suse
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(PS This post is appearing on several boards) ****Sad to say no it's not! Please one question one forum, if no response after a couple of days then try a further forum, helps to keep answers from getting diluted). I'll leave this one up - Kim****
As some of you may know, I am a joint owner of an elderly Nab 35, and spent most of yesterday with streaming cold, no voice (Ha! what change) and hacking cough, bent double under and around the existing engine, searching for a possible leak in the fuel tank, which is incorporated as part of the encapsulated keel, beneath the engine. The reason for the suspect leak was a couple of pints or more of diesel in the adjacent bilge, no pressure test result and the fact that the dipstick was BONE BONE dry. We concluded there was no fuel in the tank, and my partner went (in the rain) to a local garage and came back with 3 gals of the stuff and poured it down the filler pipe.
However, on finally unscrewing a small hatch surrounding the copper pipe into which the dipstick is inserted, we found the tank to be full to brimming! On removing the copper pipe, it was discovered that the pipe itself had NO connection to the fuel ie by way of a hole, which is why the dipstick was dry. There was also a small expanded polystyrene float surrounding the copper pipe beneath the hatch, which appears to serve no purpose other than to ride up and down the pipe - no connection to anything, too small to be a baffle, nothing. Now, the boat is nearly 30 years old, and seems very well thought out in its design, which made it all the more surprising to find a useless dipstick, apart from the old gits, now the current owners.
What we did: drilled a tiny hole an inch or so from the base of the copper pipe, to enable fuel to find a level in the pipe, and register on the dipstick.
What we wondered: how did previous owners find out how much fuel they were using/had remaining? And had no-one questioned the dry dipstick for 30 years? Did they do it on engine hours alone, because it was a pain to remove the hatch to check the fuel level, and you dont do that on a whim? Are we missing something re the dipstick and the float?
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by kimhollamby on Mon Feb 4 16:15:21 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
As some of you may know, I am a joint owner of an elderly Nab 35, and spent most of yesterday with streaming cold, no voice (Ha! what change) and hacking cough, bent double under and around the existing engine, searching for a possible leak in the fuel tank, which is incorporated as part of the encapsulated keel, beneath the engine. The reason for the suspect leak was a couple of pints or more of diesel in the adjacent bilge, no pressure test result and the fact that the dipstick was BONE BONE dry. We concluded there was no fuel in the tank, and my partner went (in the rain) to a local garage and came back with 3 gals of the stuff and poured it down the filler pipe.
However, on finally unscrewing a small hatch surrounding the copper pipe into which the dipstick is inserted, we found the tank to be full to brimming! On removing the copper pipe, it was discovered that the pipe itself had NO connection to the fuel ie by way of a hole, which is why the dipstick was dry. There was also a small expanded polystyrene float surrounding the copper pipe beneath the hatch, which appears to serve no purpose other than to ride up and down the pipe - no connection to anything, too small to be a baffle, nothing. Now, the boat is nearly 30 years old, and seems very well thought out in its design, which made it all the more surprising to find a useless dipstick, apart from the old gits, now the current owners.
What we did: drilled a tiny hole an inch or so from the base of the copper pipe, to enable fuel to find a level in the pipe, and register on the dipstick.
What we wondered: how did previous owners find out how much fuel they were using/had remaining? And had no-one questioned the dry dipstick for 30 years? Did they do it on engine hours alone, because it was a pain to remove the hatch to check the fuel level, and you dont do that on a whim? Are we missing something re the dipstick and the float?
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by kimhollamby on Mon Feb 4 16:15:21 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
