ExcaliburII
Well-Known Member
As a follow up to my earlier thread http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234274 bemoaning my sudden water leak experience, I eventually accepted the inevitable, organised some heavy lifting gear and extracted Excalibur II's 5 litre petrol V8.
All was going as well as could be expected until yesterday when, having noted that the exhaust pipe only had three bolts holding it on to the gimbal housing at its base instead of the expected four, I had prepared myself to find either a broken fourth bolt or a stripped thread in the casting. I managed to gently undo two of the bolts and delicately sheared the head off the third, and then with a bit of a wriggle and judicious use of the trusty crowbar, off came the pipe.
To my horror, I found myself looking at a gimbal housing that was obviously never designed to accept a V8 style exhaust pipe. A quick look at the workshop manual revealed that the bolt pattern in front of me was intended to fit the exhaust pipe of a 4 cylinder in line engine. In all other respects, the two types of gimbal housing appear identical, so with the engine in the boat it is virtually impossible to detect that the gimbal housing is the wrong one. Until it starts to leak.
I am most uncomfortable with the prospect of just fitting new seals and putting this shambles back together as it was, given the obvious risk of catastrophic failure if the improperly bolted joint parts company. In displacement mode, the joint is well below the waterline with no access to it either inside or outside the boat, so there would be no way to stem the inrush of seawater into the boat.
It would appear that I have just had a very lucky ten years or so of (relatively) trouble-free boating. Clearly after this long I have no hope of redress via the previous owner, so I am now looking for an Alpha 1 generation 1 V8 style gimbal housing.
Anyone know where I might find one without spending a fortune?
All was going as well as could be expected until yesterday when, having noted that the exhaust pipe only had three bolts holding it on to the gimbal housing at its base instead of the expected four, I had prepared myself to find either a broken fourth bolt or a stripped thread in the casting. I managed to gently undo two of the bolts and delicately sheared the head off the third, and then with a bit of a wriggle and judicious use of the trusty crowbar, off came the pipe.
To my horror, I found myself looking at a gimbal housing that was obviously never designed to accept a V8 style exhaust pipe. A quick look at the workshop manual revealed that the bolt pattern in front of me was intended to fit the exhaust pipe of a 4 cylinder in line engine. In all other respects, the two types of gimbal housing appear identical, so with the engine in the boat it is virtually impossible to detect that the gimbal housing is the wrong one. Until it starts to leak.
I am most uncomfortable with the prospect of just fitting new seals and putting this shambles back together as it was, given the obvious risk of catastrophic failure if the improperly bolted joint parts company. In displacement mode, the joint is well below the waterline with no access to it either inside or outside the boat, so there would be no way to stem the inrush of seawater into the boat.
It would appear that I have just had a very lucky ten years or so of (relatively) trouble-free boating. Clearly after this long I have no hope of redress via the previous owner, so I am now looking for an Alpha 1 generation 1 V8 style gimbal housing.
Anyone know where I might find one without spending a fortune?
.. again, a stab in the dark based on nothing more than reading an Ebay post but may be worthwhile investigating as it could mean the difference between, say, a new seal and fit existing housing or buying the new / recon housing.
