It was a good day.....

[oscarvan]

For the engineering team (me) aboard Lady Kay......

Removed the broken flybridge VHF antenna bracket and replaced it with an unused one that was further back. The antenna is taller than the shed I dock in. This caused a bad noise. There was a yellow post-it note on the instrument panel. Never noticed again. There is now a red cup over the bow thruster. Fortunately the antenna itself is OK. So no cash out of pocket. Just time. And those nuts inside the flybridge are just a hoot to get out. 3 inch bolts for no reason and resin all over them. Guess that's my punishment. Sigh.

Replaced a deteriorated malfunctioning deck head light.

Test fitted the new teak rimmed wheel. Needs a bushing, stay tuned.

Took a gallon of oil out of one transmission and added one to the other..... Should be closer.... we'll know next time we run it.

Tightened the SB rudder stuffing box to the point where it's a drop an hour..... Need to make a tool to get a better grip on the big nuts.

Cleaned the AC pump strainer.

Added 50 pounds of lead under the sink cabinet in the master head. She's closer to level. Also as a result of the small holding tank filling of course. Gonna have to find a sweet spot there.

And last but not least I finally got rid of the late 20th century Guest 12V charger. What started that was the LOUD 60HZ buzz all over the lower deck. Annoying as hell. But, it's a good thing I did that because the moment I turned it off voltage dropped to 9.5VDC. This was indicated by the simultaneous panic attack in three (!!!!) hard wired CO detectors and the Garmin nav suite. That and the tunes quit. Serious infraction on my happy place. Installed the new charger and it's doing its thing. Not sure if the old voltage was too low to charge the battery or whether it murdered it. Bottom line was the whole 12V show was running off the charger alone.... Give it 12 hours and see what happens.

AND..... I formulated a plan of attack for the cooling system, primarily on the SB engine which is still running warm, but while I'm at it I'll do both. Back flush followed by an acid flush.... Have cooked up a very ingenious way, if I may say so myself and I do, to connect the plumbing. Stay tuned.

It was a good day.

QUESTION..... I know of three zincs. Two in the heat exchanger one on the raw water pump. Are there more?

[oscarvan]

And just as I was typing this up I had an aha moment..... From a distance the battery looked sealed.... ie flush. No caps standing proud. Upon closer inspection there are caps but they are flush. (Group 31) I just put 0.6 gallons of distilled water in it. Ouch. It may not survive that. Clearly the old Guest was cooking it.

Of course in the series 1 step forward 2 steps back I noticed a liquid on the battery shelf. Didn't taste good. VERY acidic. As in battery acidic. Took the lids off the port 32V boxes and two of them are sitting in an inch of liquid. Wonder if the PO was overfilling them like he did the tranny....

I could really use some baking soda right now......

[car54]

The local peterbilt dealer sells group 31’s for $65. At that price I would just replace em.

[oscarvan]

The local peterbilt dealer sells group 31’s for $65. At that price I would just replace em.

Cool. I'll give it one shot. Not the money, the lifting I'm not too keen on.

Meanwhile a half inch of liquid in a box full of batteries is, of course not a lot of liquid. Les than a quarter roll of (select a size) paper towels.... Will do a baking soda rinse asap.

Removing the table now.....

[oscarvan]

Well, that was some quality time in the Generator/Battery room. Getting to know my way around in there. Pass the vitamin I. And the kitchen tongs are not looking too good. They don't plate things like they used to. But, three rolls of paper towels later some semblance of 32VDC order has been restored. The SB rear one was the worst. (Of course, it's the hardest to get to.) Ironically none of them were low. Inch and a half above the plates. There was a watering bottle down there and it shuts off pretty high. On top of that the caps on the SB aft one were not on tight...... I think PO got a little carried away. I'll have to go back in there when I get baking soda and terminal protector spray. Good news is that it's all proper cabling and there is little or no corrosion. Some goof ball did put the cables on the outside of the post which makes the lids fit poorly, and one not at all.

I'll have to go back in there soon..... On the list.

[Jammin']

I had acid in a battery box from overcharging.

[rsmith]

Well, that was some quality time in the Generator/Battery room. Getting to know my way around in there. Pass the vitamin I. And the kitchen tongs are not looking too good. They don't plate things like they used to. But, three rolls of paper towels later some semblance of 32VDC order has been restored. The SB rear one was the worst. (Of course, it's the hardest to get to.) Ironically none of them were low. Inch and a half above the plates. There was a watering bottle down there and it shuts off pretty high. On top of that the caps on the SB aft one were not on tight...... I think PO got a little carried away. I'll have to go back in there when I get baking soda and terminal protector spray. Good news is that it's all proper cabling and there is little or no corrosion. Some goof ball did put the cables on the outside of the post which makes the lids fit poorly, and one not at all.

I'll have to go back in there soon..... On the list.

With all the maintenance free and AGM batteries today there are a lot of people who have no clue what a meniscus is.

[Scarlett]

Find one of the battery watering systems for the 8 volt batteries, makes life a lot simpler and fills the batteries always to the correct level. John

[oscarvan]

Find one of the battery watering systems for the 8 volt batteries, makes life a lot simpler and fills the batteries always to the correct level. John

People use them in the RV world too. (Those house batteries take two plus gallons a year.) Will have to look in to it for this application.

[oscarvan]

I had acid in a battery box from overcharging.

Yeah, that's the other probable cause. I'm monitoring the 32V charger. It cycles audibly (now that the 12V buzzer is gone) and seems to come on as appropriate. The ammeter shows 8A in regular cycling (if it's accurate) so that's OK. Next time I run the engines I will check before and after to see if one of the alternators has gone off the reservation... but the bath tubs were on both sides so they would both have to have gone nuts.

And again, the batteries were sitting in an inch plus without being low. So the logical conclusion is that they were too full before that.....