Spring refit

It has been clear and sunny here for most of the week, but today it was actually warm out as well, so we chucked our respective afternoon tasks for work and headed for the marina instead. It's time for Insegrevious' spring cleaning and refitting!

It surprised me a bit to realize as we were driving toward Shilshole that I actually have a list that is shorter than my own arm to be done before the boat is ready to go for the season. Despite having a terribly rough year last year, she's really not in terribly bad shape; or rather, there are some potentially serious problems, but they are neither numerous nor particularly urgent, so I am more optimistic about boating this year than I have been any spring for a long time.

My hopes for today were even more limited: I wanted to get the sheared off screw on the bow chainplate drilled out so we could get the bow rail mounted again and at least make her look whole again. I also wanted to pull the fuel feed mechanism off our stove and take it home for more detailed cleaning and examination. Mandy wanted to get the tarp off and get the dodger cleaned, and I thought if we got through all that maybe I would get the tools sorted into "rust-destroyed" and "not-rust-destroyed" piles and perhaps take a closer look at the engine and the water pump. Realistically, I didn't expect to get anything done other than getting the screw drilled out, if that. I had given it a shot last fall and come away utterly defeated; despite procuring specialized tools and sinking almost an hour into it, I hadn't managed to budge the thing.

Today, it was out clean fifteen minutes after we got to the boat. I have no idea what changed. Maybe it was just too cold before. I used the same reversing bit. We did secure the bow a bit better to have more leverage on it, but even so it seemed like it was a completely different bit--it just chewed right into the thing. Although it was one of those two-step processes where you drill a pit into the head of the screw and then use the other end of the bit to dig in and back the screw out, but I didn't even need that. The first step, where it dug in to the screw, budged the thing out enough that I could get a good grip on it with a pair of needle-nose pliers, and it was loose enough that I could just screw it out that way.

That seemingly laborious task quickly and easily completed, we moved on quickly to separate tasks: me to the stove, Mandy to the dodger.

The stove mechanism was stuck good--once I pried it out, I found a lot of gunk which had been gluing it into the feed reservoir. We brought the mechanism home to be cleaned and checked. I have had my fill of it, and that sort of detailed work is more Mandy's forte. I scraped out most of the gunk from the reservoir but Mandy will have to finish that bit as well... if for no other reason than her hands are small enough and mine are not.

I spent the rest of the time scrubbing rust off of tools and the engine. I didn't get the mixing elbow off, but after taking a closer look at it, I am thinking it might not actually have a leak after all... there may just be a loose fitting. I had pretty much reconciled myself to dropping a couple hundred bucks and replacing it but that may not be necessary. I'll pull it off and leak test it another time anyway, but am thinking now it may be okay. The mount bolt beneath it looked pretty solid too, once I got the patina off it. I also noticed that the transmission lever, which is located near both those items, was a little cruddy, so I cleaned that too and am hoping that may help with the hard shifting problem we have had.

My next plan for the tranny is to get it warmed up, drain the oil, and fill it up with diesel for a bit. I've heard that running them for ten minutes in a diesel bath, while regularly shifting between forward and reverse, can help considerably with sticky shifting, so I will try that and cross my fingers that I can avoid a rebuild on it this season at least. Rebuild kits aren't that expensive, but I don't feel comfortable doing it myself, and I have heard some real horror stories from people who have had third parties install or rebuild their transmissions. Better the devil you know....

Anyway, I'm pretty optimistic about things at the moment. A lot of cleaning could be done, and Mandy wants to redo the interior woodwork, which is fine with me. I didn't get a chance to take a look at the water pump... the warm weather did not magically fix that the way it seemed to have done with the chainplate screw. We have to empty out the cockpit locker to get at it; I suspect a rebuild or perhaps just replacing some wiring might get that going again, and those are pretty cheap and quick solutions.

More soon, I hope!