Maintenance catch up time - for the boat and our goddog

Oh yes. Since the boat had been ashore for way longer than planned / promised / wanted we had quite a lot of catch up to do. This post will be tedious. Go get a coffee and chocolate (or even better a large gin). then skip to the end of it. There you will learn a bit about our much more interesting goddog.

First job was one that had been brewing for a while. The coolant pump on the genset was weeping a little coolant out of the telltale hole. It was time for replacement. Getting to it means dismantling the end of the generator housing to allow sensible access but the physical removal of the pump is fine. Here is a coolant-pumpless genset:

The funny looking beige bits are because one job always turns into more. The brackets holding the alternator that are normally well hidden became exposed in all their slightly rusty glory. It looks as if they were not painted with the genset in the factory - just a little thin grey primer on them. So, they got some paint as a treat. Seems strange as the exact same wing engine setup has nice factory painted white bracketry for the alternator. Perhaps they work on the "if it is on show" basis.

Suitably rebuilt, the coolant refill did not go well. Some of it decided to make a bid for freedom from the hose that attaches to the bottom of the coolant pump. Grr. Taking it off and removing the hose clip revealed that the Northern Lights factory had used one cheap hose clip indeed - all nicely ridged on the inside and with sharp edges and that had cut into the hose:

Whilst the clip was undisturbed, all was well. Luckily (amazingly?) the long and shaped hose had enough movement in it to allow the top damaged bit to be trimmed off and still fit. Not having a suitable sized nice band clamp on board the Captain went into the marina chandlery. He saw many hose clips but no band clamps. He knew it was the sort of place that focuses on selling clothes and "look good stuff" when the "do you have a band clamp suitable for a 44mm OD hose?" got the "what is a band clamp?" response.

There was a lot of discussion on the Nordhavn owners group about the latest version of the John Deere coolant and using it in generators / wing engines. The new Coolguard 2 is an OAT formulation and the report is that "it might cause some seal problems / leaks in generators". Well, as we had a weeping coolant pump (and they are expensive) the genset was refilled with old style low technology coolant instead. Just in case. We will do the same for the wing engine soon too.

Whilst the genset was being tickled, we treated it to new fuel filters too. The removed primary racor element shows a nice red stain from the fuel but none of the black asphaltene residues that settle out if you don't dose the diesel with something nice like Stanadyne performance formula:

For the health and safety types amongst you, please note the nice gloves.

The upper sight gauge on the fuel supply tank had developed a weep too on the lower fitting. Annoyingly (stupidly?) this had been taken off a couple of years ago and the main bolts that fix it to the tank had been resealed. As the bottom fixing was fine, it was not disturbed. Silly captain - should have done both at the time. Still, it didn't take long to remove it:

renew all the O rings, add some thread sealant to the bottom blanking plug to be sure to be sure and refit it all:

Oh, and a 24v bulb had blown in one of the engine room lights too. Seriously stressful replacing that.

What is left? Oh boy, quite a list. Will report as we work our way through it. Mainly routine annual maintenance luckily bar a couple of enhancements / repairs to the Steelhead crane that need to happen.

Goddog update

For the animal lovers or the mildly curious, we have to report that our goddog Izzy has been through some maintenance of her own. She has been done. For the non native speakers, spayed. If you are squeamish, look away now or drink more gin.

There will be no more cute little puppy pictures to share with you, just this scar:

and the sad face during her recovery:

She is so good at looking sad. The crew is (worryingly) picking up tips from her.