Maintenance Log February 2013
February 28, 2013, Thursday
Spent almost all day in the Lafayette area
returning lights purchased at Lowe's searching
for a solution to power the Port's second WiFi router at the North Pier Marina,
and purchasing a thermostat for the reefer/freezer.
Struck out on finding a power brick for the
second router at the marina.
I did return the two lights, and purchased two different shop
lights at Lowe's.
I was able to go by Johnson
Supply in Lafayette and
purchase the required thermostat for the reefer/freezer. When
we finally got back to DREAM AWAY around 1830, I verified
operation of the thermostat before installing it. Kitty and I
got the new thermostat installed, and we now have a functional
reefer/freezer.
February 27, 2013, Wednesday
Started off the day, by checking the weather
on the Internet, catching up on emails, and working on the
next update on the web page
I got to the shop late in the day, and
installed two shop lights I had purchased at Lowe's.
They both tested good on the bench, but when I attempted to
hang them up, the lights went out, and never came back on
again. Will have to return them tomorrow.
I also attempted to install my Sirius
satellite radio in the shop. It did not go well, as there
seems to be a problem with the power to the radio. It could be
the 120VAC to 12VDC converter I purchased. Possibly not enough
amperage. I took the Sirius satellite radio back to DREAM AWAY
and it checked out just fine there, so I must find a 120VAC to
12VDC converter that puts out 1.5 amps.
I sanded down all of the pieces of teak wood
on which I had put the second coat of varnish. The sandpaper I
used was 320 grit, so I was just preparing the surface for the
next coat.
When all of the sanding was finished, I wiped
down all of the parts with a tack rag. I then filtered the
varnish, and applied the third coat to the teak wood pieces.
February 26, 2013, Tuesday
Worked on the refrigeration system. I took
the panel apart and removed the bad thermostat, and verified
all of the necessary part numbers.
I finally went over to the shop and started
putting away all of the stuff that we unloaded from the
Black
Beast on Sunday evening. I was able to get a fair amount of
all of the stuff put away. I put up a set of shelves, and
started putting different items on the shelves.
When I finished with all of the moving around
of stuff in the shop, I sanded down all of the pieces of teak
wood on which I had put the first coat of varnish. When that
was finished I sanded down the two oars that I had painted.
The sandpaper I used was 320 grit, so I was just preparing the
surface for the next coat.
When all of the sanding was finished, I wiped
down all of the parts with a tack rag. I then filtered the
varnish, and applied the second coat to the teak wood pieces.
When that was completed, I filtered the yellow paint and
applied the second coat to the two oars.
February 25, 2013, Monday
This day turned out to be a bit frustrating.
The weather was terrible, and the main project for the day was
to install another WiFI Router for the Marina.
I had to remove the existing mount that had the original
router on it, and drill holes for the cable of the new router.
Then put the mount back up and get the new router physically
installed between thunderstorms. The new router did not come
with CAT5 ethernet cables, so they had to be purchased.
The routers power brick would not physically
fit into the waterproof box where the electrical outlets were
provided. This meant I needed to get a new power brick with a
different physical configuration. First trip to Radio Shackin
Abbeville, I was able to get the needed Ethernet cables, and a
different power brick. When I got back to the Marina,
I discovered the new power brick did not fit either. Second
trip to Abbeville to return the power brick. The folks at Radio Shackwere
no help in pointing me to a source for a power brick. First
project, half done.
During the router installation, and in
between the thunderstorms, I discovered a problem with my
refrigeration system. The thermostat for the freezer had
failed. The reefer/freezer system had been installed in 1995,
and already I had problems! I did a bit of troubleshooting,
and discovered, I can run the refrigeration side of the
system, which also turns on the freezer side. When I
originally built the system I set it up to run just the
freezer or if you ran the refrigerator, the freezer also ran.
It has been a great system. Did I mention I can make my own
ice cream in the freezer. So now I will need to order some
parts for the reefer/freezer system.
February 24, 2013, Sunday
Today was the day that I needed to spend on
the Black
Beast, and get the engine noise problem fixed by
replacing the power steering pump. With a lot of help with
another boater at the North Pier
Marina, Mark, we were able to
determine the problem was not the power steering pump, but the
harmonic dampener.
This was good news and bad news. The harmonic
balancer was much easier to change that the power steering
pump. We removed the harmonic balancer, and Mark drove me back
to O’Reilly
Auto Parts to return the power
steering pump and the power steering fluid, and to purchase
the harmonic balancer. The great news was they had one in
stock, so back to North Pier
Marina to install the new
harmonic balancer. This went very well, but when we put the
serpentine belt back on we discovered the belt had stretched a
bunch due to the bad harmonic balancer.
>Mark drove me again, back to O’Reilly
Auto Parts to purchase a new
serpentine belt, and they had it in stock. When we got back to
the marina we installed the belt and that fixed the front
engine noise problem. I also had a very small leak at
the front of the engine and discovered that problem. We had to
remove a front protection plate to gain access to the front of
the engine to remove the harmonic balancer. When I removed the
plate, I discovered one of the transmission cooling lines was
rubbing on the protection plate.
I was able to remove the swage on the cooling
line and add a hose clamp which stopped the leak. We then
drove the Black
Beast over to the car wash, and I pressure
washed the front underside of the truck, including the front
of the engine. I then moved the transmissions cooling lines
out of the way, and put the protection plate back in place.
With the area all cleaned up, I will be able to notice any
leaks, and be able to repair them very quick.
February 23, 2013, Saturday
In the morning Alan and I went to the store
room and picked up several containers of used oil, and went to
the recycling center and dumped the oil. Back to the store
room and again started going through all of the stuff. By
1000, we had another load of trash, which we took to the
dumpster. Back to the store room and loaded the
Black
Beast
with a load of goodies.
I was having a problem with the Black Beast.
I was hearing a noise from the front of the engine. I had
thought the problem was the idler bearing for the serpentine
belt. I replaced the bearing because it was the easiest and
cheapest way to go. That was not the problem. On our way back
to Delcambre, we called O’Reilly Auto Parts, and ordered a power
steering pump, because I was sure that was the noise problem.
We stopped at O’Reilly's and
picked up the new power steering pump, and then went home to
DREAM AWAY.
February 22, 2013, Friday
We drove from Delcambre over to
Clear Lake Shores, Texas, so I could help our friend
Alan. He was getting out of his store room, and wanted some
help with that effort, he also wanted to give me some of his
stuff and return some of the stuff I left with him when we
went cruising in 2009.
We had lunch with our good friends Pam and
Steve. In the afternoon, I worked with Alan in his store room.
We filled the Black Beast with a full load of trash, and took
it to the dumpster.
February 21, 2013, Thursday
Since my third retirement, I am getting back
into working on projects on the boat. I have my shop all set up
and I am finally catching up with other responsibilities, so I
feel I can actually start with the electronic maintenance log.
Today I took over to the shop several pieces
of teak that I had fabricated and installed on DREAM AWAY, but
never got them varnished. There are two pieces that prevent
the stove cutting board from sliding out from under the stove
when not on the stove top. One piece is used in the nav
station to hold up the counter when I need to get into the nav
station. One piece holds the telltale compass to the overhead
above the nav station, and the last four pieces are covers for
the bolts holding the SCUBA compressor rack to the aft cabin.
I sanded all of the pieces and applied a coat
of varnish. Since all of the pieces are on the interior of
DREAM AWAY, I will only put on five or six coats.
I also put a coat of paint on the two oars
that I use in the dinghy. They were looking pretty good, but I
decided to try and get two maintenance coats of paint on the
oars before there is an issue.
