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1

Main Message Board / Re: Location for AIS GPS antenna

« on: September 24, 2023, 01:13:22 PM »

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.

2

Main Message Board / Re: When Ignorance ISN'T Bliss

« on: September 19, 2023, 09:00:02 AM »

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.

3

Main Message Board / Re: When Ignorance ISN'T Bliss

« on: September 17, 2023, 12:55:59 PM »

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!

4

Main Message Board / Re: When Ignorance ISN'T Bliss

« on: September 17, 2023, 10:11:17 AM »

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.

5

Main Message Board / Re: When Ignorance ISN'T Bliss

« on: September 16, 2023, 11:50:09 PM »

Hi KW,

Yes, I agree the tang should have engaged more deeply into the slot. It’s a puzzle why it doesn’t because the gasket appears to be the stock item. Longitudinal play in the pump shaft or camshaft must have something to do with it. Though what might have caused that is a mystery.

The end of the pump shaft has some very slight score marks and damage, on its side walls, consistent with repeated forceful engagements with the camshaft. No damage to the top of the pump shaft key, so the damage to the camshaft wasn’t caused by forcing the pump into the slot when misaligned.

I’m going to replace the camshaft hopefully in situ. There’s a great post on the C36 forum detailing how it’s done. It also details the part numbers for the original Kubota camshaft which, surprise surprise, is a third of the cost of the so-called Universal/Westerbeke one.

https://www.catalina36.org/forum/technical-discussion/dreaded-cam-shaft-failure

Obviously I need a new pump so my choices are an Oberdorfer at half the cost of a Westerbeke one or a JMP at a third of the cost of the Westerbeke one.

I’m starting to get mightily pissed off at the rampant price gouging done by Westerbeke. A thoroughly unscrupulous company.

The take-home point from this sad saga is that a Sherwood pump doesn’t have to seize before it causes irreparable damage to the camshaft. Here’s my suggestion for critical maintenance.

Whenever you remove the impeller housing, check for play in the pump shaft. If you can rotate it even slightly, then pull the pump off and investigate.

6

Main Message Board / When Ignorance ISN'T Bliss

« on: September 16, 2023, 12:57:27 PM »

Because I have ongoing engine overheating problems, any post on here about the cooling system attracts my attention. So, when Ron recently posted a thread about rebuilding the Sherwood pump I asked him what prompted him to do it. 'Water dripping from the pump' was his reply. And with these few words, down the rabbit hole I went.

No sign of water weeping from my pump so initially I was happy - except I couldn't see any weep holes. In fact, before Ron's post I wasn't even aware that there was such a thing as weep holes and that you should check for water drips. A while later after reading loads of stuff I realised that my pump sure does have weep holes and, on closer inspection, there they were - completely gunked up with rusty crud so you couldn't see them.

So, now I know that water weeps are a BAD thing I thought I better take off the impeller housing check that all looked OK. It did. As expected I couldn't turn the pump shaft because it is, of course, keyed to the camshaft. But I did notice that it could turn through about 15 degrees. This niggled me a bit. I was about to close up everything when I thought again. Surely as much as 15 degrees of play shouldn't be expected with this design. So off came the pump (which as far as I know has never seized up - even momentarily) and this is what I found.

I reckon that it hasn't got too long before the entire end of the camshaft shears off. What puzzles me is how this can happen with a pump that hasn't seized. Resonance of some kind within the pump due to excessive wear of th ceramic plates? I'm just guessing but it could be anything considering that its OEM (17 years old).

Also, from the damage, it looks as if the pump drive has never fully engaged in the slot. I can't understand how this could be.

Now I'm busy researching camshaft costs and replacement. Folks on the C36 forum seem to think it can be done without taking the engine out. Hmm.

7

Main Message Board / Re: Exhaust Riser or Elbow?

« on: September 15, 2023, 12:55:18 AM »

Hi KW, thanks for the steers. That narrows it down a lot. Principal suspects now are the raw water pump, the HX and the water injection nipple.

She’s definitely not losing coolant.

8

Main Message Board / Re: JMP Raw Water Pump?

« on: September 13, 2023, 06:19:16 AM »

I’d also love to hear about your experiences with the JMP pump.

9

Main Message Board / Re: Rebuilding a Sherwood Pump

« on: September 13, 2023, 02:32:09 AM »

Thank you Ron

10

Main Message Board / Re: Exhaust Riser or Elbow?

« on: September 13, 2023, 02:24:55 AM »

Hi KW, thank you for that. The symptoms are excessive steam in exhaust and temp rising above 180 in anything above 1600 RPM. Runs fine at 1500 RPM. Apart from high temp, the engine starts immediately andruns as sweet as a nut. Water is coming from exhaust but I just have a feeling (from running other boats) that not enough may be coming out. Calorifier works fine. No excessive smoke in exhaust.

My strategy isn’t so much whack a mole but to go systematically through everything. I’ve already done some things thanks to previous advice in another thread. Now I’m going to do it all again in this order:

1. Check accuracy of temp gage.
2. Check correct operation of thermostat
3. Replenish coolant and burp system (Done once)
4. Check raw water inlet for blockage (done once)
5. Check strainer for blockage (done twice)
6. Replace impeller and check housing (done once)
7. Clean HX (anode debris removed but I’m now going to de-scale it with Lime-Away)
8. Check injection nipple in riser for blockage.

Not on my list, so far either because I don’t know how to do it or am going to wait until the end of the season, are:

1. Check operation of freshwater coolant pump.
2. Check operation of aqualift
2. Inspect riser for internal blockage

The only thing that’s niggling me is the state of the impeller housing. In a previous thread I read that there must be no scoring and that it must be ‘flat, flat, flat’. I didn’t think mine was too bad, but now I’m not so sure.

11

Main Message Board / Re: Exhaust Riser or Elbow?

« on: September 12, 2023, 01:53:53 PM »

Thank you Stu, that makes sense. Just to be clear, the nipple your talking about is this thing circled in red?

I assume this small diameter pipe is where raw water gets injected into the exhaust?

12

Main Message Board / Re: Exhaust Riser or Elbow?

« on: September 12, 2023, 12:46:26 PM »

Looks completely different from CD’s ‘riser’

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Main Message Board / Re: Exhaust Riser or Elbow?

« on: September 12, 2023, 12:45:21 PM »

Google “westerbeke exhaust elbow” and “westerbeke exhaust riser”

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Dang, I wish I hadn’t done that. Now I’m confused again!

14

Main Message Board / Re: Exhaust Riser or Elbow?

« on: September 12, 2023, 12:23:56 PM »

Thanks guys.

I’m building a short-list of all the prime suspects for my (still) ongoing engine overheating issue.🙄

I’ll start by replacing the thermostat, then re-furb the pump (again) then over winter I’ll have the HX out and de-scale it. Sounds like the riser will now be last on my list of things to check/replace because there are no obvious leaks from it.

15

Main Message Board / Re: Exhaust Riser or Elbow?

« on: September 12, 2023, 05:18:45 AM »

Thank you! Just one more question. Is the riser just as susceptible to becoming clogged over time as a conventional elbow?