Recent content by u079721

Saw this flooded out West Marine store today in Stillwater, Minnesota. And while I'm sure it's not fun for the owner, it IS kind of ironic to see a West Marine store closed due to too much water. At the very least it ought to be a basis for a great photo caption contest! Haven't shopped much...

Yup - that's the product that I was thinking of. It's mostly just a blend of acetone and xylene if you already have those lying around.

As most folks know you can not dissolve cured epoxy. But certain solvents such as acetone can swell the material and make it much easier to scrap away. I haven't checked lately but there have been solvents sold just for this purpose.

This should get sorted out when you rip all that out....but right now the lead from the pulleys to the quadrant is terrible! I can't believe someone didn't look at that and realize that lowering the pulley's mounting plate would put them out of line with the quadrant. Give the cables a good...

I would recommend to anyone getting a pair of McMaster-Carr "Tight-Clearance Open-End Wrenches". They have narrow heads to fit in tight spaces. In my case I had to cut about 2" off to get enough clearance to use them, but they were very nice to use...

Hydrochloric acid will work for sure, but it also dissolves aluminum. I would try some Naval Jelly (phosphoric acid) and see if I could get it down the cracks without coating the whole part with it.

I can confirm the misprints. My manual specified 1/8" packing, while the actual packing was 1/4". If someone is going to tackle that job for the first time, I would highly recommend just getting one package of each size prior to the job. (A good shop should let you return the ones you didn't...

That looks to be just what I had too, and there sure isn't much room to work there. By the way, shouldn't there be a coin stuck there under the mast? On mine just for fun I glued an actual silver silver dollar coin (which I got from work whenever I signed over a patent) to the mast step. I've...

Sorry but I can't remember whether it was possible on the 38 to access the center keel bolts under the mast plate without removing the mast and plate. In our case the boat was hauled, the keel was dropped, and the mast was pulled since the yard did not want the extra weight of the mast aloft if...

I went through this years ago, but was able to have the yard pull the boat and rebed the keel. Wonder if some underwater epoxy putty in any cracks would help? Or would that just fall out once the boat begins to work in a seaway?

Well it's certainly past time for new cables. BUT, check out this thread of mine from 2002. After my trans cable snapped I discovered that the factory had indeed bent the cable through way too tight a bend. If yours looks like mine did you'll want to modify things...

Well I'd certainly have to agree that pushing it out to 10 or so years is fine. But for anyone who cruises away from your home port I'd suggest you get your new spares now and keep them on board. That way you can easily fix a broken engine cable in that remote anchorage or far away port...

Some years ago I documented here how my gear cable broke just as I was negotiating a rocky entrance to an anchorage, and I had to rush to get the anchor down. I later read in Nigel Calder's book that he does indeed recommend changing control cables ever five years (and keep the old ones on...

It was a standard item on my 1989 model. A friend's electric lift pump died on him one day requiring a tow back to the dock, so I decided having a spare pump (Facet 574A) aboardd was a good idea.

I did this many years ago. Used an assortment of putty knives and heat gun, with the most useful being a putty knife that I had bent at a right angle to use on the hard-to-access back edge. After going through that I frankly didn't see the need for the sink to be bedded with caulk at all. So...