Hi Guys, I watch a youtube machinist in the Cape Cod area in the USA. One of his jobs is straightening prop shaft to within extremely close tolerance. Maybe you could find someone locally to do the job. Love watching you working on your big wooden boat. Thanks and keep it up.
You need to change the diesel heater silencer to a marine grade one immediately. The one fitted is not air tight as it’s designed to be used outside. You run a serious risk of c02 poisoning with that silencer. Marine grade ones are about £40 and are fully welded and sealed
Before jacking your engine at all four mounts disconnect the coupling then make sure the shaft when passing to the inside (engineroom) at the stuffing box. Make sure the shaft is centered in that stuffing box. If the shaft was dragging on the bronze you would see some bronze dust near and beneth the stuffing box and this can cause shaft deflection and possible shaft whiping. Make sure the the gap between shaft and stuffing box is equal distance all around. If not you will need to make an x jig inside engineroom to hold the coupling in alignment till you jack the engine to the shaft coupling. When the coupling Halfes can slide together and the shaft passes in the stuffing box equal distant gap all around put in your coupling bolts and tighten to about .025 inch coupling gap. Then check your gap at 000. 090 180 and 270 degrees. Check coupling to your gear mfg. Specifications. That should be the process. I hope that is helpful to you. My qualifications is that I was a Senior Chief Machinery Technician and Warrant Officer Naval Engineer for 31 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. If you have further trouble we can email further. MEC
Two great achievements, lights and heater. However, I think that the best achievement is the way you as a couple, climb from adversity, as in vibrations and the cost of curing them, back to something really positive.
I know you have fitted many diesel heaters but if I might offer some words of advice in regard to the exhaust location. Technical wisdom indicates that the pipe should either exit level or downhill from the heater. This is to prevent the buid up of acidic residue that occurs upon start up and rundown. This residue if trapped will eventually rot through the exhaust piping even withstanding that it is stainless steel. Hope you are not offended as i am an avid subscriber.
Just a little tip, and if you look you might see my old boat Marion in Pwllheli. I had the air intake in mine in the lazzerette, so it was sucking smelly air, heating it and blowing it into the cabin, perhaps you can route a pipe to bring fresh air from outside into the heater and not the engine room, I pulled it in from the other end of the cabin
One thing that looks like a possible issue with the vibrations without props is the location of the shaft anodes. I would think being located closer to the strut would be better.
Just wondering, did you check in the US for the props? FedEx goes everywhere!! And up and down the east coast you can fine about any type of marine products you can want.
The starboard prop shaft appeared to have a serious whip! Possibly caused by engine alignment, or mishandling by your delivery service from the machine shop to the boatyard. Even newly machined shafts could leave the shop straight and arrive bent. To overcome this problem I used to lift them off the lathe and put them straight on to a special attachment on the roof rack of an estate car and drive to the yard! Autotherm is a good product but while it is claimed to be made in Latvia, it is actually made in Russia, Supplies of parts may become scarce. One of the byproducts of combustion is water. It is recommended that a condensation trap is fitted to the lowest point of the exhaust otherwise you will have problems down the line. This applies to all makes of diesel heater.
I have a Chinese diesel heater in my workshop and it has been fantastic , it works quiet and efficiently. I was very sceptical about it because of the price but I cannot fault it . I have now bought an Hcalory one for my Nelson 42 to replace the old Eberspatcher and it is almost a direct swap . The advantage with it seems to be the simpler wiring with all the electronics built in . Time will tell as to it’s reliability but at £138 it is a small risk compared to the replacement with a like for like Eberspatcher at nearly £1400 !! There are plenty of you tube videos on these and very few negatives reported so we shall see how it goes .
I have no experience with boat drive trains but as an engineer the position of the zincs on the shaft concerns me. They are not a high precision item (and will continue to be so as they erode) so the engineer in me would not position them mid way along the shaft I would probably fit them close to the bracket. There may however be a reason they are where they are.
One big short circuit was enough for me to learn that you need some electric tape with heat shrink tubes :) Just a tip to avoid those difficult electric issues :)
With all large projects there are setbacks and delays and problems. But in hindsight they appear miniscule compared to the finished result that one can be proud of.
Good episode even if it is about an expensive situation. So you have a wobbly shaft and poorly props, so I think shifting to light power propulsion is just genius, although you need to fit a couple up forward for manoeuvring.😉🤣 As the shafts are coming out - Get a ‘top hat’ turned out of nylon - outside diameter close fit into the stern tube, inside diameter that fits over the shaft at the stern tube end - this will enable you to ensure the shaft is running centrally through cutlass and stern tube (at the stern seal end). This is step 1 in shaft alignment. What follows is the engine/gearbox alignment to the shaft you can do this on the hard to get you to the right ballpark but it needs a final check once the boat is afloat. I don’t like the shaft mounted anode - would be worth investigating of you could mount that on the strut.
real top tip for using heat shrink on a boats electrical joints it to slide a couple of slivers of heat stick glue off a glue stick into the heat shrink before heating. It gives a total water and salt air seal and protection as it melts with the heating process and fills the joint making it fail proof.
So sorry you are having so many problems with the Tiara. I live about 40 minutes from Holland, Michigan where they are produced, but you're so far away.😮 I could grab the parts, but that wouldn't help much. Your perseverance in these projects is amazing. I love your channel! You encourage me to keep on keeping on!❤
I have always wanted to fit lights to my vessels but for one reason or another never got around to doing it, so to say I am looking forward to you getting to sea or in harbour and use them will be a treat.
If you don't mind shipping to the states, There is a U-tuber, Keith Fenner Who specializes in boat shafting . He would probably do a video about it. He is top shelf !
I love cliff hanger endings. Stay warm you's two. Good luck with the props. Looking forwards to the next episode.By the way those lights will look awesome when you're in the water.
I remember looking at that lighting stand inside the main tent at Southampton boat show....they had an amazing choice of lights....not much call for them on my Rib boat, but I was tempted 😊
I do enjoy following you both as you take on different interesting tasks each week 👏😁, I’m sure you’ve got some great adventures ahead of you once she is finally in the water 😎
After you disturbed the p bracket and removed the shaft s, did you properly realign the gearboxes to the shafts? It’s done with feeler gauges and adjusting the engine mounts. It needs to be done every time. If you keep running the shafts out of water you will cook the cutless bearings in no time
I just to say I hope all goes well with this particular boat . I have watched all your adventures on on the other one .i do hope everything you do to each full fills your dreams.
Realize its been a lot more work and money spent then you had hoped. However it impresses me with the quality of build the boat appears to be? Considering how old it was perhaps you were a little optimistic in the first place? Going to be a great family boat once it hits the water! 😊 OMG just stumbled on your Boat Restoration Channel ..... LOL, these repairs are nothing compared to what you have your hands on with your WW2 ship rebuild! Crazy you two .. 😂
Many years ago I had a similar problem with (UK sourced) replacement propeller shafts on my Bertram 28. Basically the problem was the narrow diameter of the original shafts at high rotation speeds. Bertram solved this by using 'Nibral' steel for these components. I have no idea, to this date, what Nibral steel is and neither did any of the UK specialists I approached for help at that time. However when I finally had to order new ones from the 'States (via the Bertram dealer in St Tropez, France. - Sadly no longer in business) these 'Nibral shafts worked just fine. So, to cut a long story short, if you get stuck, may I suggest you just get replacements direct from the US. This may save you money in the long run (and if you find out what 'Nibral' steel is please let me know) - Have fun - The Tiara is a great boat.
From my uncle Google "Nibal a metal alloy made of nickel, bronze and aluminium, often used for underwater parts of ships and boats, such as propellers, stabilizers, and foils" so your shafts probably weren't made from that, prop shafts are generally made from stainless steel from either type 630, 316, 304, and 30 according to my uncle.
Well done you two, brilliant, think we all feel your frustration and yes must agree a "pick me up" was well overdue! The heater is a must but those lights are just awesome!! 👌 All the best 👍
Awesome lights guys and that heater will make a difference to your time on the boat too. So as you both pointed out you could maybe do with lighting in the engine bay and better lights in the cabin too, as just like the heater it will make your time on the boat a lot more pleasant. Good luck getting her splashed on time and getting the the fun times you both clearly need started
Be so cosy in there now, will make big difference. Sad to hear about the props, shame the advice you got turned out to be wrong could have put that money to the new ones. keep fingers crossed they do not take too long to arrive.
Really looking forward to seeing what your new lights look like in the water - we'd really like to fit some to our boat. Interesting you're fitting your new diesel heater in this video. We stayed on our boat last night and had our diesel heater on for the first time this winter. I really hope the new prop's and shafts sort the vibration problem.
Honestly, I was really happy with mine last winter.. I was using a dryvan trailer as mobile shop.. ran the heater when not running the genset and furnace. Now just a 12 x16 shop, and semi-retired tuning vintage 2-stroke bikes, saws, and boat motors.
Great that you are committed to doing it right. Have you considered rechecking the crank endplay, especially since shafts are out? Also, rechecked the injectors?
Don't forget the shed on the transom, for the youngster's sailing dinghy! (nothing heard about that for a good while!) - - I've never seen prop-shafts bend like that! Perhaps they have been skimmed at some time, and have more mass on one side than the other, so although they measure straight when static, the off-centre mass causes them to bend, a bit like the buzzer in your phone, only bigger!
i know little about boats, other than what i have seen, a couple of You Tubers, i did question the props when you put them on, kind of looked like old fishing boats (haha as you described tug boats) probably not far from the truth - i reckon yours need to look much sportier - the vibration in them shafts without the props suggests an issue with the type of shaft, almost as if you need another stabiliser in between the engine and support at the propeller end - does question everything that the previous owner did to muck this boat up - great you guys have got some brains to investigate further, get the professional views from others - great work
My uncle was right sadly... there an expensive hobby Keep yourheads up guys I HOPE YOU WENT BACK TO TO GUYS THAT DID THE REPAIRS AND COMPLAIN !! Looking forward to the next one guys .. STAY WARM AND SAIN X
The lights looks really nice but don´t over use them while out of the water I think the water is meant to keep them cool, even led´s get hot when run long enough especially with out cooling.
Simon, I fitted a diesel heater last year, like you did, I also had a bend in the exhaust ending up higher then the exhaust port. After a few times of use I heard a gurgling at the bottom of the exhaust bend. It had filled up with moisture and was full of water. I had to place the heater higher and have the exhaust port lower to cure this issue.
Shouldn’t you have rigged up some sort of water running through the cutless bearings? Did you check the shaft coupling/transmission alignment before condemning the props?
Bit more metalwork and bearings halfway up the shaft homework for you Simon. Worrying as if you ground even new props just once you could be back where you started.
I know that it's hard to swallow a big expense like new props and machine work, but doesn't it feel better to know what the root cause of the issue actually is? I thought that you were both going to lose your minds at one point ... having a solution to the problem at least gives you a light at the end of the tunnel -- regardless of the cost. On another note ... just think of how cool those lights will be while fishing off the back of the boat in the evening!!! #winningintheEnd
The two happiest days in a mans life is the day he buys a boat and the day he sales the boat. I live in Florida and have owned several boats and at some point they just become money pits
Go fast lights on a boat that have been parked on the hard ☹️. Alll boats are money pits like a house . But because its a thing that normally goes on the water it's a fortune. it's a good job you got a Simon that's a practical person. And it seams like Gemma that does what Simon says. 😂🍻🏴
Wow! Thar was a lot of whipping of the shaft. Great that you caught it. Shame the workshop company couldn't get them straight. New tapers is the way to go. And new props of course. That's the cost of previous owner running aground. Keep up the great videos!!
Looks good guys.... with all of the new electronics I hope you are making a wiring diagram with numbers and letters matching on it.... be the crap's getting out and needed such. Greets from Rock Island Illinois
