Stemar
Well-Known Member
On Saturday, we got hammered coming back from Langston to Portsmouth. It takes a lot to wash the windows on a Snapdragon 24, but beating home in what Solent CG described as 6 gusting 7 did it! (So that was why there were no other boats out there... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif)
Great fun, but we paid for it as the engine died coming up to No 4 buoy and we had to come into the harbour under sail, which is an, err... interesting... experience in a gusty westerly with the wind coming from all direction or none and a fastcat bearing down on us.
Predictably, it was the primary fuel filter. I had the necessary filter and the tools, but I reckoned it was just too bumpy outside the harbour, especially as my crew had been out with me three times in as many years, so couldn't really be left to handle the boat on his own for any length of time.
Next morning, the ten minute job turned into a two-hour curse-fest as the top sealing ring refused to go in smoothly and stay in long enough to get everything back together. It would have been an absolute nightmare at sea, blowing a hooly and in the dark /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
I don't want to have to go through that again. I'll try and avoid it by keeping the fuel tank over half full in future. Cleaning it out is problematic, cos the only ways in are through the filler and the fuel supply and return. It's a metal tank glassed in the back of a locker, so removing it would involve an angle frinder and, probably, the tank in several pieces. Ideas for cleaning it would be welcomed!
I want to have 2 filters in parallel, so I can switch to the spare by opening and closing a few valves if it happens again, but the CAV filters are £25 plus, even on eBay, and, as you have probably gathered, I'm on the ham-fisted side when it comes to things mechanical. I really don't feel comfortable with all those sealing rings and bits that have to line up, so I'm looking wistfully at the spin-on cartridge on my car. I could change that (accessibility aside /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif ) in 30 seconds, with a good chance of no more than a few drops of diesel spilt.
So, to come to the point (at last!) What are the disadvantages of going to my local breakers and unbolting a couple of complete units from, for example, a pair of Transits? I've never seen any water in the sight glass of my current CAV unit, whose plastic drain tap would certainly snap if I tried to undo it, and I've seen spin-on cartridges with drainage taps if I did ever have a problem.
Fuel is gravity fed and the engine is a Volvo 2003.
Great fun, but we paid for it as the engine died coming up to No 4 buoy and we had to come into the harbour under sail, which is an, err... interesting... experience in a gusty westerly with the wind coming from all direction or none and a fastcat bearing down on us.
Predictably, it was the primary fuel filter. I had the necessary filter and the tools, but I reckoned it was just too bumpy outside the harbour, especially as my crew had been out with me three times in as many years, so couldn't really be left to handle the boat on his own for any length of time.
Next morning, the ten minute job turned into a two-hour curse-fest as the top sealing ring refused to go in smoothly and stay in long enough to get everything back together. It would have been an absolute nightmare at sea, blowing a hooly and in the dark /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
I don't want to have to go through that again. I'll try and avoid it by keeping the fuel tank over half full in future. Cleaning it out is problematic, cos the only ways in are through the filler and the fuel supply and return. It's a metal tank glassed in the back of a locker, so removing it would involve an angle frinder and, probably, the tank in several pieces. Ideas for cleaning it would be welcomed!
I want to have 2 filters in parallel, so I can switch to the spare by opening and closing a few valves if it happens again, but the CAV filters are £25 plus, even on eBay, and, as you have probably gathered, I'm on the ham-fisted side when it comes to things mechanical. I really don't feel comfortable with all those sealing rings and bits that have to line up, so I'm looking wistfully at the spin-on cartridge on my car. I could change that (accessibility aside /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif ) in 30 seconds, with a good chance of no more than a few drops of diesel spilt.
So, to come to the point (at last!) What are the disadvantages of going to my local breakers and unbolting a couple of complete units from, for example, a pair of Transits? I've never seen any water in the sight glass of my current CAV unit, whose plastic drain tap would certainly snap if I tried to undo it, and I've seen spin-on cartridges with drainage taps if I did ever have a problem.
Fuel is gravity fed and the engine is a Volvo 2003.
