PSS Clearance Issues Part 2

After last week's disappointing PSS shaft install I went back to the drawing board thinking that I may have to purchase a different type of shaft seal system, but spent quite a bit of time online posting questions to both the Niagara and Westerbeke Owner's groups on Facebook.  Many Niagara owners had tight fits as well, but made them work.  I can only think that the engine beds in my Niagara were placed a bit forward of where others were, but that's just speculation.  I don't believe the original shaft seal was a PSS or if it was it was an early model that didn't use a vent and made it quite a bit shorter.  

Several people suggested taking the rotor to a machine shop and trimming it down to fit and I started to seriously consider this as an option but decided to call PSS and see if that was a possibility.  I'm glad I did.  It wasn't a surprise that they did not recommend doing that (although they never told me why), but they did say that they have a 'slow speed' stator (the carbon part where the vent normally comes out) that doesn't have a vent and is 3/4" shorter.  The only difference between the 2 is that the slow speed stator needs to be burped from time to time (when you launch for instance) to get the air trapped in the shaft seal out. 

I decided to take a chance on this route and was pleased that PSS said I could send the original stator back and they wouldn't charge me for the new one (except for shipping).  So I pulled the trigger on it and waited for it to ship from Washington state to New Hampshire.  In the meantime, I prepped the area by once again removing the transmission (I lost count after 8 removal/reinstalls) and the PSS.  Just to be sure, I put the transmission back on and checked the shaft alignment without any shaft seal in place.  

The new part finally arrived yesterday and I got to work as soon as it came.  I swapped out the original

New vs Old stators

vented stator with the new slow speed version on the nitrile bellows and installed it on the shaft log. Then I lubed up the rotor with dish soap and slid it onto the shaft up to the bellows.  Then I reinstalled the transmission yet again and installed the IsoFlex GearGuard drive saver on the transmission flange followed by the split shaft coupler.  I had previously painted the coupler with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of black enamel to keep the rust down.  

With everything in place, I reached down under the transmission and compressed the rotor against the bellows the recommended 3/4" and set the grub screws on the rotor.  Because the access is terrible underneath the transmission, the only way to tell if the clearance is good is to stick a camera down there and take a photo.  I was happy to find that I now had about 3/8" clearance from the bottom of the transmission and I think that it acceptable.  If the shaft wobbles that much then I probably have bigger problems than it hitting the bottom of the transmission. 

I finished up by setting 2 additional grub screws in each of the rotor set screw holes to hold the first ones in place (with blue loctite) and torqued the IsoFlex and shaft coupler to spec.  Once completed, the shaft spun nicely with the transmission in neutral with no 'hard' spots along the rotation.  Just to make sure I could call it complete, I dry installed the MaxProp hub on the outside to make sure I had the proper clearances (I did).  

I really never thought that this job would take soo long to complete, hopefully the other engine install jobs which are up next won't be quite as taxing (raw water, electrical, controls, fuel). 

 

PSS Clearance Issues Part 1

Before hooking up the engine to its various components (wiring, raw water, exhaust, fuel) I wanted to get the engine at least roughly aligned because once these components are connected to the engine, the ability to wiggle around the engine to get at the mounts becomes more difficult.  Of course there was still one big component missing that needed to be connected to proceed.

The Hurth HBW 150v v-drive transmission (aka ZF15) is in theory a pretty neat solution when you don't want the engine to intrude into the cabin.  It reverses the direction and angle of the propeller shaft and allows the engine to basically sit on top of where the shaft exits the hull. This is the fundamental problem with v-drives.  In order to service the shaft seal (PSS or conventional packing gland) you pretty much have to remove the transmission.   So before installing the transmission, the PSS shaft seal and the shaft needed to be installed.  The PSS is a rubber boot with a stainless steel compression collar (rotor) that bolts to the shaft and compresses the rubber boot (bellows) so that no water can get in once the boat is splashed.  Installing the bellows is a straightforward affair that only requires a bit of tenacity because it's a very tight fit, otherwise it's dead simple.  Once on, 2 hose clamps secure it in place.

Next I slid the shaft out through the PSS and through the strut.  Having never seen the original propeller shaft or the transmission bolted to the engine, I wasn't sure how far it would protrude into the boat so I wiggled the rotor onto the shaft but didn't clamp it down.  I planned to adjust and clamp it into place later, but as explained above, access to the PSS is not good once the transmission is bolted on, but at the time I didn't know how bad.   

My son and I wrestled the transmission beast aboard and jumped right into rough aligning the shaft to the transmission and engine.  This is where things went a bit sideways.  When I attempted to slide the shaft forward and through the transmission 'tunnel', it kept hanging up.  After a bit of head scratching I got down on my stomach and looked at the bottom of the transmission from the side and saw that the rotor (from the PSS) was hard up against the bottom of the transmission housing.  Damn!

We tried raising the front of the engine by adjusting the forward mounts, and while that did free up the rotor, the shaft wasn't perpendicular to the transmission face (it needs to be within .004").  This meant that the rear of the engine was too low and needed to be raised as well.  Unfortunately, on the w-27 engine, the rear mount is a saddle with only one adjustment point right in the middle and it's possibly the worst location to access.  Without a custom tool, there is literally no way to get a wrench on the bolt to raise or lower the engine.  

Luckily, Harbor Freight is a 15 minute drive away and they seem to specialize in cheap metal things that pry stuff up.  I found a 16" ball joint separator that fit nicely onto the rear mount and I was able to the back of the engine easily with one hand while I used the other to loosen the nuts (the rear mount is upside down, so to raise the engine, you need to loosen the nuts).

At this point, I removed the transmission again and removed the rotor to take that out of the alignment equation for the time being.  I reinstalled the transmission and with the rear of the engine raised I was able to get the shaft through the tunnel.  I plan on using a flexible coupling to reduce vibration and protect the transmission against shock loads, but I left it out for the alignment process.  I loosely fastened the split coupler to the shaft and lined it up with the transmission flange.  A little more tweaking of all the mounts and I was right at about .004" using a feeler gauge.  

I was feeling pretty proud of myself for getting the alignment done so quickly, but that didn't last long.  I pulled the coupler off followed by another transmission removal, slid the rotor back on and compressed the bellows the recommended 3/4".  I decided to sacrifice 2 of the grub screws that lock the rotor into place (they can only be used once). I carefully re-installed the transmission by sliding the shaft through the tunnel and getting it bolted on.  

Before I reinstalled the coupler to fully line the shaft up with the transmission flange I took a look underneath and saw that the rotor was still pretty close to the bottom of the transmission.  I had hoped that by compressing the rotor on the bellows, it would push it far enough aft to clear the bottom of the transmission. Nope, still just touching... 

I pulled the transmission again and removed the grub screws from the rotor and compressed the bellows ~1" and sacrificed the last 2 grub screws to lock the rotor in place.  Once again I re-installed the transmission (I'm getting very good at this) and took a look to check rotor clearance.  It looked better, but I decided to install the split coupler to see if it would clear.  The rotor now did have clearance, but only about 1/8" which seems way too close for comfort.  

I'm not sure if that is ok, but my gut feel is that it's not.  All it would take is one shock load (like wrapping a lobster pot or even shifting hard into reverse from forward) to introduce enough flex into the system to cause the rotor to hit the bottom of the transmission. That would not be good.  So time to rethink what I can do to fix this. Raise the engine more, probably not.  Maybe find a new dripless seal that's is shorter/smaller.  I've seen a lot of boats with lip seals (volvo, vetus) that are clearly shorter than the PSS. 

The thing that had me stumped was that I believe the boat had a PSS on it when the previous owner bought it, there was even a photo of it, but not very clear.  I went to my shop and started digging in the old parts bin and low and behold, I found the old dripless seal.  It looked like a PSS but it was about 1.5" shorter than the new one that I have and the bellows did not seem to be nitrile.  I thought maybe they changed the design, but after some research I found that it is probably either a Michigan Shaft Seal (I don't think they are made anymore), Nakashima, or a Maucour.  

So I have to do some research and see what my options are.  I know that other Niagara 35 owners have the same engine/transmission combo and are happily using the same PSS I have. One is also a 1986 like mine, so I would think that the layup and general tolerances would be pretty close within the same model year, but the engine beds could be different or maybe replaced at some point.  All I am sure of is that I don't want to go back to the old style flax packed stuffing box. No matter how good I get at removing the transmission, I don't want to have to remove it every time I adjust the stuffing box.  Despite this setback, I'm still pretty happy that I was able to get the engine aligned without too much fuss. 

Stay tuned...

Drained

I'm not drained yet (well, sort of), but the anchor locker is now watertight with a drain hose routed to the shower sump manifold.  This was a project I was thinking about for a long time, since the thought of muddy seawater draining free from the anchor locker to the bilge right underneath the v-berth never sat well with me.  Originally, I planned on doing an overboard drain straight from the locker, but I just didn't want to put another hole in the boat.  

The old anchor locker

I queried the Niagara 35 Facebook page to see what others had done, but didn't really find anything concrete.  It wasn't until I ran across a youtube video called HaveWindWillTravel (youtube) where I decided that I would put a floor in the anchor locker seal it up and route the drain to the shower sump manifold.  

The only problem was that if I installed a floor in the locker, the bobstay backing plate and bolts wouldn't be easily accessible anymore.  The folks at HaveWindWillTravel just sealed their floor with caulking and didn't glass it into place, so with some work they could cut their way to the bobstay backing plate.  I wanted something a bit more permanent.

I started with a chunk of cardboard and whittled it down until it fit nicely in the locker and sloped aft about 15 degrees.  I found a 6" watertight access port and a 1" flush drain while digging around in my sizable spare parts bins in the shop (After owning and building many boats over the years, the entire attic of my shop is dedicated to boat parts that I just might need some day).  The 6" port will allow for inspection and service of the bobstay backing plate and bolts.

Next, I found a suitable chunk of 3/8" balsa core that I had laying around from when I re-cored the decks on my Alberg 35 (more parts that I knew would eventually come in handy).  The balsa core is a 'sheet' of blocks glued to a scrim and the idea is that you fiberglass both sides to make a really strong, but very light 'board'.  I could have used plywood, but this would be much better as long as you keep the water out of the core.

For the layup, I glassed 1 layer of 1708 biaxial glass on the bottom side and 2 layers of 1708 on the top.  I put down a layer of plastic film on a flat surface followed by release fabric, then the bottom layer of 1708 glass.  Then I mixed up a batch of epoxy, wet out the glass as well as the scrim side of the balsa core and set the core on top of the wet out epoxy.  I mixed another, bigger batch of epoxy and took some time making sure the top part of the balsa core (including in between the blocks) was well saturated. Then I laid down a layer of 1708 glass, wet that out and laid down another layer of 1708 (and wet it out).  Finally, I put release fabric over all of it and more plastic film before placing a flat sheet of plywood and some weights to squish it all flat.  

The next day I came back to a nicely hardened, perfectly flat piece of light, strong, soon to be anchor locker floor.  I traced out the shape with the cardboard template I made and the cut it out with the bandsaw.  I took the new floor over to the boat and fit it in place. Of course it didn't quite fit so I did some rasp work on the piece before finally calling it good.  It didn't have to be that close, because it would be glassed into place.

My initial plan was to duplicate the pipe that HaveWindWillTravel used to seal up the deck wash hose that comes up through the locker on the port side, but after wasting a lot of time, I decided to make a rectangular cover out of the leftover balsa board I made.  There's a lot of angles in the locker and adding cylinders to the mix taxed my feeble brain a bit much and the rectangular tube was a much easier solution.  I ripped a 2.5x12" and a 1.5x12" piece of the board and epoxied them perpendicular to each other.  This didn't have to be particularly strong so once it hardened up, I rounded over the edge and covered it with 2 layers of 9oz glass and epoxied that up. 

I fit that (with a little help from my trusty rasp) and then cut out the holes for the drain and access port in the floor before coating all the exposed balsa edges with a layer of unthickened epoxy.  Once that kicked it was time to glass it all in place.  I mixed up a good sized batch of epoxy, then thickened it with 404 silica and shmooshed it all into a ziplock bag.  I cut off one of the corners to make a nice 'epoxy pastry bag'.  With both parts in place, I filled in all the edges with the thickened epoxy and then used a tongue dispenser to smooth all the edges out to a nice filet.

I let it set up overnight and the next day came back and laid in several layers of 9oz glass tabbing to really tie it into the bow of the boat.  Some minor sanding the next day (it's the floor of an anchor locker, so it doesn't have to be perfect) and it was time to paint.  

After 2 coats of epoxy bilge paint and the loss of countless brain cells (my respirator is getting a bit old), I installed the drain and access port with 3M 4200 and started snaking the 1" sanitation hose forward from the shower sump manifold located on the frame just forward of the mast step.

I needed to drill through 4 frames total with a 1-3/4" hole saw to get to the anchor locker drain.  Normally, I would have just snaked in around everything else along the centerline bilge of the boat, but it needed to have a continuous decline from the anchor locker with no sags where water would trap and get nasty.  To reduce any chafe that would inevitably happen when hoses pass through plywood bulkheads, I did a simple CAD design of a hose pass through 'grommet' and 3d printed a prototype using 95A durometer TPU (fairly hard, but still flexible and shock absorbing).  Amazingly, all my measurements were correct and it fit perfectly.  I printed 3 more and headed back to the boat for the final install.  

Once I snaked the hose up to the anchor locker, I secured it on the drain with a hose clamp and then cut the hose to its final length at the manifold and secured it there.  Because of the location of the manifold port in relation to the incoming hose, I had to do a horizontal loop (with a slight downslope toward the manifold) in order to connect it without any kinks, but it should do the trick.  I still have to secure the loop with zip ties so it doesn't flop around and rub on anything and re-install the divider that separates the anchor rodes from the 2 hawes pipes, but I'm going to call this job done.

The shower sump manifold

Hose and TPU gusset in action

The completed locker

 

It's a Wrap!

Velorum spent a good chunk of the summer without a cover so I could get things done on the hull/deck and most importantly, get the engine back in the boat.  It was actually pretty nice to have the cover off and I would often have my lunch in the cockpit while 'sailing' the local farmland.  Unfortunately, winters are tough in Central NH and I wanted to get the boat wrapped up before the weather turned.  Ideally, I would have had it done in late September, but the local mobile shrink wrapper (Scott Silva Shrink Wrapping) had an opening this past week, so I decided to get it done before his busy season started.  

I opted to pay for shrink wrapping for a number of reasons:

• The 25'x40' tarps and pipe frame cover was getting pretty beat up and I was worried it wouldn't last another year. 
• The metal pipe frame had a 2.5' flat spot on top and when heavy snow came, the frame would visibly sag.  I had a snow rake over at the boat, but if I was away for a weekend and we got snow, I risked having the frame collapse.
• The large frame was great for working since I had stand up headroom all the way forward on the boat, but it was a big target for the Northwest winds that whip through this area in the winter and I don't want the boat to fall over.
• It's a pain to tarp the boat, leave it to the pros.

Scott and his employee showed up at 9:30 and had the boat wrapped including a nice zippered door by lunchtime.  He did a fantastic job.  Hard on the wallet, but easy on me.  

I'm not done working on the boat for the season yet though.  While the weather is still warm, I'm focusing on glassing in an anchor locker floor and drain that tee's into the shower sump. Once that's completed, I'll get back to the task of installing the transmission and rough aligning the engine and shaft. 

Engine Mounted!

My son and I finally tackled getting the engine from the cabin sole onto it's mounts.  Unfortunately, I didn't really take any pictures during the process because my hands were literally full.  Even though this move was miniscule compared to the move from my shop to its resting place in the cabin, the engine compartment is a tight spot and I spent an inordinate amount of time overthinking the 2 foot move. 

Initially, I envisioned building a gantry similar to what some other Niagara 35 owners had done, but it would have involved quite a bit of setup time and cost for materials and it was all just more than I wanted to tackle.  I just wanted the engine in place.  In the end I opted to hang 2 chainfalls off a 6x6 chunk of timber spanning the companionway hatch.  

I attached the first chainfall with lifting straps as close to the centerline as possible.  Using the chain bridle that initially lifted the engine into the boat, we lifted the engine up off the cabin sole and then removed the 2x8 frame it was resting on.  Next we swung the engine aft as far as it would go (about 1/2 way onto the engine stringers) and lowered the aft 2 engine feet onto the mounts with a 1x1 wooden block under each mount to act as a 'sled'.  

Next, I attached a second chainfall to the 6x6 post and the forward part of the engine, tensioned it to hold the weight of the forward end of the engine and then freed up the first chainfall off the bridle.  At this point, the aft half of the weight of the engine was on the stringers and 'sleds' and the forward weight of the engine was still suspended by the second chainfall.  

Now it was time to slide and muscle the engine the rest of the way back onto the stringers for it's final resting place.  It took both of us to get it in position, but once we were close we took out the 'sleds' and it went into position nicely.  After a quick celebration, I got the rear stainless steel angle iron mounts bolted into place and we unrigged the chainfalls and called it a day.

The next day I drilled out the forward mounts (I had previously filled them with epoxy) and bolted the remaining angle iron mounts into place.  I installed the PSS shaft seal to prepare to get the transmission back on board (the transmission sits right on top of shaft seal so the PSS has to be installed first).  Then I can start aligning the engine to the shaft and install the exhaust, raw water intake, fuel lines, and engine controls, but that can wait for a few weeks.

  

Wire Bobstay

While I wait for a day when my son can help me hoist the engine from the cabin sole into the engine compartment, I finally received the StaLok part I needed to re-build the bobstay (050-07).  The original bobstay was NavTec rod and was beat up enough for me to think twice about reusing it since it is a really important piece that keeps the forestay and bowsprit from pulling up.  

Additionally, the backing plate to the bobstay was originally 3/16" aluminum flat bar and it was so corroded that it looked like swiss cheese.  So the first thing I did was make up a new backing plate from 1/8" 316 stainless steel and reproduce the bolt pattern from the original.  One would think that the bolts would be perfectly inline down the length of the backing plate, but that was not the case.  When the boat was built, whoever tapped the 4 holes for the bobstay fitting, drilled them a bit cockeyed so by the time they reached the interior of the boat, they were not inline.  Anyway, after carefully marking the hole pattern on the new backing plate, I put my drill press on low speed and drilled out the holes, going slow and lubricating the cut with WD-40.  

My wife and I went over the the boat with the outside bobstay fitting and the new backing plate and test fitted it before bedding it down with sealant.  Next we reattached the old bobstay to make it fit and then took the measurements back to the shop where I cut a 58" length of 7mm compact strand wire (the same wire as the rest of the rigging).  

At this point it was just a matter of installing the new StaLok fitting (050-07) on lower end and a StaLok turnbuckle stud on the upper end.  Once it was all together, I compared the length of the old and new before going over to the boat to install it.  I set the turnbuckle to about 2/3 max length so there is plenty of room to tension it (up to ~2").  Except for having to wiggle into the anchor locker to get the new backing plate on, this was a satisfying job because there was minimal fuss and boat yoga required and I was finally able to see the boat with a bobstay on it (the old one had been sitting in my shop for 2 years).

While I was spending some quality time up in the anchor locker, I started thinking about sealing the locker up so that water from the wet anchor rode doesn't drain directly to the bilge.  I'll be tacking this project soon, but the engine install is next in line.

New backing plate. Note the wonky bolt pattern.

New backing plate installed.

Bobstay fitting installed and bedded.

New vs old bobstays.

The long awaited StaLok 050-07 fitting

The finished product.