granddad

Give matt of msv 07940398108 a call. he has just fitted my beta 43 for me. Over the last 2 years he has been a great help to me. He unshipped a lister for me and fitted this beta 43. I'm merchant navy and seen it all I cant fault him and I have 4 others who agree. There is a slipway 100 yards up from cropredy, where I am, try them for the engine lifting , richard thomas 07790843865. Then bowhaul the boat back to cropredy to await the repaired engine. Cropredy will do the return boat bit for you for a small price probably, they understand these problems. ken

I have an apple 4s iphone. My wife wants continuous tv. Presently i use a yagi aerial on a decorators pole but some areas its not good tv reception. I have ee from work, £55 a month. I set it to hotspot, jam it into the mushroom vent and it receives 3g (maybe), and retransmits it into the boat. I then receive it on an ipad and she can get tv half the time but with much buffering. The 3g isnt briliant (this is south oxford canal). I read about huwei 5756 and solwise routers but don't understand it well. Can anyone recommend what I should buy with a good or any chance of success? ken

yes - webasto 9kW is also too frail- try webasto 2010 (13kw)

So the beta 43 it is. Do i need two alternators? I i run for 2 hours most weekends and the marina shore line has charged the batteries, i have a vsr which charges bothbattery banks and I have 6 leisure batteries of 110 ah each (plus the engine start). I intend going on hols to liverpool from near oxford so say 4 hours a day for many days, so i think the leisure batteries will be well charged, I have a 1kva honda geny to charge them if not. Should i get a 3.3 or 5.5 kVa ac alternator with the beta or not. It will attract liveaboards to buy it later maybe, but its a bigger space and expense. any ideas gratefully received. Ken

The beta 43 comes out well from this as does the BMC. Is the barrus - shire anywhere. Is the beta easy to access for servicing ie oil oil filter air filter fuel filter. Is it noisy? I'm most interested for my 59 foot narrowboat. I'm a countryside and industrial nut so interested in the use of the engine to travel around. I slept with Sultzers and Burmeister and wain at 110 cycles per minute so no need for that again. Ken

Thank you for both the question posed and the reply. My lister petter of 1999 (LPW4) has been rebuilt recently and I have your problem but with no idea of the cause. After an hour running the mid range engine speed varies by +/- 50 hertz cycling at 2 second intervals. Its unlikely that the governor was disturbed in the rebuild but the fuel pumps are new and the lube oil is the thinner running in oil. I was about to search for a fuel line letting in air but your explanation means that I no longer need to worry. The engine is not about to stop. Thank you for setting my mind at rest as I have a long journey this weekend to get the bottom blacked in cropredy. I prefer a worry free journey Ken

Could it be that the ptfe rope isn't cut but put on as a complete spiral, ie one length of rope. Also dont bother with the corkscrew remover it won't enter the ptfe rope. a 100 mm phillips screw and a battery powered drill will be better. Pump up the grease prior to removal, don't turn the propellor or it breaks the seal a bit, and it leaks a bit. Otherwise leave it it alone until it leaks and you can't stop the leak even with 15 foot lbs on the spanner (15 foot lbs is enough to open a new jar of jam) Then carry a new length of ptfe rope, buy it from ASAP, and fit it then. It only takes a couple of hours as long as the side bolts have not been stripped of thread. ken

that's very clever and I will use it when required. ken

My batteries are 7 off one engine start and 6 leisure. The connections are not correct. all are 110aH.Three of the leisure batteries are on the other side of the er but feed into the 2nd of the leisure batteries as does the victron energy charger/inverter 2500. So there are 4 batteries on view. lhs is the starter battery then next in line is the first of the leisure batteries, then the second with feeds from the remote batteries and the inverter. My question is to establish the ground rules for the connections the shunt is to be fitted to the first battery negative with no other connections. The starter motor connections to be across the starter battery. The vsr is to be connected across from the neg of the starter battery to the neg of the first leisure battery. No other connections are to be to the neg of the first leisure battery. All the negative leisure connections are to be to the shunt but away from the battery connection. Is that the plan or have a missed important bits? Ken

if its st90 - white diesel is fine. otherwise get a webasto 2010. ken

was your dog injured? what did the vet say? ken

i hope and pray its the switch I'll fit a new transmitter and I'll fit a wet oil pressure gauge also to let me know when the engine is going to let me down. thanks for your reply ken

I've had the low oil pressure alarm light and buzzer "go off" on my 15 year old lister engine. The alarms go after 30 minutes of running, but only on tick over ahead and astern but not when in neutral and not when the engine revs are increased. Strange as I expected the neutral to alarm also. On further investigation with a substitute wet oil pressure device It appears that the engine oil lubrication pressure is 4 bar when cold and 2 bar when warm. The engine runs well and there is no bottom end knock. The inference being that the engine is sound, the oil pump is sound and the problem lies with the oil pressure transmitter or the wiring to that transmitter. I have ordered a new transmitter and hope that fixes the alerts. I will check the voltages across the transmitter and I assume the voltages should be 12 to 14 volts across two of the three terminals and say 5 volts from earth to the third terminal. Does that sound about right? Ken

so moran or stirling was the donut who gave the oxford the wooden square bollards at locks and lift bridges. Thank god they have gone. Can it be ensured that properly qualified people are employed in future. No qualified seafarer would countenance that foolish error. ken

i had webasto 90s it failed with the red derv of last 5 years. supplier said try webasto 2010 its bullet proof - and it is. ken