Up and running again.

[ChrisP]

Gearbox back in and working perfectly boat no longer a floating traffic island.
Like this opotunity to say "PAH" to the ba***rds at the Twin Disc agents in Queenbourgh, especially the guy who thought that the customer relations manual included laughing at the customers request for a rebuild quote.

Fault turned out to be a damaged drive plate. Replacement got from Mermaids £80 along with plenty of tips from the parts manager and real customer service from the lady on the front desk.

Thanks to Mark Antil who managed to wriggle around all the obstruction commonly found in the engine room and took out and replaced the gear box with indecent speed and excelent standard of workmanship, Phone number available please send pm. (He's also Volvo trained but luckily they forgot to take the "give value" chip out of him at the end of the course).

Anybody that has similar twin disc box's get yourself a copy of the manual ( can copy mine if you can't get one) it even has working drawings to manufacture the special tools required for stripping the box.

ChrisP ;o)))

Now looking for a spot of decent weather to carry out sea trial.

What do you mean the sea gull in front's walking !!!

 

[DepSol]

Glad to see your up and running again. Dont think you missed much weather wise tho!

Dom


I just want my boat back in the water ;-(

 

[lanason]

Good news - sounds like a much cheaper fix than it might have been.



Adrian

Any jobs going ??

 

[longjohnsilver]

Chris, good to hear that things are now ok and that Mermaid still providing service to the usual high standards.

I too have a twin disc gearbox, have been told they are the best. What actually happened to yours? What were the symptoms?

 

[ChrisP]

We were on our way to the IOW for the weekend. Got out of the marina and got the boat settled in the right direction. Opened up the engines from 2000 to 2200 and the drive on the port engine sudenly wasn't there. Luckily my hands were still on the throttle and I closed the engine down before she could over rev. Turns out that the splines in the drive plate had ripped out. Apparently they are designed to be softer than the splines on the box input shaft to avoid the input shaft being damaged.
Talking to the Mermaid chap, this can happen if the engine has had alot of low speed work with alot of gear shifting. Or just age. Mine are showing about 1250 hours. Unfortunatly it's virtually impossible to detect an iminent failure without whipping out the box and inspecting the plate. No Sunday afternoon job on the Humber. The worst part of the saga is the fact that I got some oil on the teak decking and it's stained it. SHMBO realy P***ed off and reminds me of that particular feeling about every 10 mins. Even worse the No1 offspring is comming down tonight. Two of them having a go, best I retire to the darkest corner of the pub. Alternatively could start both engines and sit in the cockpit amid a good cloud of Ford cold engine smoke, maybe they'll miss me in the fog.

Chris (suffering from much abuse) P. )

What do you mean the sea gull in front's walking !!!

 

[oldgit]

Chris.What was the name of the company in queenborough who annoyed you. Would be very interested to know as live not far away.

 

[ChrisP]

MIT was the name. I presume they are the only Twin Disc agents around as everybody I spoke to said they would send it to them rather than do the job themselves. They gave me the impression they were the gearbox equivilent of Volvo Penta.
Going out now to buy a second hand gearbox and to get the tools made then I'll see just how difficult they are to work on and why they can charge about a grand for an afternoons work.
May even start looking for an alternative source of spares. Maybe direct from the factory.

ChrisP

What do you mean the sea gull in front's walking !!!

 

[longjohnsilver]

Stain

Have you tried Bilgex to remove stain, seems to get rid of most oil marks.

Otherwise maybe carpet the cockpit or insist MrsP always wears dark glasses or as a last resort revert to your old tactic of subtle electrocution!! <G>

 

[KevL]

But surely cleaning it up, as with anything else, is her job so shouldn't it be you who is a tad miffed that she has let it stay there so long. <ducks>


--
Tides - Never there when you need one.
Wind - Always there when you don't.

KevL

 

[ChrisP]

Tried this and Longjons idear. Now enjoying bedrest in the intensive care unit. Please send red cross food parcel.

ChrisP ;o)

What do you mean the sea gull in front's walking !!!