The "It Never Rains But it Pours" thread

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Xsbank

Guru
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
3,791
Location
Canada
Vessel Name
Gwaii Haanas
Vessel Make
Custom Aluminum 52
Got the steering fixed that that moron damaged, hooked up the solar panels and they work GREAT! Slipped the lines, headed out of the harbour and it wouldn't go over 1400 rpm! Making funny noises... took it back to the berth and dove on her, hoping for a crab line or similar. Can't turn the wheel by hand - cutlass bearing shot. Now I have to have her hauled. There goes the summer.
 
The bright side: it didn't sink and you didn't hit anything. [emoji4]
 
And, on this page is an ad for Harley Davidson with .99% financing. Hmmm.
 
Actually Dave, I almost wish it had!
 
Got the steering fixed that that moron damaged, hooked up the solar panels and they work GREAT! Slipped the lines, headed out of the harbour and it wouldn't go over 1400 rpm! Making funny noises... took it back to the berth and dove on her, hoping for a crab line or similar. Can't turn the wheel by hand - cutlass bearing shot. Now I have to have her hauled. There goes the summer.

Old Chinese saying. "Good be good could be bad"... meaning maybe that cutlass failure saved your life in one way or another. You'll never know for sure.

Old NY saying: Fck It - Give Er Hell!

IMO - Pull her, get the cutlass replaced, splash her, Then... Go Baby GO!
 
Sorry, Xs...I know that is really frustrating. I agree with all the thoughts here - it's the right way to look at things - but I admit when my wife tells me, "Well, it could have been worse." , I always want to say, "Sure. But it also could have been (a hell of a lot) better!"
 
Yeah, I feel for you. I've had a couple years like that and although you work through it sometimes you have to wonder why.
--4 yrs ago.Got hit and the repairs took 5 weeks of my summer and labour. I did get a kick out of it, sort of.
--last year blew a gear oil cooler hose and then got to clean out my fresh water tank of the diesel "I", doofuss, put into it. ANother 5 weeks of summer.

Now another piper must be paid because that meant all the varnish I did not get to is requiring a full stripping/scraping and full build up of that "stuff". Lots of hours and more to go.

You'll get 'er done. It's a boat and is sent to keep us on our toes, er knees.
 
"Now I have to have her hauled. There goes the summer."

Changing out a cutlass bearing is hardly an all summer job.
 
"Now I have to have her hauled. There goes the summer."

Changing out a cutlass bearing is hardly an all summer job.

With the hydraulic tool it's maybe two hours hanging in the slings for port and starboard.
 
Cutlass seizing on the shaft? Even possible? I suppose considering the other option, I hope it is the cutlass.
 
Cutlass seizing on shaft is super rare, agreed.
 
When you go through a life threatening situation and come out the other end in perfect shape it gives you two major beliefs;

1. Modern medicine is amazing
2. You don't give a $hit about anything money or time can fix

If you wake in the morning and you are not surrounded by wood it's a great day.
 
Got the steering fixed that that moron damaged, hooked up the solar panels and they work GREAT! Slipped the lines, headed out of the harbour and it wouldn't go over 1400 rpm! Making funny noises... took it back to the berth and dove on her, hoping for a crab line or similar. Can't turn the wheel by hand - cutlass bearing shot. Now I have to have her hauled. There goes the summer.

Now that I read your 1st post more carefully, i.e reading between the lines that is. Brings me to a couple questions.

1. You sure it was in neutral? That's a big first check. Then see if you can spin the shaft in back of the tranny. Also, make sure trany fluid is full.

2. Maybe start her up and while tied firmly to dock get up-close n' personal with trany, engine and mud box while you go through forward, neutral, reverse. Maybe something other than cutlass bearing will become apparent.

3. When you were under the boat playing with the prop... although you could not turn it... could you get any play at all side to side or up and down. If there was any wiggle room for shaft inside the cutlass then seems to me that the shaft is not frozen in the cutlass area.

4. If you can get where you become confident that it is not the cutlass and at dock you can't tell what it is by moving through the gears. Then it seems another short test run, still being up-close n' personal with trany, engine and mud box may tell you more about the story unfolding.

Hope it's found to be something simple... Best Luck! - Art
 
Thank you Art, and all the rest of you who have commiserated with me with this.

I tried turning the shaft with my bf wrench and it will turn if I heave on it and it makes a screeching noise. It might be too self - serving to day it sounds like rubber...I undid and backed off the stuffing box until it was running like a tap, then I started the engine and ran her at the dock, 1300 rpm max in forward and reverse. Tried with the wrench again, no change. After the episode with the steering, this morning I will unbolt the coupling and I will also make sure I'm getting full travel on the throttle. The screeching, well, it might have been coming from me, I'll try again. I might ask our diver to do his thing today too, to make sure I didn't miss anything. The wheel needs to be scraped anyway.

Unfortunately, the wheel is stainless and 36" and the shaft is 2 1/2" so it doesn't respond well to the feeble efforts of a geriatric boat owner to wiggle it while being pinned to the bottom in a shorty wetsuit and a snorkel! It will need some number of meaty boys or a forklift to do the bearing.

I will let you know!
 
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Thank you Art, and all the rest of you who have commiserated with me with this.

I tried turning the shaft with my bf wrench and it will turn if I heave on it and it makes a screeching noise. It might be too self - serving to day it's sound like rubber...I undid and backed off the stuffing box until it was running like a tap, then I started the engine and ran her at the dock, 1300 rpm max in forward and reverse. Tried with the wrench again, no change. After the episode with the steering, this morning I will unbolt the coupling and I will also make sure I'm getting full travel on the throttle. The screeching, well, it might have been coming from me, I'll try again. I might ask our diver to do his thing today too, to make sure I didn't miss anything. The wheel needs to be scraped anyway.

Unfortunately, the wheel is stainless and 36" and the shaft is 2 1/2" so it doesn't respond well to the feeble efforts of a geriatric boat owner to wiggle it while being pinned to the bottom in a shorty wetsuit and a snorkel! It will need some number of meaty boys or a forklift to do the bearing.

I will let you know!

Geeezzz X - That you get pinned to the bottom shows you float well! That you use a snorkel shows that you breath well [although I don't recommend snorkel for checking props]. That you wore shorty wet suit in BC waters shows you have good circulation. Hope you also had good mask and fins on too!!

Ain't it fun owning a boat!! 2 1/2" shaft is a big chunky monkey. Stainless 36" wheel sounds cool. You have photos to share?
 
The fins are deluxe, the mask turns out to be Chinese and leaks like a sieve. My shorty wetsuit is a trial to get on and off despite me shrinking a bit - I have a ways to go yet! The snorkel, I discovered, doesn't work underwater - I had forgotten that. I am going to see if our diver works Sundays; I was probably more concerned about not drowning than being able to look at the wheel closely. Step by step. Eliminate the easy bits first. Throw money at it! Woohoo!
 
It would seem, attempting to drown or not, that you eliminated the possibility of something wound around the shaft/prop.
Progress although maybe not the kind you wanted. Elimination of possibilities. Good????
 
Hawg, had to leave Polar at home this time, he is getting too old to do the dinghy to shore thing anymore, he is very healthy but stiff and wobbly, the thing that will likely get me off boats too. I'm a bit sore today after all that diving and scraping yesterday. This is our first ever boat trip without Polar, could be why the boat didn't want to go yesterday?
 
Diver coming at 5:30, to scrape the wheel and the shaft and to have a close look at the bearing. Also check and clean my transducer. The transmission was at "E" (I'm blushing as I type) and I ran it up again at the dock and confirmed it's now at "F." After the diver has done his stuff, we will take it out again. There's a lovely young woman in a very small no no no got to finish tying the cables for the solar panels! 8^)
 
Have you checked your throttle linkage to make sure you are getting the full throw? How about trying the throw from all control stations?
 
Barnacles! Boatword boatword barnacles. All scraped clean, shaft, wheel, transducers. No problem getting WOT now, enroute Desolation, in fact will be rounding Grief Point in 20 minutes.

I am completely gobsmacked that a bunch of those little bastards could have such an effect on my wheel. Zinc paint is totally useless on props, Trilux 2 is no better than house paint on the hull. I guess I'll have to buy a full wetsuit.

Thank you for your support and your input, I learned something today.
 
Barnacles! Boatword boatword barnacles. All scraped clean, shaft, wheel, transducers. No problem getting WOT now, enroute Desolation, in fact will be rounding Grief Point in 20 minutes.

I am completely gobsmacked that a bunch of those little bastards could have such an effect on my wheel. Zinc paint is totally useless on props, Trilux 2 is no better than house paint on the hull. I guess I'll have to buy a full wetsuit.

Thank you for your support and your input, I learned something today.

Not allowed any copper paint on that boat, correct? Otherwise, Trinidad is the ticket.
 
You check out getting a Hookah dive set-up. We ran ours off of a small (3 gallon) pancake electric (oil-less) compressor. Made working on the prop and shaft etc. almost enjoyable. Pays for itself in a few months of hiring a diver.
 
You check out getting a Hookah dive set-up. We ran ours off of a small (3 gallon) pancake electric (oil-less) compressor. Made working on the prop and shaft etc. almost enjoyable. Pays for itself in a few months of hiring a diver.

I thought "Oil-Less" compressor was not recommended for breathing purposes??


Hookah is fully compliant... but... expensive! Lungs' interior are tender.
 
Barnacles! Boatword boatword barnacles. All scraped clean, shaft, wheel, transducers. No problem getting WOT now, enroute Desolation, in fact will be rounding Grief Point in 20 minutes.

I am completely gobsmacked that a bunch of those little bastards could have such an effect on my wheel. Zinc paint is totally useless on props, Trilux 2 is no better than house paint on the hull. I guess I'll have to buy a full wetsuit.

Thank you for your support and your input, I learned something today.

Soooo... now ya tell us!!

What ever happened to can't turn wheel by hand and disturbing noise??

Barnacles holding onto cutlass bearing too tightly and then screaming as your engine forced the wheel to turn - :rofl: :popcorn:
 
Oil-less means no oil in the air you breath!!
I assembled my own system for under $200 including compressor.
 
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