Windows and further engine work

There was a reasonable amount of rain on the Tuesday and on checking the aft cabin windows on Wednesday morning I was pleased to find that they hadn't let a drop through.

On Wednesday I tried to remove the propeller shaft coupling but my gear puller is a three legged one and would not fit the two bolt  coupling tried to shift it with a hammer and a wooden block but it would not budge I was tempted to try and pull it off using the engine coupling with a spacer between the two but as the shaft coupling looks like a casting decided not to risk it I will have to lift the engine and pull the shaft inboard and fit the stern gland from the other end.

On checking I found that I was a couple of locker lids short I had missed the floor hatches for the aft cabin which are the same size so I found some ply and cut out two more and gave them a first coat of varnish.

Over the weekend I made a start on some of the work required on the engine ancillaries first off was to remove a broken stud from the exhaust manifold fortunately there was enough of it left to grip with a small pair of stillsons  and after some careful heating, the manifold is cast aluminium, it came out quite easily.

Broken stud almost out

Success

The next job was to open up the engine oil cooler and clean the tubes unfortunately I managed to shear a couple of the bolts that retain the end covers the problem again the bolts had seized in the aluminium casting of the oil cooler body one of the bolts has sheared of flush with the casting so will have to be drilled out but the other has sufficient length to be possibly unscrewed with a bit of help from the propane torch. The tubes on the inlet end were quite well fouled and after cleaning I decided to leave the sheared bolts for another time.

Oil cooler sea water inlet end

After cleaning

First off today I put another coat of varnish on the locker lids before moving on to the removal of the fore cabin windows, fortunately they came out fairly easily but they had been fitted with a huge amount of silicone sealant most of which had squeezed through to the inside, in my humble opinion the only place for this stuff is in the bathroom. The perspex is badly crazed and the mastic seal in the frames has perished so there will be another trip to Hadlow to obtain the necessary bits and pieces to refurbish them.

Fore cabin windows and inner frames