In this episode of Sailing A B Sea we're getting into the serious boat jobs which include disconnecting the prop shaft from the gearbox to change the stern g...

Closed Captions (CC):
We have had a squeeze of it and it is

hard so therefore it definitely needs

replacing. You have to sort of become a

contortionist, in doing that you just end

up rubbing yourself gets dirty bits!

It's a brightness sunny Wednesday

morning and I'm with the head honcho

from Livaditis boatyard that's Evangelis, and he's taking me into Limni

town today where we're going to pick up that

part where we overtightened the bolt into

the turbocharger part and the bolt

snapped off. So we're gonna pick that up

because hopefully it's been drilled out

we've got a replacement bolt but

Evangelis it's also gonna take me to the

hardware store and do some translating

for me cuz we've got a few other bits

and pieces we need to buy to get the

whole system hooked on to the engine once again

And this is workshop in Limni where

hopefully we've got a drilled out piece

So done a perfect job we've drilled out

the broken bit of bolt from there which

is fantastic and also supplied us with a

replacement bolt so we'll get back to

the boatyard and put all this back

together and I've got a different idea

which I'll share with you about how to

get these bolts in without

over-tightening them

While we're putting this part back onto

the whole unit to make sure that we

don't run into the same situation as we

did last time with over tightening a

bolt and snapping it off what I'm going

to do is now I've got two bolts holding

it in position in the correct position

the rest of the bolts I'm going to put a

little bit of the blue Loctite on the

bolts and that way I don't really have

to give them a lot of force they just

have to be hand tight and the Loctite

will do the rest of the work for me. So

just a tiny bit on the end should do the

trick you don't need much. Now all six

are in place I'm just going to go

around once more and make sure they're

just hand tight. When we say hand tight

really you should just be feeling a

little bit of pressure in the top your

shoulder here, if you're feeling any

pressure anywhere else in your arm then

you're trying too hard, so don't overdo

it when you're just doing hand tight. And

the rubber gasket that squeezed

through the gap when we put the two pieces

together the outside bits actually start

to go off already so we know that it's

still a viable product. This is the

actual part that started all the

shenanigans. This is the exhaust mixing

elbow where the exhaust gases from the

engine and the hot water from the

cooling system come together and then

get exhausted out the back end of the

boat. It had a hole in the shoulder or

collar here so we bought a brand new one

and discovered that we have to do all

this work to get this back into a

functioning working piece of kit. The old

gasket we took off was kind of in

okay nick but it was starting to show

signs of rust around here and around

here

so rather than chance it just buy a new

one I think these are like 3 Euros or

something and I've put the other one in

a ziplock plastic bag with some wd-40 in

it and that is there as an emergency

backup just in case we ever need to do

something again. On the gasket itself you

can see it's got a bit of a raised

outline here and it dimples in on the

other side so I'm not quite sure which

way around you're meant to put that so

if you know let me know in the comments

and we can always easily turn it around

Well they've supplied the wrong gasket

and we actually bought two of these so

it just beggars belief

luckily the elbow itself has got these

long bolt hole places so you know - so it

will go on and move around anyway

I'm gonna take this over to the workshop

and see what the guys can do over there

about maybe making a gasket or somehow

adjusting this one to fit

Can you estimate how many days or

hours we've put into trying to clean this

black soot out of the engine itself and

out of the engine bay? I don't know lots

how long is a piece of string? It's still

nowhere near ... I just don't know how we're gonna

get underneath the engine. I mean we'll

have to do some macgyvering of tools I

think to make something that fits under there

It's just amazing how much oily soot and

sort of bits like I suppose rust off the

engine, I don't know. Yeah. Bit's. Yeah yeah alright

I don't know that it'll ever look white

again. I don't know that I will!

I think I think we've just got to

keep keep going at it each time we're in

there clean a little bit clean a bit

more just can't keep keep going. Yeah.

All right

Our friend Jay Perry has been

helping us out a lot in the background

by electronic communications and one of

the things that he suggested that we look

at while we're in the engine bay is the

Volvo stern gland and he said if you can

squeeze it and it's soft and pliable

then it's still good. If it's hard and

you can't squeeze it then it's bad and

it needs to be replaced while you're out of

the water

we have squeezed it and it is definitely

hard so it's definitely gonna need

replacing so while we're out of the water

what we're going to do is we're going to

detach the prop shaft from the gearbox

and we're gonna slide it out backwards

slightly. Lots of clearance between the

rudder and the propeller here so

not a worry there, certainly enough

clearance to get the stern gland off

First thing to do though is find out

what diameter the prop shaft is

Well that was a bit of a workout. I was

removing these six hex bolts from the

coupling where the prop shaft is held

onto the back end of the gearbox and

five of them came out okay but the sixth

one really needed a bloody good

hammering. So that's that now separated

well it's decoupled, it's not held in

place. The next thing of course is to try

and get the propeller pulled out enough

at the back end of the boat so that we

can actually get the old stern gland off

and get a replacement for it. We have

found out that our prop shaft is 30 mm

but we also need to know the diameter of

the coupling at the back end of the

stern gland. These hex belts there are six of

them one two three here one two three

and then three corresponding on the

other side of that. This is our gearbox

this is the coupling. This is what holds

the shaft onto the coupling of the

gearbox. This is our stern gland and a

lot of our viewers and brilliant

subscribers who know more about this

than I do have said that if you grab

hold of your stern gland and give it a squeeze

and it doesn't budge then it's probably

time to replace it because this is a

water cooled and lubricated gland. Now

right now we're out of water so there's

actually air in here. Now when you go

back in the water the water comes up to

here and the air gets trapped in there

and that means this doesn't get

lubricated. So you're meant to burp them

before you switch your engine on so you

get put back in the water

give this a squeeze to burp the air out

you should see a little bit of water

squirt out here and then you know you're

good but when it's rock hard solid like

that it needs replacing.

So now we're

going to drag the propeller out of the

back of the boat.

We've left the gearbox

in drive so that we can actually get

some spinnage on this as we wiggle it and

jiggle it to get it out. Now

I have been told that it can be a bit

tough getting the first bit of the prop

shaft out of this distance here so we

may have to again, resort to brute

force and a hammer and wood but let's give it

a go first with just our hands.

Someone said this was an easy job

and they've actually done it while the boat's

been in the water. I really can't see

how they got their prop shaft

out while they've been in the water

... no I don't think so ...

There's no movement there at all

from just me my hands so we're gonna

have to resort to brute force which is

bloody big hammer a piece of wood here

to basically just tap tap tap tap tap

tap it out. It's time to visit the workshop I guess

Hey Theo is Juliano here? Juliano?

Juliano? Err house. Oh in the house okay thank you

As Juliano thinks he's having a tea

break now but he's not because we need

his assistance. Hey Juliano

can you help pull the prop shaft out please?

Okay thank you.

So Juliano has rocked up

with some various collection of tools

and we're trying to just at least get

some movement and we're definitely

seeing a bit of movement there but as it

comes forward it's dropping back again

Aannsha came up with an idea to use this bit

of wood and I'm not sure if this wood

is gonna actually take the hammering it

it needs to get this out but

No, no movement there at all

Easy job

someone said on the forums. Easy job!

Pff. Five minutes!

I tell you what, since owning a boat I mean

I know jobs are generally not as easy as you

think they're gonna be but since owning a boat

every single job has been just a total...

I'm at a loss for words... Frustration. Frustration

they never go as easy as the you know

you think they're gonna go, there's always

something that won't come undone or

breaks when you try and put it back

together or just won't budge the way

it's meant to budge and yeah owning a

boat really opens your eyes up to how

difficult DIY actually is so if you've

got the money and you own a boat get

someone else to do it

If you're like us, do it yourself and

suffer the frustration

Yeah I suffer your

frustration. You're welcome!

Juliano wants to release the tension on the

cutlass bearing. Sounds like a plan

and maybe that will... Sounds very sensible

Well yeah maybe it's not being held so

much in place here. But don't ... remember

even inside the cutlass bearing, this prop

shaft is spinning so it's spinning

freely inside the cutlass bearing. Yeah.

Do you want to look inside? Make sure

I've got it okay? Yes

How's your bilge cleaning going? I think I've got most of it off onto me!

Have you seen that bit there? No this bit here?

Yeah

Well you know you've just got to get

into the corners and have to become a

contortionist and in doing that you just

end up rubbing yourself against dirty

bits of the engine so

Anyway we're getting there. We've gotta go shopping ...

It is looking a heck of a lot better

Yeah we've got to go shopping so I'm giving myself time

to get myself decently clean so they'll

let me in the shop. Right well while you

do that I'll go and search in the bilge

blindly for that lost nut.

Yeah well I found a washer. Yeah not gonna

it's not gonna cut the mustard unfortunately

No, all right well good luck with that.

We'll rendezvous back at

the apartment. Okay

Today's casualty. Oh this!

And this went as well.

Okay well I'm glad the other one didn't go!

Down by your zip!

These jeans are on their last legs! I'm hoping they stay in one piece until we get all the jobs finished!

Just before we sign off

on this video we'd like to welcome on

board our newest patron and that is John

Hawkes welcome aboard John and thanks

for joining our Patreon family. Join us

next week on Sailing A B Sea as we show you

the relatively simple reason why we

couldn't get the prop shaft out. It's

easy when you know how. If you've got

some helpful

DIY tips leave them in the comment

section down below and if you enjoyed

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