchwork"),  I just became aware of the Westerbeke Service Bulletin #235, so I removed the Sherwood raw water pump on my M35B engine to check. You guessed it, no reinforcing sleeve. I have emailed Westerbeke for advice. In addition, however, I found that about 25 degrees of the "locating ring"  on the pump body had broken away ( the raised ring on the pump body inserting into the engine block, locating the pump as it is clamped to the engine block). There was no sign of debris. The pump works fine, with no leaks from the gaskets.
I would be grateful for advice on obtaining the reinforcing sleeve (if I receive no joy from Westerbeke) and whether I should stick with this pump, which works, despite its structural deletion.
#3
Thanks for your comments Wayne and Stu,
I have put everything back together in the binnacle, so at least I have learned to replace the gear and throttle cables. I am thinking that straightening the gear lever would give full throw to the transmission, to engage forward gear. Should I heat the lever with a blow torch and squeeze it a bit in a vice?
#4
I may have created my problem with heavy-handed use of forward-reverse when trying to back into a berth in windy conditions. The problem is that the pedestal gear lever (port side on binnacle) on Patchwork (C34 Mk II, hull 1437) stops in contact with the instruments frame connected to the pedestal, without sufficient cable throw to engage forward gear. There is insufficient adjustment at the engine end of the cable (and a rather feeble looking ball-mounted attachment to the transmission shift lever at right angle to the cable). There also seems to be insufficient adjustment in the cable length inside the pedestal. With a view to either replacing the cable, adjusting at the binnacle end, or shifting the cable relative to its clamps to gain more throw in the forward gear direction, I started the cable demount as described by M & T Vaccaro (September 2004) and the Edson download. Two issues have emerged that have me stumped at present. The steering wheel will not come off - I have bent and broken the bolts in my gear-wheel puller. I will try a heat gun on the boss when I have repaired the wheel puller. But also, being large and physically in-articulate, I cannot access the steering cables for slackening (so to be able to lift the steering chain out of the way of the cables clamp inside the pedestal), either from the Lazarette approach, or from the aft cabin approach. I could hire a small person (while I am in dock), who could access the quadrant, but I would be glad of advice and opinion on dealing with this situation.
#5
Thank you Patrice, Stevewitte1 and Ron Hill,  I have the antenna cable where you  advised and the radio test was 5  by 5 from another station. :
#6

After having our C34 Mk II (hull no. 1437) trucked interstate, I must re-run the radio antenna co-ax from the base of the compression post to the rear of the radio unit, which is mounted above the nav table, just aft of the switch board panel.
Behind that panel at its lower level is a shelf, through which many electrical cables pass through grommeted holes. I can see no obvious path for the antenna coaxial. I would be grateful for advice on the route the coax should take from compression post to radio unit.