There is just one job left before we can become continual cruisers. Well, I say ‘one job’, but we all know boat maintenance never ends. I mean ‘one job’ before we are fully independent and can cast the lines from the marina. It is, of course, that diesel generator. A broken bolt and a system that keeps shutting down after three minutes.
With Liz away in London still, it was up to me to pull my finger out and get this thing sorted once and for all. Fortunately, I was able to book a highly sought-after slot at Thorne Boat Services, just down the road or, more precisely, just down the canal.
If you remember, I broke a bolt on the thermostat housing while trying to replace the thermostat. Because of its position, getting to this bolt wasn’t easy and required a few specialised tools, not to mention the know-how in attempting the job.
My main problem now was getting the boat to Thorne Boat Services. It’s only half a mile away but I have to contend with a lock and some troublesome high winds that were gusting 30kns.
I managed it, but only with a little help from our friends. Our electrician, Gary, agreed to operate the lock although, by the time I left, the volunteers were there to operate it, which was useful.
Matthew, our local engineer, wanted to try and weld a nut onto what was remaining of the mild steel bolt, but it was pretty mangled with not much surface to weld to. Instead he made a jig.
This was designed to be screwed into the thermostat housing cap and would act as a guide for Matthew to drill into.
He then ground it down and retapped it, but not before attempting to extract the bolt (unsuccessfully). The job took less than two hours so I was able to return to the marina by 12pm, which was pretty good going!
The next day, I took the housing apart and started cleaning it. I could not believe how much gunk had collected in our generator’s cooling system!
All this rusty mud also had to be removed from the cooling system, so I flushed it out with some Holts Speed Flush. Did it work? Was I able to get the generator running for more than ten minutes? Check out the video for the full story and the results!
If you like our content and would like to support us, we will give you ad-free access to our videos before they go live to the public, discounts in our shop, access to Jamie’s iconic full-res photographs, and supporter-only blog posts. Click our ugly mugs for more info!
