Sunday saw me on Blue Opal for the afternoon doing an oil change, and then staying on board overnight to make the early tide to Malahide (to get the damage from launching dealt with). A bit of cleaning and tidying occurred too!
I was in Malahide by 1030 hours on Monday (having left just after 0700, chatting with the cruise ship escort RIBs on my way), and opted to spend the day fiddling and cleaning. After coming to the conclusion that I needed a stiffer brush for the wood that’s going (gone..) green, I decided to track down the various sensor wires on the 3GM30F engine so that I could work out how to install something like an AlbaCombi (archive) to get actual data from the engine, like cooling temperature and oil pressure.
While doing this, I noticed that the keyswitch fitting was a bit loose, and gave it a gentle turn to see if it’d tighten up. Well, who tell me do that? One *crack* later, and I had 3 parts where previously there was one assembly. Sheared straight through at the threads. A new one has been ordered.
Also ordered a few more oil filters, as I’m down to one spare – they arrived today. Two more diesel filters arrived yesterday, and they look identical to the Racor R12P units, just a bit cheaper. I’d actually say they were made in the same factory, and a different label was applied.
I’m still contemplating the project of lifting the engine out this winter coming. There’s a few projects that hang off of doing that.
- Replacing the sound insulation, and extending it into the cavern behind the engine
- Cleaning up the fibreglass dust in the cavern behind the engine
- Easy oil change for the gearbox
- Easy change of the on-engine fuel filter
- Fitting an electric bleed pump (solid state) to help with off-engine diesel filter changes
- Maybe the project to replace the navigation and autohelm electronics
- Proper check of the engine mounts
- Check the engine shaft to see if it’s worn (survey says there’s slight play in the cutless, and it’s effectively brand new)
- Maybe a Darglow feathering propeller
- Generally a complete overhaul and cleaning of the engine
The starter motor has also been sticking on first, second, and sometimes third press of the button. That one appears to be a known Yanmar problem in the GM series of engines, and the recommendation appears to be “install a relay to trigger the solenoid like Yanmar did in the YM series”; enough current might not be making it to the starter motor due to harness degradation. A new harness is over โฌ300, so I’ll try the approach that might be more cost effective first. Looks like I can get the relevant part (a Panasonic CB1A-M-12V) from RS Online in Dublin for 1/60th of the harness cost.
I finally ordered (several years after planning to do it, thanks COVID) the major service kit for the old Johnson Pump flexible impeller cold sea water pump. Gotta say that the folks at Poseidon Marine were really responsive, and with some photos supplied, confirmed the right part in their stock.
The pump is still mostly intact in the workshop at the moment; I’ll need to get some circlip pliers, and will have to work out how to fashion something to tap the bearings in to place. Managed to free the pump from the bracket using my Hand Tool Rescue medium wrench; nice tool.
