Help Rebuilding a Blake baaby Head

Capn_Crusty

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Hello from across the pond and please pardon my abuse of our common language.

I've just acquired a used Blake Baby head to install in my boat and I'm having difficulty disassembling it for a rebuild. I've never even seen one disassembled before so I don't know exactly how it is fastened together and I don't want to damage it. Since they're probably much more common on your side of the pond, I'm hoping someone here can give me some knowledgeable guidance.

Here's my situation. There are two bronze flanges that seal against a hollow protrusion on the outside of the bowl at the rear. One flange has a tube inlet for the fresh water and the other flange has a raised boss with a large hex head fastener in the center of it. It would appear that all I have to do is unscrew the hex head fastener and both flanges will be released from the bowl protrusion. What happens however is that the flange with the boss turns with the hex head fastener and never unscrews.

How do I remove these two flanges?

Thanks for any help that you can give me.
 

tugboat

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Hi Capn Crusty and welcome to the forum. I had a Baby Blake on my last boat, I think mine dated back to the 1960s and was still going strong. You are correct in your observation of the parts, it is the flushing water inlet for the bowl. The two parts should unscrew and there should be a rubber seal on each side of the porcelain. I assume you have tried using a pipe wrench to hold one side while you use an adjustable wrench on the hex head? If this is unsuccessful, you might try turning the bowl on it's back so that the guilty parts are resting on the floor, and then pour some releasing fluid under the rim so that it flows inside the porcelain inlet and can work on the frozen joint. If you should break anything be reassured that all parts are still available. Good luck.
 

Capn_Crusty

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Thanks for the information Tugboat. Sure enough the flange opposite the hex head was turning also (I don't know why I didn't notice that before), and after I found a way to hold it I was able to break the screw threads free and remove this assembly from the bowl.

I've got the head fully disassembled now and since the paint is gone (it was lime green original paint, which I wasn't aware of being an option) I'm going to clean it all off, polish the bronze and cover it with clear lacquer. It'll be a thing of beauty when I'm finished (though beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder in this case).
 

Cornishman

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I carried out exactly what you describe on a Baby Blake back in the 1970s. I had taken it ashore to the workshops where I worked and while I had my hand in the bowl giving it a thorough clean the Bosun came in singing that song which has a line in it "Show me a motion". He was not amused when I pulled my hand out and asked if that was what he was looking for. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
BTW I got a complete parts list along with an exploded drawing from Blakes who were most helpful.
 
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