Ahoy All Skipper Owners.
Further to my "Overhaul" message. Whilst reassembling the head I discovered an inherent defect that caused the excessive backlash I noticed in the operating handle. The arm that connects the pump shaft to the piston has a screw in it that tightens the shaft end of the lever around the operating shaft with a woodruff key preventing creep. The slit cut in that end of the arm that the screw squeezes together to do this tightening is not long enough and needs to extend further from the shaft towards the piston end of the shaft in order to allow sufficient movement of the metal to actually tighten firmly around the shaft. I extended this cut about 3/8" to 1/2" more with a hacksaw threaded through the shaft hole and that was sufficient to allow the arm tighten around the shaft. The bronze 5/16" screw that does this tightening showed signs of thinning so I also changed this screw from bronze to 304 stainless in order to get the squeeze needed without breaking the screw. The head uses stainless for springs and they show no deterioration Time will tell how well this works. However, without this tightness the lever will move on the shaft resulting in relative movement and putting all the working stress solely on the woodruff key. The woodruff key will rock back an forth with the entire force of the operating lever on it which will result in the destruction of the slot the woodruff key fits into on the shaft ultimately requiring replacement of the shaft, key and operating arm. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek 30 07.72N 081 38.40W _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
