Not a sailing post, just a blast at gun culture mentality

Americans, and us Canadians too, will have prayers, memorial services and lay flowers in all sorts of places in memory of this horrible and preventable tragedy. All that does is comfort the living. It does not help the murdered. It most certainly won't help the next bunch of victims, and there will be a next bunch, that gun culture will always have a next bunch lined up. Organizations like the NRA don't have an upper limit of deaths where they pull back the reins and say,"Hey, maybe we should do something about this!" . The NRA and people of their ilk, do actually do something when shit like this goes down, they buy more guns and ammo and hoard them "to prevent crap like that from happening again". Go on any gun site/blog/facebook page and that's what you read. It is sickening. They want to arm teachers. Unfucking beleivable. The furor of this will die down, then another event will occur, and the cycle will continue.

Three Stages of the Raw water Pump Repair

To rehash, here is the raw water pump from our Perkins 4-107. Very grungy, right?

Here it is all dissembled and sandblasted. Take note f the damage I caused removing on of the seals. It is to the left of center.

I had some chrome paint at work, so after priming it I painted it all shiny. Whether it is durable, that remains to be seen.

Stupid photo is on its side. Orrrrr, maybe the blogger is stupid. Only true Philosophers  can solve that mystery. At the 6 o'clock position (at the bottom of the inner circle) you'll notice a dark area. That is my repair using a product called Belzona. I have damaged stuff before and have had to effect repairs. Still waiting on locating someone who wants to sell me a repair kit.

Perkin 4-107 raw water pump removal and overhaul

Here is the pump removed and at my work bench at work. (I only work at it on my lunch hour). The impeller looks to be in good shape but the real reason for this picture is so that I have a record of the direction the impeller vanes have to face.

The impeller is out. I can't see how one can remove the impeller with the pump still attached to the engine. Perhaps it can be done but the hour I spent trying didn't work out in the least.

Here is a shot of the pump with the shaft and bearing pressed out And when I say pressed out, I mean I had to press them out with a hydraulic press. I will have a couple of rebuild kits on board, but my work on this tells me a complete spare pump must be available for repairs at sea.

This is a close up of the shaft hole with a back light trying to show you the damage caused by me while removing the seal. I chipped the seat where the seal sits. Poor design but I can remedy that.

Here is the pump and cover all sand blasted. The cover is just sitting on the pump. The pump has no guts, still trying to locate a parts supplier but strangely enough, not one Perkins dealer has got back to me yet after 5 days. I plan on researching the paint procedure. I would like to use a good primer on the brass body, then see if there is a home powder coating system for the actual paint job. I would like to get a Perkins blue so I can have a shiny part on my 1974 engine.

You see the damage on the left side of the recess in the pump? I did that with a hammer and punch, removing the seal. Looks bad and it is. But fortunately, or unfortunately, I have done this once or twice before as a marine engineer and it is repairable. I would normally secure a washer the same size in there, flip it over and apply a dab of Belzona Molecular Metal to it. Belzona is a resin type stuff that when cured, you can drill, thread and sand it. Won't be as tough as brass but it will give me a sealing lip to work with.

I am a cheap bastard and like doing things on my own. I have no problem with hiring people, I am going to pay someone to change my cutlass bearing after all, but I do like to save the cash. Sure I spend more time on stuff like this, but let me tell you, I will know every system once I work on it. I will have to know a lot just to be able to keep sailing after I retire in 3 1/2 years:)

raw water pump removal

Here is a great shot of our raw water pump taken by my wife Ellie. Her reasoning is that I am always in a conundrum on which way the impeller goes when I am re-assembling the unit. She is pretty smart. I could not pull the rubber impeller out.

Here is the ugly beast that purrs like a kitten.

If I couldn't remove the impeller, I removed the pump instead. Here it is on our dining room table. I am having troubled locating a rebuilt kit for it, but when I do, I will sandblast the exterior and paint it up nice. It will be the one shiny thing on the engine.