One constant so far in Mexico has been beautiful anchorages with near perfect weather. The other constant has been boat maintenance. We’re picky about keeping the boat in as close to perfect condition as possible, and we’re hopeful that if we take care of the boat she’ll do the same to us.
While we had the GoPro camera out to capture some surfing, Angie used it to take a quick look at the sacrificial anodes under the boat. We’d just changed these before we left San Francisco, so we were surprised to find that all of the zincs on the prop and shaft were badly worn. It’s likely that the wiring in the marina in Ensenada was not done perfectly, and our anodes did their job by decaying (instead of the metal on the boat itself being eaten away). It’s a quick job to replace them using a wetsuit, mask, and snorkel, and we’re going to have another look in a month or so.
Before leaving the US, we had some work done at the boatyard, including replacing the rotating seal that prevents water from leaking around the prop shaft. In order to make that replacement, the entire prop shaft had to come out of the boat – and to get the shaft out, the prop itself had to be removed in order for the shaft to fit around the rudder.
When all of that went back together, the engine didn’t run quite as smoothly as before. The alignment tolerance between the prop shaft and engine is about 0.005″, so it’s easy to understand why the alignment could be off by that much after the shaft removal and reinsertion.
Adjusting the alignment only involves moving the motor mounts up and down, and then measuring the resulting gap between the engine output flange and the prop shaft flange. So, instead of hiring a mechanic, we decided to try the alignment ourselves.
After liberal doses of penetrating oil on the 25 year old motor mount bolts, the nuts freed up and we were able to spin them to adjust the engine up and down. Once started, we found the alignment to be largely an exercise in patience rather than requiring a lot of technical skill – each turn of the nut on one of the motor mounts would tilt the engine some combination of up and down, and left and right. We’d adjust, then measure using a set of feeler gauges, then adjust again…
After several hours of this (with numerous breaks for stretching), the engine is back to its original smooth running ways!
