A Blast From The Past

It is 30 years since I last adjusted tappets and that was on a motorcycle.  So I had to buy a set of feeler gauges, something I never thought I'd be buying again.

Look proper tappets

The inlet ones needed closing up a bit and the exhaust ones opening a bit, but in all cases it was only fractional.  However its amazing how much quieter it is after.  In fact I think the engine is running in a bit now and is getting quieter anyway.

I also checked the gearbox oil which was clean as a whistle and still at the correct level.

I had an annoying bit of water coming in on the floor of the port engine room bilge.  I was convinced it was rain coming in through the engine air vents but it was curious that it's only one side.  I had to modify the intake vents.

However, while running the engine after the tappets I noticed a trickle of water from the normal spot where it runs down off the counter. There was only one place it was possible for water to come from and that was the exhaust outlet.  I tightened up the exhaust clamps but that didn't work so I repositioned them and re-tightened which cured it. So now I have a dry bilge at last.

 

Time for a repaint I think

Another annoying problem I've been having is with the generator start up.  The power on relay was not always latching on, but a wiggle on the remote plug would normally get it going until the next time.  All indications were a dry joint on the circuit board so I removed it from the genny to expose the board and a bit of wiggling produced the fault which turned out to be a bad connection on the fuse.  So that's another one sorted.

I've also re-routed the water inlet so the generator gets its water from the secondary strainer as well now. 

All I need now is some reliable periods of dry weather to do some painting outside.