Mowjo

Ok Folks! first the bad news I'm back I'ts been a couple of years now and I/We decided it's time to get another boat and get back on the Broads, We've been looking at a Hampton Safari's MkIII's and II's, Not my idea of a boat as I like boats that look like boats, but the Old Girl is knackered as dosn't like the idea of climbing over the the side to get in and out and she like the room in Hamptons, so it looks like it's a mini bathtub for us, and if anyone has any info on these boats please let me know here, we have it down to two Hamptons at the moment a Mk II and a Mark III my preference is the III because of the door at the front, and as the old girl is crap at mooring up I have to do it on my own from a safety point the III would be better for me, We are looking at two tomorrow and if the boss can screw the price down a bit, we should be back on the water in a week or two, So hopefully I'll be there soon running you all up the banks and speeding past you, the speed limit is still 20MPH isn't it, or is that just around Horning, I just have to get my Hat and Flag and I'll be set,, : Regards Mowjo,,,,

Don't know if anyone has posted thid but Lidl's are doing them for £29.99 http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl ... _20269.htm Regards Mowjo,,,

Ok! just did a search online and this is the stuff you need,,,,this one is 1inch wide so will give a better seal,,,, http://www.caravan-components.co.uk/epa ... SBS303054R Regards Mowjo,,,,

The jobs an easy one depending on if it's screws holding it in or bolts, so first try taking one out to see if it's a screw or bolt, then go to a good Caravan spares shop, (there's a good one in Yarmouth called Yarmouth Caravans) ask for a roll of window sealant mastic, I think it comes in 20 mtr rolls and cost around £15 to £20 and If I remember it's 3/4 inch wide, on a warm day take the window out, remove all the old mastic from the frame and GRP, then take your roll of mastic tape, remove part of the protective paper and lay it all around the window flush to the outer edge taking it just past the joints in the frame, making sure there are no gaps at the joints, and make sure you don't overlap the mastic tape or it won't seal properly, put the window back in the hole and screw it up just tight enough for the mastic to creep out of the sides, (you may have to use a slightly larger screw if the holes are too big) trim off the excess Mastic flush with the edge of the frame, leave it a couple of weeks to settle, then give the screws another 1/4 turn to pinch the window up tight,,and Bobs your Auntie no more leaks, if you have bolts your problem starts because you have to remove the interior to get to the nuts, other than that it's exactly the same process, looking at your pictures it dosn't look like the rubber is perished, it looks like a bodge job to try and cure the leak, if you look at the bottom of the frame you will see you have weep holes drilled in the frame to let any water getting past the rubber to run out of them, make sure they are cleaned out, if you want to remove that old silicone go to somewhere like Screwfix and get some silicone remover to get it off, as an extra you can apply Captain jacks to the gap between the glass and rubber on the inside of the cabin, but as most windows leak at the joints or around the frame you probably won't need to do that, it reads a lot harder to do than it actualy is, but I've now done my last three boats using this method and never had a leak in any of them, my last Seamaster 813 only took me a day to do and that was all of the windows including the sloping ones at the front,,, the good thing doing it this way is the mastic tape don't set like silicone so if it starts to leak a bit you just give all the screws a half turn to cure it again,, Regards Mowjo,,

Get a move on Barry, I've booked my place for the re-launch, lol We also bought the length of rope (hemp maybe) the price was right and if the salesman was to be believed the provenance was interesting as it came from the winding up sale of Toughs of Teddington, a well known Thames boatyard. Barry! I worked for them back in 1966 it was my first job after leaving School, I started at Teddington and ended up as a trainee Barge builder at their Brentford Depot, I've got some good memories of the fun and games we used to get up to while working there, I was with them for 5 years and never met the Boss once,,,, Mowjo,,,

Ken! all I use if the area is to be painted is normal car body filler like U-Pol or P38, you just need to make sure you key the area before filling it,, Regards Frank,,

Never used it Jim, but this guy swears by it and looking at the results it seem to do what they claim,, http://www.our-cassie.co.uk/boat/restor ... ery_7.html Regards Frank,,,,

This is my new one, probably not the cheapest but the picture quality is brilliant and it has everything built in including Freeview, the only downside is the sound isn't the best I've heard and the 300 games it comes with are like the old Amstrad games, but they still manage to keep my grandkids quite,,, http://www.wedodigital.co.uk/product/20 ... -dvd120bp/ Regards Frank,,,

Is it white smoke or steam due to the lack of water???? If the Impellor has gone the little water that gets into the exhast will instantly turn to steam if the engine is hot, first thing I'd do is change that impellor and see if thats the cause before you go spending loads of money on a re-build,, it's pretty normal to chuck out a bit of white smoke on start up, but once the engine has warmed up it usualy clears, I think it's something to do with unburnt fuel when you start it up, mine does it for about 30 seconds before it clears, If it's chucking out smoke after warming up the you may have a more serios problem, Jason at Ludham bridge has a good motto when it comes to old engines, he say's if it ain't broke don't try and fix it, If your anywhere near his yard pop in and see him, he's great on diesels and they are all really helpful there,, Regards Frank,,,

Colin! I'd say the first thing to check is your weed filter, the fact you don't know where it is tells me it's never been cleaned out, and with all the weed thats been about this last week or two it's possible yours is blocked, you should have a pipe running from your water pump to a stopcock in your bilge, it should have either a lever or a wheel shutoff, turn it fully off and on the top of the filter there should either be a cap held on with two wingnuts of it will be a screw cap, remove it and inside there should be a gauze filter, just take it out clean it and get all the crap out, then reverse the process to put it back together, and rememer to turn the Stopcock back on, start your engine and look out the back of the boat, if you have plenty of water coming out of your exhaste, that was the problem, if not and your only getting a dribble of no water at all then it's probably your impellor that needs changing, it's not a hard job to do but you need the right impellor, you don't say where your moored so I can't help you with someone to do it for you, but if your on the Ant you have David at Broadsedge, Clive at Richardsons, Jason at Ludham Bridge and Moonfleet, I won't be near my boat for a couple of weeks so I can't take a look at it for you, but knowing this forum someone here will be able to help you out,, Regards Frank,,, Ps, just as an addy get someone to show you how to check your weed filter, it's a very important check and if not done you could blow a head gasket or worse seize your engine up, if I'm out on a trip I check mine every time I moor up, a bit excesive but I say better safe than sorry,,

Yup! he's in Catfield, I highly recommend him, he's cheapest I've found so far and his workmanship for the work he's done for me has been faultless, he made a folding screen hinge from my own pattern, a stainless dash panel, which he put a swirl pattern on and made some switch trims just because it looked good and never charged me a penny extra, he also made a couple of stainless tanks for me in the past and no-one else can even close to his price, when I wanted new canopy bars on my Freeman Ken said if you bring them down here I'll make them while you wait, but I sold the boat so they never got done, if you go to see him make sure you have some spare time because Ken does like a chat, And Baz it's about time you got a price off Ken for your new Pullpit, I'm telling Ken I want commission for all these customers I keep getting him,,, Regards Frank,, PS,, Could anyone recommend a company that could fabricate a pair of davits for our inflatable? Mmmmm! never seen davits on an inflatable,,,,

Actualy Jill! I was going to say that the way that guy is doing it isn't the way I was taught, like you the way I was shown you used more or less strands of caulking cotton depending on the size of the seam you were caulking, and I seem to remember using three caulking irons, one for packing the cotton into the seam, the second for compacting it, and there was another thinner one called a dumb iron that you used ahead of where you were caulking to open up a thin seam so you could re-caulk it, the way the guy in the video is doing obviously must work, but I was taught not to overpack the caulking because when it expands you could actualy damage the planks and stress the screws making things worse, Jack the old guy that taught me was an ex boat builder and had probably forgotton more about boats than i'll ever know, but I do remember his toolbox was a weird and wonderful place, he had all sorts of caulking irons and mallets and some wonderfull little things he had made for removing old caulking, it was an honour to watch him work he was a true craftsman, I've never seen woodwork like his and most of it was done purely by eye, it was even more of an honour when he took me under his wing and started teaching me a few things, sadly he passed away before I could learn very much, but I reckon if I had half the knowledge Jack had I be making a fortune today,, Regards Frank,,,

Re-caulking is the easy bit, getting the old caulking out is the hard part, I helped re-caulk Broadland Bittern below the waterline about 20 years ago when my neice owned it, that guys language is pretty tame compared to mine at the time, it took three of us nearly a month to do the job, and it's not a job I'd want to do again, so if you now own Broadland Bittern I'm one of the idiots that re-caulked it, Regards Frank,,,,

Thanks Dave! all my other boats have had vinyl canopies and I've never had any problems with any of them apart from the odd leaking seam, in fact my old Seamaster 25 that I sold some 15 years ago still has the same vinyl canopy on, it looks a bit tatty but it's still got a bit of life left, I suppose a lot of it is down to the quality of the materials used and the workmanship, The reason I was thinking of keeping the Canvas type on my new boat is I basicaly like the look and feel of it, but another Canopy maker told me canvas is ok if you live in the South of France but no good for places like the Broads, he never explained why so I can only presume it's our climate, the fact you need to clean it and re-proof it, it all seems a bit odd when you see how many boats have canvas canopies,, Regards Frank,,,,

Welcome to the Madhouse Annie, I've never seen any of your work, but I've certainly heard some good reports on it, Just out of interest what are the advantages and dis-advantages between Vinyl and Canvas, I have a canvas canopy on my Seamaster 813 which is going to need replacing soon, I like the look of canvas and it's a lot easier to handle when putting it up or down, but someone else told me that canvas is not really suitable for the Broads and I should go for a new Vinyl one, so now I'm confused Regards Frank,,,

Steve! no doubt someone here will know more, but the only two things I can think of is the tell tale is blocked, or the Impellor needs re-newing, if the engine hasn't been used for a while the chances are it's the impellor that has perished, I believe you can back flush the tell tale but I have no idea how you do it on a Johnson, if it's the same as my old Mariner you can buy a thing that looks like a pair of earmuffs that clamp onto the engine sides that allows you to backflush it, if your based on the Broads why don't you have a word with the guy at Ludham Bridge Services and get it serviced, he may even know where you can get the manual for it, Regards Frank,,,

There's plenty of info on the Tek Tanks site regarding fitting tanks, vents and just about everything else, seems the key is the right sized vent pipe and having no sags in the pipework where stinky stuff can collect, http://www.tek-tanks.com/boats/sanitati ... s/venting/ I moored at Horning earlier in the week and discovered what a Poop Deck is, I think every Duck in Horning must have crapped on mine, bloody marvelous hadn't cleaned the deck since the start of the season, Tuesday I decide to give it all a clean and every Duck used my decks as a toilet,,,, Regards Frank,,,,

I came across this Dutch site, it has many of the usual Engine manuals in English, http://motoren.ath.cx/ Regards Frank,,,

When I bought my new boat last year, under the rear cockpit seating I found a new yellow 120v transformer which I removed, this week I decided to clear out all the previous owners junk from under the seats to make room for all my junk, low and behold I find a nearly new Xantex 10TB multistage battery charger fitted to the side of the cockpit, now as my marina has no leccie I have no use for it so i'll probably sell it on, but I have a question! according to the paperwork I found in the boat the charger is 120v input which explains the transformer, I can't see all these boats with chargers carrying a transformer, so are battery chargers normaly run off 240v and is there a better way of reducing the voltage down to 120v, from what I can work out the charger is American but is sold over here as well. Regards Frank,,,

Thats the intention Jimbo, just need the man to do my BSC first, now the Mrs and me have more or less retired I think we may be spending a lot more time out on the boat, I've got a couple of small jobs to finish first, may as well do them before the BSC tester tells me I have to,, Regards Frank,,,,

WooooooHoooooo! problem solved, I fitted the new lift pump and got a bit more pressure all the way up to the injector pump, So I pressume the lift pump was a bit cream crackered, I still couldn't get fuel out of the injector unions so after about four hours bleeding it and a hell of a lot of swearing, I gave up and went to see David who kindly came over and within five minutes had it running, it turns out there was an airlock in the injector pump and my opening everything half a turn to bleed it was the wrong way, David took the bleed screws right out and pumped until fuel came out then re-fitted them in turn, he removed the air bleed screw on the injection pump governor housing and after a few minutes of air and bubbles we had clear fuel, it also turns out that at some point someone has lost the bleed screw and replaced it with a normal machine bolt which explains where the air is getting in as it's not forming a proper seal, anyway it's running as sweet as a nut now, the revs arn't peeking and it's nice and smooth, at least next time I have to bleed it, it won't be no half to one turn, it'll be take the buggers out and screw then back in as the fuel comes out,, so the main problem was a weak lift pump and air getting in through the bleed screw on the injection pump governor housing, and me not knowing what I was doing, So thanks everyone for your help,,,, Regards Frank,,,

Right folks I might be onto something so Jimbo and NeilB might be right and the lift pump is shot, I've just spent hours yes hours searching the net to see if I could find any clues to the problem, at the end of last season I had a little problem where my revs would rise up for a split second then drop back to normal, the common answer I got was the fuel and lift pump filters were the main suspects, so thats why I did the filter change and clean up, now as my boat hasn't been fired up since last September I had no Idea I had a problem until I bleed it and tried to start it, now after endless searching I found a couple of instances that had the same problem as me, revs jumping (ending up with total shutdown) and then problems bleeding it, seems it's all caused by air getting into the system, and in both the instances I found the cause was a hairline crack in the lift pump, so that could explain why I had to prime it for ages to get it up to the injector pump, also if air can get in the crack surely fuel could get out which could explain the strong smell of diesel I always have in the bilges, so a new lift pump is on order and hopefully that will cure the problem, I'll let you know how I get on later in the week, once again thanks for all your help,, Oh yes! I meant to say both the boats with the same problems were both built around 1978/79 and were both on Thornycroft 1.8s, perhaps there were a batch of duff liftpumps around,, Regards Frank,,,,

Thanks for everyones help on this one, I'm not sure if it has an electric stop solenoid, it's a Thornicroft/BMC 1.8 I was told that the injector pump works directly off the engine, Mmm, lift pump, how do you tell if it is working properly?? it did take a hell of a lot of pumping to get the fuel through, I was told that the lift pumps only function was to prime the system and it dosn't actualy pump fuel to the injector pump, but on thinking about it, it has a lever thing that sits on a cam so this to me says it must pump the fuel up to feed the injector pump, when I turn the engine over with the two bleed screws open as the manual says it dosn't exactly squirt fuel out it more dribbles out, so should it squirt or just dribble?? Regards Frank,,,

Jimbo! that may be part of my problem, when it said slacken off the unions and bleed screws I've been undoing them nearly all the way, I've just read on a diesel site you should only open them half to one turn, I've probably been putting more air into the system than I've been taking out,, Frank,,,

I did the cranking bit Jimbo! the last two bleeders on the injector pump I had to crank it on full throttle while there were open, when fuel came out of the first one I had to close it, crank it a bit more then close the last one, then it said slacken off two of the injector unions and crank again with the throttle fully open until the fuel came out clear, nothing, zip, zilch, it spurts out of the injector pump when you open the bleed screws, but as I say nothing from the injector pipes, someone told me it wouldn't be an injector pump problem because i'm gettin fuel out of it, maybe i'll just have to bleed it a few more times once I put the new batteries on, your glow plug trick is the way I test them on my car, can't remember where I learn that one though,, and by the way thanks for all your help,, Frank,,,