Easter

For once in the UK we had glorious weather on all four days of Easter.  We visited my mum and dad on one day and I also did some boat work on one of the others. On the Sunday, we took Misterton out for a little trip. The river was quite busy and at the lock we decided that it was probably not a good idea to try and squeeze in behind all the fibreglass boats, so we waited patiently.

I'd got a new steering wheel for Misterton from  a guy called Mike in Lowestoft - the internet is a wonderful thing. It took a bit of fiddling to fit, including moving the gearlever, but its better to use than our original one.

another good idea was to drop the entire front window assembly. At some stage I think we'll install opening windows, but this is a good way to stop us overheating for now. Reminds me of a friends old Landrover when we were at school with the windscreen dropped.

 We found a mooring just past the park which was good for boat/people spotting. We had a few chats with passersby.

And what did we do with Nate for critical manoeuvres such as locking and mooring? I found an old storage box made a safe 'bed' for the duration.

Three things

For no particular reason, here are three things likely to be of interest to the few.

First up, Misterton turning at the Bell Weir lock last weekend. We were stopping at the Runnymeade Hotel for a late lunch. A line between the landing stage and a bollard about 1/4 way back from the bow means that she pivots around just ticking over in forward gear.

Misterton Turning at Runnymeade from Simon Sparrow on Vimeo.

I've painted some more of the engine, mainly the flywheel and silencer. The black ends on the silencer are just vactan treated rusty castings.

Finally the obligatory photo of Nate. Some how he and Johnny Wyer had their own exihibit at the National Portrait Gallery.

Fun with fuel

Part of the general refurbishment of the fuel system has been the planned addition of a pre-filter to separate out the worst of the sediment before it hits the engine mounted filters. I also plan to install a day tank, but that hasn't been made yet.

It took a few goes before the correct parts arrived, but they finally did this week. I've mounted the CAV-type pre-filter assembly on the forward engine room bulkhead (wall to landlubbers). This involved drilling and tapping some holes for 10mm bolts. Not that it needs this degree of strength, they just happened to be the right length.

Note the jaunty angle of the whole assembly. This is to give a gentle upwards slope back to the fuel tank above, to ensure that any air works its way up, away from the pump and injectors. Or I drilled the holes late at night after drinking some Belgian beer.

 The fuel tank on Misterton is above the engine, it was installed there along with the original engine in 1948. We've had to truncate it in order to run the stairs down one side, but its essentially the same  one its always had. One problem has been that the fuel tap leaks, meaning I'd need to empty a drip tray every week. I couldn't figure out how to replace the tap without draining the 800 litres of fuel first.  Then I had an idea - the fuel tap sits at the bottom of a sump, but there is an inlet pipe that sticks about 10 inches up into the tank to pickup fuel, so that any water and containments are not used. Based on the size of the external fitting I thought I could use a laboratory bung on the end of a rod to block this off so I could swap taps.

This didn't work, as the fuel inlet pipe was much smaller than I thought. My next variation on this idea was to use a spare bit of 20mm conduit to slip over the inlet pipe and then plug the end, therefore preventing fuel flowing in the same way as putting your finger over the end of a drinking straw.

This actually worked and allowed me to swap the original brass tap for a new ball valve that doesn't leak.

The picture below show (L to R) the conduit, the old tap and the bung on a stick.

 The new tap looks like this.

The other brass tap is to drain the sump and check for water etc. It doesn't leak, which is just as well as the idea above wouldn't work for this one.

Here are the bits old and new in place, just chasing leaks now.

Finally, my mother complained that she read through a whole entry about Lister filter restoration and there were no pictures of her grandson. Well, here is Nate modeling his new lifejacket, taken during the two minute window of fitting it and him not liking being in it at all. He'd better get used to it, that's all I can say.

Next time: Everyone bucks up their ideas, apart from me (not required obv.)

Engine Stuff

This entry is likely to be of interest to very few people, after all, how many people really want to see inside a 1930s-era diesel filter?

As a continuation of cleaning up the engine, I've dismantled and rebuilt the fuel filter on the engine. This is a twin filter unit for the Lister marine engines, the idea being that if one clogs (due to the vessel heaving up and down on the briny and dislodging silt from the main tank) then you can switch over to the other one and keep going.

Not much danger of that on the Thames, but a good idea all the same.

Many people might be familiar with modern cartridge filters made of pleated paper in a metal shell. This filer system uses a skinny cotton 'sock' about 5 feet long. I guess this just acts a bit like the intestine and absorbs fuel, leaving the sediment on the outside. I've no idea how long the original ones were on there, but they were black with dirt.

  

The picture above shows the complete length of filter wick.

This picture above shows it being coiled into its basket.

 The completed unit. I got the replacement wicks from Stationary Engine Parts.

Finally a couple of shots of the engine with more of it painted.

 More boring than the lightbulb entry? Only you can let me know. :)

St. Patrick

One of the benefits of having a half Irish wife (and I guess now a quarter Irish son) is that having at least one pint of the black stuff on the 17th March is mandatory. Only one pint this time due to grouchy 9 week old Nate, but better than nothing.

Here's me and Nate.

..and me and Mary, with the back of Nate's head.

Work on the barge continues in the background, I'll write more in a week or so when some final bits arrive.

In the meantime, this is what things looked like last year in the bathroom,

 ...and the year before in 2009 (this is where we sleep now!)