Lowdown on the gearbox

Lowdown on the gearbox

May 2017

Thanks to all of you who expressed such concern about our gearbox.

I am glad to say that our problems have now been resolved with a broken 120 PRM removed and replaced with a shiny silver 125, fresh from Beta.

The plastic bits shouldn't stick out.....

To be honest my biggest fear was that having removed and replaced the gearbox the problem would be diagnosed as a twopenny ha'penny washer, or something like it. As it turned out the contractors had real trouble getting the old one out. Firstly they tried to withdraw the propshaft only to see the driveshaft pulling out of the gearbox, which was unexpected as it is supposed to be held on by a locked nut. This problem resulted in a 24 hour delay whilst a puller was obtained.

On day two we had two engineers turn up at 8.30am and this time progress stalled when they attempted to remove the old drive plate from the flywheel. It appears that when it was first assembled the allen studs were imperial and, of course, the only keys they had were metric!

This is how a drive plate shouldn't look!

With this problem resolved the old driveplate was extracted and whaa sorry state it was in.

For those of you unfamiliar with the inner workings of the bell housing the driveshaft from the engine leads into a flywheel which is then attached to a driveplate which is two steel plates riveted to each other via a PVC buffer made by R&D. The old one had almost completely collapsed and was held together with just one rivet! Bits of the plastic buffer were splayed out all over the place and its a miracle it had held together at all.

Then the driveshaft passes into a gearbox which is a simple forward / backward / neutral mechanical affair bathed in automatic transmission fluid. This then attached to the propshaft which includes a Centaflex coupling which absorbs more of the shocks before it goues out to the propeller via the stern gland, which is lubricated by grease and packed with tarry rope.

With no retaining nut on inside the gearbox I am surprised the propeller hadn't pulled the shaft out when in reverse! From the hacksaw marks and silicon on the retaining nut there appears to have been a bodged repair in the boat's first three years of life, before we bought it 10 years ago.

All in all the system was completely shot, so whilst its a pain to have to spend over £1000 on a new gearbox, its a relief to get is all solidly fixed up. Whats more it is a bit weird to put it into forward gear and find is slipping in so smoothly. For years it has engaged with a clunk as all the slack was taken up.

Anyway, problem fixed and on we go. 

Geared up for trouble

The Saga of the broken gearbox

May 2017

I left you moored in Stourport Basin eagerly awaiting a new gearbox, the old one having spewed its contents into the bilge as we made our way out of the Black Country.

Droitwich Canal Festival 2017

Well, things have move one, but only a bit and truth be told its all been a bit of a saga.

Our expectations were that we would have a new PRM120 within a few days and we would be on our way, but sadly this proved not to be the case. There were no spares on the shelf so a new one had to be ordered from Beta before the job could be scheduled. Days dragged by with no firm news till eventually at noon on Wednesday it became apparent that there would be no repair till after the Droitwich weekend.

Trading at Droitwich

So a decision had to be made, to set off down the Severn with a very dodgey gearbox of to resign ourselves to another week in Stourport. The options were considered and as the oil was only dribbling out of the gearbox I figured I could keep topping it up and hopefully we could make it to the festival site. If all else failed we could stop on the river and wait for a tow from one of the other boats making for the event.

It was a nervous 2.5 hours but we made it to the Droitwich Barge Canal without incident and refilled the box and saw an alarmingly large pool of oil under the engine. We carried on up the canal and reached Vines Park with no oil showing on the dipstick!

Festival goers enjoying some sun

And so we managed to trade at the 2017 St Richards Festival under a grey and leaden sky. Not ideal weather but our loyal customers came out in force and we ended up with a very satisfactory event from a sales perspective. Of course, there is more to events than sales and it was great to spend time with other traders and the festival organisers.

As for the gearbox - it has arrived. Sadly an essential tool was missing so the engineers will return tomorrow and hopefully we will be off by the afternoon.

Colours from Morgana

Stationary in Stourport

Stationary in Stourport

April 2017

As you will have gathered - we are going nowhere fast.

One bonus of our predicament is that we have had an enforced stop in Stourport, and I have to say there are many worse places to be. I spent Saturday morning preparing the product list boards whilst Helen paid the local launderette a visit. As a result word got around that we were moored up and we had a steady trickle of boaters popping by to pick up a bag of preserves.

I also took the enforced stop as an opportunity to make a start on a host of outstanding repair jobs, including touching up the paint around the port side windows where, after nine years, the green paint was flaking off the silicone and revealing the old maroon paint underneath. Fortunately the base layer is intact and there is no rust.

Meanwhile Helen was having a cookathon inside and giving the fridge and freezer a baptism of fire.

For Sunday we decided to seek out a local church and decided on All Saints, Wilden, about two miles away which involved a walk back along the towpath to The Bird in the Hand pub and then off across the Stour valley. All in all it was about 30 minutes at a brisk pace.

Fortitude and Triumph

Wilden parish church was selected on account of its collection of Burne Jones stained glass windows. Burne Jones was a core part of the Arts and Crafts movement alongside William Morris, whose company supplied the designs based on Burne Jones cartoons.

Miriam

The seemingly bland church is transformed from the inside and is well worth a visit. Our visit was on low Sunday (the week after Easter) and to our surprise we found the place packed on account of a big christening party. The big congregation made for a celebratory service which was very pleasant.

One further claim to distinction is that Stanley Baldwin, three times prime minister, came form this little church!

During the afternoon we had a surprise visit by our daughter, son in law and grand daughter who came to inspect the boat and take a stroll around Stourport. The funfair was a bit big and loud for such a small person but the ice cream at The Windlass Café went down a treat.

The  family come to town

Boy racers aside, it has been a lovely lazy weekend here at the head of navigation on the River Severn. Hopefully tomorrow will see the return of the engineer and the installation of a new PRM gearbox and we will be on our way. Hurray - Droitwich here we come.

The right gear

Stourbridge to Stourport

April 2017

I have said all along that as we travel more we will actually travel less on a daily basis. Little did I envisage pulling three 12 hour days on the first three days of our journey to Droitwich - after all, we have loads of time and were expecting to squander a few days just " messing about on the river".

Ornamental side pound at Stourton

But fate decided to throw a spanner in the proverbial works. As I greased the stern gland at Primrose Hill I noticed oil in the bilge and a spray of oil radiating from the Centraflex Coupling. As the coupling isn't lubricated it meant the oil was coming from further up the transmission system and the gearbox was the obvious culprit.

I topped the box up but a peep into the engine room at Kinver revealed yet more oil in the bilge and it became clear the something was seriously amiss. We pressed on to Kidderminster where Dan was leaving to get back to Birmingham and Helen was to restock at Sainsburys. It seemed a logical place to seek help so RCR was called. The engineer from Stourport arrived about an hour later and after some probing concluded that the gearbox was kaput. The box had been getting sloppy and clunky in recent years and having given 6000 hours of reliable service so a replacement was duly ordered for fitting on Monday.

Bluebells at Awbridge

The snag was our location - Kidderminster at a weekend. The engineer was not happy and we decided to add some more oil and we would press on to Stourport which was deemed to be "more boater friendly". I had a further very helpful call so say that there were three moorings free on the lock side of the bridge so on we travelled, into the gathering gloom.

Stourport Moorings and very convenient for the town centre, Limekiln Chandlery, elsan and waste so its not a bad place to be held up.

Saturday was spent fettling the boats and making food for the freezer - giving the solar panels a workout as the end results were cooled. We even sold some jam to passing boaters!

I even indulged in a spot of magnet fishing but alas I found nothing of interest near our mooring - but I did rescue a floating straw hat!

So here we sit for a few days, enjoying the warm weather and waiting for mobility to be restored. Tomorrow we explore a local church sporting a clutch of Burne - Jones stained glass windows and later we will be visited by our daughter, her husband and our ever delightful grand daughter Alice.

An escape from the BCN

A bid for freedom

April 2017

The title would suggest that the BCN is some sort of prison, and that's far from the truth. However, its been 18 long months since we have managed to venture beyond the 100 miles of the BCN canal system.

Longwood Top Lock

They say every journey starts with a first step and for us this was the descent of Rushall Top Lock (or the Moshies), a lock which ranks in the bottom ten in terms of usage! Progress was not rapid because no sooner were we into the "Mile Pound" than we discovered it was four bricks down. Then worse was to follow when we arrived at a completely empty pound below lock three. Needless to say the Mile Pound was down another half brick by the time we had flushed water through.

The Rushall Canal after Moses

The Tame Valley was clear of obstructions thanks to the efforts of the winter clean up squad but it was a return to filth as usual on the Walsall. We were travelling at Easter so I guess its no surprise that we encountered the yoof in Great Bridge, with about 20 of them milling around Ryders Green Bottom Lock. In spite of the motorbikes roaring up and down the towpath they were no trouble, beyond some rather aggressive questioning about the possible value of our boats. I was really grateful to have Dan's considerable presence on the towpath.

The area around the supermarket is atrocious, with shopping trolly reefs emerging from the surface all around. We probed our way into these obstructions and managed to find a passage with metal scraping both sides of the hull.

Our planned destination was the Tividale side of the Netherton Tunnel but as we made good progress we pressed on heading for Windmill End where we found four other boats and moored for a peaceful night overlooking the site of the Black Country Boating Festival.

The abandoned Two Lock Line - Dudley No2 Canal

Day two dawned clear and bright so we were off by 8.00am and took advantage of the services at Blowers Green. As it turned out there was quite a mele of boats coming and going from both directions, and one which pulled in behind us had the unique privilege of being our first customer of the journey. I loved the patriotic brolley hats!

First customers of the trip at Blowers Green

Just as we came into Merry Hill I was informed that a water pipe was leaking inder the sink - great! It was a dodgey joint which was quickly fixed with no damage incurred.

Red House Cone - Stourbridge

The Delph came and went, as did the Stourbridge 16 and we moored for the night at the site of the breach at Primrose Hill, just short of Stourton Junction.