April 25, 2011

Last Tuesday I brought my helm pump parts into Hydraulic Power Sales, a local place that specializes in you-know-what. They seemed to know their stuff and thought they could replace all the seals, including the o-ring, shaft seal, and machine screw seals. They are a bit backed up now, so it will be a week or two before I know if they've succeeded. Keep your fingers crossed! I'm just happy I've found someone locally who is comfortable dealing with an old, probably orphaned, British helm pump.

During spare moments during the week, I finished polishing and lacquering the brass oil lamps from Circadian. It makes a big difference in how they look, and it's something I can do while relaxing and watching a movie.

Bringing the dog into the vet, house work and tai chi practice took most of the day on Saturday. But I did manage to pick up some more teflon tape and some fittings so I could finish up the plumbing work for the forward head sink and sump drain.

Rain was in the forecast for Sunday, but I headed out to Hidden Harbor anyway, bringing along a list of projects that could be done in the rain. It blew hard and drizzled all morning, but turned into a pretty nice day by the afternoon. With so many flowers in full bloom, it was a nice day all-in-all.

The first task of the day was to examine and document what was left of the original autopilot system with the idea of seeing if it would be possible to salvage some of the rugged old below-decks electric and hydraulic components and mate them to modern replacements for the long-gone helm electronics. It was a tougher job than it sounds because I had to climb down into the aft lazarette and bend, spindle and mutilate myself to get everything done.

I also wanted to try to test the motor to see if it still worked. To do that, I humped a 75lb battery into the hole. Once the investigation got a little further, however, I realized I had wasted my effort lugging around the heavy battery. While my earlier cursory look at the old system led me to think there were only five wires coming out of the motor controller, it turned out that each wire was actually a cable with multiple conductors. While some had only two or three wires each, a couple had eight wires each. Two of these cables went to a junction box where the wires were further scrambled. Even with a total of just, say, 20 wires, there would be 400 possible ways of connecting them. Opening up the cover on the controller just confirmed how hopeless it would be to try to sort things out without a wiring diagram.

It might be possible to just tear out all the innards from the controller to try to determine the power leads for the motor. If I were able to that, then I might be able to sort them out and mate them to a modern controller. It might also be possible to connect a new motor/controller to the existing pump shaft. However, it would need to have the same size shaft as the old gearing output and have a similar gear reduction to work. Not very likely. The third possibility would be to use new motor, controller and pump and plumb it into the old plumbing. Messy and expensive, but definitely feasible. Of course I also need all the 'front end' pieces for the helm, including the compass and computer. I sent photos and the diagram below to Wil Hamm of WH Autopilots to see what he thought. I'd love to use his stuff if I can afford it. If it's way out of reach, my fall-back would be a CPT wheel autopilot like the one on ebay that I recently bid on and missed. It's a far cry from the integrated below-decks hydraulic system, but at least it's simple, rugged and reliable older technology.

In the last few weeks I noticed a section of the plywood liner in the doghouse was exhibiting tell-tale signs of possible rot: cracked paint and mold growing in the cracks. It felt a bit soft, and this weekend 'the screwdriver test' confirmed the worst.

Rot is like cancer: to cure it, you have to cut it all out. The "easy fix" of drilling holes and pouring in low viscosity epoxy simply doesn't work. At best, it masks the real problem until it gets even bigger. You can guess how I know.... So, for the next two hours I chipped, chiseled, pulled and pried until I reached clean solid wood. Because the plywood was backed on the outside with pretty thin fiberglass, the technique required was an odd blend of finesse and brute force. Sharp new chisels and a 4 lb sledge hammer got the job done. Eventually. It will take a while to make patterns and cut new filler panels, but at least the rot is gone.

After a bit of a break for beer and lunch, I went to work on the remaining plumbing issues in the forward head. I finally had all the pieces and supplies to finish the job. I was able to put everything together, but even with lubrication and lengthy immersion in boiling water, the sink drain hose was singularly difficult to get over the pipe barb. Once everything was put together, it had to be tested, of course. Everything worked fine: the sink drained and the shower sump pump worked and drained the sump. Unfortunately, the new sump drain fitting leaked despite my tightening the plastic collar as much as I dared. So, I took it apart and applied a thick bead of LifeCaulk around the collar and reassembled it. I'll test it again next week when it's fully cured. Wish me luck!

By this time, the sun was getting low and my limbs were getting heavy, so it was time to clean up, pack up, and head home.