Maintenance Spring

 No, not spring maintenance, maintenance spring.

It started back in November when one day, when we boarded the boat, the primary bilge pump was running.  Huh.  After a long afternoon of troubleshooting, I was unable to find anything wrong, so I put everything back together.  Weeks later it happened again.  I finally concluded that it had to be the float switch, even tho it seemed to check out OK.  I installed a spare that I had on board, and that took care of that.

Next, we found that the refrigeration system was not running.  Thankfully there was nothing important in either the refrigerator or the freezer.  Eolian's refrigeration uses a belt-driven compressor, powered by a 1/2 hp 12V motor.  That motor had given up the ghost.

Now, in 1978, the motor had quit similarly.  At that time, Eolian was moored at the south end of Lake Union, right in downtown Seattle.  Back then, before the huge influx of cash from Amazon et. al. gentrified the whole area, I pulled the motor and walked it to a rebuild shop that was conveniently located near the marina.  Now however, I had a great difficulty in finding a rebuild shop.  I finally settled on a local automotive parts store who claimed to have a "relationship" with a major rebuilder down in Seattle somewhere.  I dropped off the motor.  Weeks later, having heard nothing, I called and was told that it would cost more than $700 because "...there were several small things inside that were no longer available and would have to be constructed from scratch by skilled machinists."  This not being my first rodeo, I recognized bulls**t when I heard it, and asked for the motor to be returned.  When I finally got it (another long delay), I tore it down and found a badly scored commutator and completely worn out brushes.  The bearings were pristine.  I also noted that no-one had actually disassembled the motor, despite the diagnosis I had been given.

So I ordered some brushes off of eBay for $6 and built a jig to turn the commutator, using an electric drill and a file.  I don't believe that the scoring was the result of wearing out the brushes.  Instead I think it was from that original rebuild way back when.  

Home made commutator turning jig

Before and after

After reassembly and re-installation in the boat, it worked great!  But...

While checking out the installation, I discovered that the Freon charge in the system was awfully low.  Getting that next maintenance item rectified was the subject of a prior post.  Been counting?  This made the third major maintenance item.

Finally, while topping off the water in the batteries, I discovered that the exhaust hose leading from the generator to its water-lift muffler had a big bubble on it and was leaking.  So, a trip to West Marine to get hose and a tube of silicone (has anyone noticed that the silicone manufacturers seem to have colluded to stop producing resealable packaging for silicone??!?). 

Installing the hose will happen this coming weekend, presuming that something else doesn't fail before then...

And to think that I was seeing this spring as an easy one...

Maintenance Spring