March 28, 2011

With the seemingly endless series of storms that have been coming through, I'm glad I have a boat! Although something more like an ark might be needed if this keeps up. When not fretting over the 30-50 mph winds and the rising creek behind my house, during the week I cleaned up the Skipper head parts, stripped the old paint off as needed and sprayed on a new coat of white epoxy. Although the old paint wasn't really in bad shape, it had obviously been slathered on thick and without any prep. The result was a coating full of runs, lumps and zits. Can't have that on my precious bronze throne! Besides, if I'm going to go to the trouble of rebuilding the head, it ought to show it.

Saturday was devoted to reassembling the head and installing new flaps, springs, gaskets and shaft packing. Although the US Navy's little guide to onboard repair of the Skipper head(http://www.usna.edu/Sailing/newsite/resources/documents/navy44s/info/headrepair.pdf) said that the most difficult part of reassembly was remounting the base plate (because of the need to compress the foot pedal spring), I was more concerned about getting the piston back into the cylinder. It had taken a surprising amount of force to pull it out, and I didn't want to damage the leather piston cup seal. Although a new leather cup came with the rebuild kit, two different sources said that changing it is a very difficult job, "best left to professionals." So, I decided to reduce the friction of the piston and cup against the cylinder wall as much as possible. I conditioned the piston leather with Dyer's Special Blend Oil (http://www.carldyers.com/ ), sanded the cylinder wall with 400 grit paper to get rid of deposits and roughness, and then buffed it out. In the process of doing this, I noticed that the top of the cylinder opening appeared to have a flat section. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the mounting flange in that location was flattened on the edge and bent up. Apparently, at some time in the past, someone had dropped the heavy assembly on that edge while rebuilding it. That would explain why it was so hard to pull out the piston. Without a sizable machine shop and the skills to use it, there was no way I could do a proper fix. The head pumped fine before, so if I could get the piston back in, it should work fine again. Nonetheless, I tried to mitigate the damage as best I could with a big hammer and wood blocks, followed by a little light grinding on the mounting flange. I didn't want the base plate joint to leak due to a bad seal caused by a flange that wasn't perfectly flat, so when I remounted the base I used non-hardening Permatex on both sides of the thin paper gasket. Just before my attempt at re-inserting the piston into the cylinder, I lubricated the cylinder wall with some light oil. I was able to push in the piston about 3/4 of the way, but then it wouldn't budge, even while twisting it and pushing down with as much force as I dared. I tried a few light taps with a hammer and it popped right in, dropping all the way to the bottom of the cylinder. Apparently the distortion of the cylinder was limited to only the section just below the rim. The rest of the assembly was straightforward. Even screwing down the base plate wasn't especially difficult; I used a webbing clamp to hold it in place against the pressure of the foot pedal spring.

While Sunday was still cloudy, the wind had died down and although there was some possibility of rain, it remained dry. I headed to the boat to install the rebuilt head and see if I could connect the troublesome plumbing for the sink drain and shower sump. I did get the head installed and it functioned properly, but it had a couple of serious leaks initially. One was from the mounting bolts for the raw water inlet manifold, the other from the pump handle shaft. I cured the former by making some rubber washers by splitting a couple of rubber grommets I had on board and installing them under bronze washers. I was able to reduce the latter leak considerably by tightening down the shaft packing nut. Although I cranked the packing nut down as tight as it would go, it still leaked about a drop for every ten strokes of the handle. Although I had used the new cylindrical packing material supplied in the service kit, it seemed to be missing a packing washer shown in the exploded diagram. The old material I removed was conventional stuffing box packing wound around the shaft, so that didn't offer any clues. To cure the leak completely I may have to add a ring of stuffing box packing to the cylindrical packing already in place.

The payoff for all this yucky work that many might consider unnecessary is that I now feel like I have a pretty good understanding of how this head is put together and how it works. I will know how to deal with future issues much more efficiently when I may not have the luxury of being able to do it at my own pace in a nice shop that isn't rockin' and rollin'.

All in all, it just wasn't a good day for leaks. When I checked on the leaks that had led to water on the port fuel tank and engine room bilge, they had reappeared, despite all my work to staunch them, with no discernible source. I'll just have to resort to a good soaking with the hose sometime when I can watch and wait to try to locate the source.

While I was finally able to fit one end of the troublesome T fitting barb into the sink drain hose by grinding down the barbs a bit and heating the end of the hose in a pot of boiling water, it turned out I didn't have the right fittings to connect the other end. The only other thing I accomplished was to make patterns for some aluminum trim I plan to add to the inside of the pilot house windows as a hopefully simple fix for the leaks that dribble onto the teak nav area. Stay tuned to see if it works....

March 21, 2011

Carol came up for the weekend, and a full day and a half of it was taken up with preparing for, enjoying, and cleaning up after an elegant dinner with my friends Jim and Cathy.
Thankfully Carol did most of the work for the dinner, so I was able to sneak off into the shop for a couple of hours to dismantle the Wilcox Crittenden Skipper head in preparation for servicing it. Latex gloves are definitely de rigueur for this sort of operation. Other than the predictable "Yuck!" factor, it all went pretty smoothly, with the exception of pulling the piston out of the base casting. That required considerable leverage, which I ultimately supplied with a large crowbar, some scrap blocks of wood as a fulcrum, and a piece of broom handle which fit neatly through the pump shaft hole in the piston lever.

On Sunday, Carol and I did manage to make a brief run to check on the boat to see how it had weathered the rain and wind predicted to gust over 60 mph. Everything was fine and it appeared that my most recent efforts to deal with the cabin and engine room leaks were successful. I also tried connecting the new tee assembly into the sink and shower sump discharge hoses, but was unable to get the sink hose over the barbs despite heating the hose with a hair dryer and lubricating the barb. Next I'll try 1 inch barbs instead of the 1 1/4 inch. Nothing is simple.

March 13, 2011

I spent a lot of time during the week going from one hardware store or home improvement center to the next, trying to find the plumbing fittings I needed to make a “T” so that I could route the output from the shower sump pump into the head sink drain hose rather than the intake hose for the head where it had been. The problem was that the sink drain hose was 1 ¼ inch, not the most common plumbing size, and the sump pump hose was only ¾ inch. I finally found what I needed, but I went to at least half a dozen places until I found the last bit. Nothing is simple.

Because I have company coming next weekend and will be out of town three days next week on a photo shoot for my job, I had to allocate time this weekend to glamour jobs like laundry, house-cleaning and toilet-fixing. I did manage to squeeze in a few hours on Circadian, though, and continued to work on projects begun last week.

I installed the final locker door in the head , glassed over the screw holes in the top of the port cockpit locker that I suspected of being the source of a small but elusive leak, and filled and reinforced the joint where I had glued in a new fiberglass panel in the opening for the starboard cockpit locker.

With all the multi-tasking and hustling I've been doing, I hope I can retool my psyche enough to have some fun next weekend, even if the house isn't exactly presentable!

March 7, 2011

Activities on Saturday were built around an appointment with an appliance repairman I had called upon in desperation to solve a subtle and elusive, but serious problem with my dishwasher. Two hours of work later he was able to identify a series of small problems that added up to one big problem. Once that was taken care of, I did some more research and testing of the Wilcox Crittenden Skipper head I brought home last week.


Through my reading I learned that the problem that originally led to my removing the head (no water could be pumped into the bowl to fill it) might be caused by a couple of relatively simple issues. It turns out that if the intake chamber in the head is not primed (filled with water), pumping is ineffective. Because the boat had been sitting on the hard for months, and the head hadn’t been used since, it was very possible that it just needed priming. To prime it, I held the foot pedal down to hold the in-flow flapper valve open and directed a stream of water from the garden hose into the intake. Still no luck pumping the bowl full. Continuing my reading, I learned that it is possible for the intake flapper valve to get stuck against the seat. That also seemed a reasonable possibility, with the head possibly having sat dry for months. To free it up, the intake manifold cover is removed, the foot pedal held down, and the flapper pushed open with a screwdriver.


While doing all this may or may not have cured the problem, as a result of the partial dismantling of the head, it was clear the seals, gaskets and sundry rubber goochie wackers were not in good shape. With the head out of the boat and on the workbench, it made sense to simply wait for the arrival of the rebuild kits I had ordered and rebuild it as originally planned.



Sunday was a day filled with rain, mist and mystery. Given the rain and mist, outside or epoxy work was out. I planned to check on the status of the last few stubborn leaks and install the head locker doors I had refurbished over the last few months (see January 10, 2011 post). I also wanted to run the engine under load for while and hang a blanket over the side to protect Circadian's paint from fender rub.




Here’s where the mysteries come in. The leak that caused water to pool on top of the port side fuel tank seemed to have been fixed when I caulked around the fuel fill fitting (see February 27, 2011 post). Dusty dry after the last big rain. Now there was water once again pooled on top of the fuel tank and some wetness around the bottom of cockpit coaming locker that I had sealed and fitted with a new fiberglass lip (see January 31, 2011 post). Careful inspection with a flashlight while it was raining revealed two sources of a slow drip: a couple of old screw holes at the top of the locker immediately under the solid teak cockpit combing cap. Sigh. At least I found the source. Once everything dries out, I should be able to cure it with a little epoxy putty.

The other mystery was the miraculous reappearance of numbers on the engine’s electronic hour meter. It’s failed and spontaneously recovered before, but I was convinced it was dead for good. Worked fine for the entire time the engine was running. Probably some quirky internal intermittent failure, but I want to test it to see if it is voltage sensitive, and doesn’t work if the d.c. voltage is below 12.5 volts.

Mysteries aside, I spent the day improving the plumbing for the head and installing the head locker doors. I also removed the clamps and checked the cure of the epoxy holding the new cockpit locker panel I cut and glued in place last week. I still need to grind the back side and add reiforcing fiberglass tape before I can do the final cut-out and fill and fair the front panel prior to installing the new hatch.



Next up: tackle the head. The P.O. had the intake line for the head and the outflow from the shower sump pump sharing the same thru-hull. If there was anything less than a perfect air-tight seal all the way through the shower sump pump, the head pump could just suck air through the pump rather than draw in sea water. I disconnected the sump pump output from the head intake line. Once I get all the required fittings I’ll have the sump pump outflow routed through the head sink drain line and thru hull. I also wanted to install a raw water strainer in the head intake line because without one the small organic bits that would be deposited in the toilet, hoses and holding tank can lead to bad smells. I removed the strainer and never-connected hoses that were left over in the engine room when the old generator was removed (see November 15, 2010 post) and installed the strainer in the head intake line.



The head locker door installation went fine, and I was able to figure out what went where. I did find that one door was missing hinges, which I will be able to scavenge from the sole remnant door from the stripped out aft head. That door was in such bad shape that I won’t be able to use it anyway. I’ll have to rebuild the aft head area virtually from scratch. But that’s a long way down the road….

I really enjoyed seeing the big improvement in how the head looked with the locker doors (mostly) in place. It will be even nicer to have the head rebuilt and working and the shower sump system sorted out. That will mean one small but important area will be done.