Cunning Plan: Wedding Anniversary presents forever solved

[lampshuk]

Thanks to those wonderful people at the Moody Owner's Association I have discovered that Drifter, the Moody 31MkII we bought last October,
was finished and despatched from Princess Boats on August 15th 1988, our first Wedding Anniversary!

So everything I buy for Her (the boat) from now on is, strictly speaking, a Wedding Anniversary present!

I'll let you know how well that works.

Luckily she has comfortable cushions for sleeping on.

 

[Giblets]

Should that not be Drifter Of Mochras?

 

[MoodySabre]

I hope she is holding up well after all those years. :encouragement:

 

[lampshuk]

Yes, she is holding up very well, thanks (give or take a little p-bracket leak and a diesel-dribbling VP2003) - and does indeed labour under the exotic moniker "Drifter of Mochras", to give her full current name - nee McBee (as launched, I think).

How do you know her, Mr ...umm... Giblets?

 

[Giblets]

Also a member of the MOA. :encouragement:

Interested in the diesel dribble as we have a similar issue on Kalita. Up from near the injectors perchance?

 

[MoodySabre]

My diesel dribble took ages to find and in the end it was where the banjo connectors are swaged on to the hoses on the diesel return side. New hoses cured the problem.

I thought I had a P-bracket leak but that turned out to be the seals on the rudder stock (a rubbish design IMO that requires a huge job to replaced a couple of O-rings). The water trickles down passed the P-bracket.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Luckily she has comfortable cushions for sleeping on.

Blimey, I couldnt get away with saying that about my wife!

 

[lampshuk]

From what I can see, the diesel is dribbling from banjos and somewhere near the injectors.
She was dockside while laid up, so I could't run the engine to check extensively, and now I'm loth to dismantle it when I might need it to go out sailing!

My only attempt to do a banjo washer replacement was not a success. I could not figure out how to stop fuel flowing out of the return pipe (surely it's above the fuel level in the tank?) and after a liter or so I decided to go ahead and try to replace the washer anyway, dropped the plastic jug full of diesel into the bilge and replaced one washer with diesel trickling over the whole shebang.

I think I must have put an oversize alloy washer on, because now it's squeezed out from under the banjo and melted onto the metal around the fitting. The fuel is leaking slightly less than before, but still enough for everything (especially the Q-berth) to smell dieselicious after a few minutes of the engine running. I'm actually thinking of getting an engineer to take a look, if anyone knows a good one near Hythe. I did call a few up last off-season but (i) they were maxed out and (ii) weren't interested in such an old lump.

The P-bracket leak is deffo P-bracket. It's actually appearing "magically" through the GRP about 8 inches from the P-Brkt "hump". I traced it with chalk dust. I suppose it could be tracking through the skin from somewhere else, but this seems most likely. I de-filleted the P-Brkt outside, then re-sealed with Sikaflex-a-like. At first it seemed to still be leaking, but last time I checked, it was dry. Slightly confusing.

 

[lampshuk]

Blimey, I couldnt get away with saying that about my wife!

Goodness me. It took over 12 hours before someone gave in to temptation. I was beginning to worry.
Thankyou, moodyNick, for restoring my faith in Scuttlebutties.