M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.3

 Day 2 - Engine disconnection

Continuing with the engine disconnection process on Day 2.

Again, we limited out time at the boat to 3 hours and only just went over that limit, however, we got a lot done.

Removed the Alternator. That involved removing the Serpentine belt and disconnecting the +ve lead that connects the Alternator to the Main ( LiFePo4 ) batteries. I shut the Solar system down and then turned the master battery switch to off, disconnected the alternator cables, insulated the Main +ve lead and then turn be master battery switch on and then the Solar breaker. Also detached the Alternator Temperature sensor from the -ve connection.

Detached the Exhaust. It just took a gentle tap with a flat head screw driver and the exhaust easily parted from the exhaust manifold.

Detach the fuel hoses: Mindful that they would be full of diesel fuel, we had a disposable cup handy. The hose clamps that secure the hoses to the Primary Fuel Filter housing and the hose from the Injector return fitting were badly damaged by poor quality hose clamps, the perforations have left extremely deep cuts into the hose rubber. I'll replace them with embossed hose clamps when I put the engine back in place.

Detach the engine ground wire from the bell housing. It is held in place by one of the bolts that connect the bell housing to the backplate of the engine.

Detach the Coolant Thermostat temperature sensor and alarm from their housing.

Detach the Starter motor & Solenoid. This involves removing the starter cable ( which connects to the Stater battery ) The Solenoid cable There's also the cable that was used for the original 'Amp' meter on the control panel. It was easy to remove the two bolts that secure the starter by using two socket extensions to reach from in front of the engine back to the starter bolts.

Detach the Oil pressure switch connection. Easy using a short screwdriver.

Detach the Glow Plug power connection.

That pretty much detached everything that needs to be off in order to lift the engine.

My plan for the next part is to lift the engine out of it's normal position and move it forwards so that it can be rotated in order to work on removing the Bell housing. That will provide access the flywheel and the Damper Plate - the reason for doing all of this.

While the engine is out, I'll take the time to service the exterior of the engine, clean it up and apply some fresh engine paint. I'll also replace the primary fuel filter.

Not working on the boat tomorrow ( Wednesday 5/1/2024 )

Plan for Thursday: Protect the floor in front of the engine bay ( I know, that's pushing the concept of 'Engine Bay' :) ). I'll build a temporary engine mount in order to lower the engine. I'll use a simple 4"x4" beam with an additional piece of 4"x4" just bigger than the engine mounts.

That should provide plenty of room to get around the engine but also, it should allow me to remove the chain hoist used to lift the engine so that I can get out of the boat via the companionway.

I'll make the beam tomorrow ( Wednesday )

M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.2

The Plan for changing the Damper Plate

Today ( Monday April 29th ) we went down to the boat with the intent on figuring what and when we will work upon. I spent a few minutes reviewing the engine and making the plan. I'm only going to work for 3 hours each day, no point in exhausting myself and will make better progress too.

Demolition:

Remove the Heat Exchanger. That's 4 hoses ( I should have drained the coolant before disconnecting those hoses ) and two large hose clamps that secure the heat exchanger to it's mounting plate.

Disconnect the Throttle Linkage and Engine Shutoff link from the engine. Disconnect the gear shift cable from the gear box.

Remove the 4 engine mount top nuts.

Remove the 3 bolts that hold the exhaust pipe fitting to the exhaust manifold.

Notes: 

Replace the gear shift cable clamp securing screws with a matching pair of nuts and bolts so that they can be easily manipulated using a wrench and rachet socket instead of trying to hold a screwdriver on one end.  Grrr. ( worse, the two screws were a mismatched one longer than the other and one a flat head screw the other a Philips head screw ) 

Remove the heat exchanger mounting plate and clean it up, it's corroded - look for the cause.

In order to remove the stud bolts that secure the exhaust fitting to the manifold, put on a second nut and lock with the one already on the bolt, then use a wrench to unscrew the stud.

Change the Zink on the heat exchanger while it's out.

Plan for Day 2: 

Remove the Alternator, disconnect and isolate the power cable, disconnect the alternator field connection plug. Disconnect the grounding cable from the engine block and disconnect the prop.

 

 

 

 

M25XP Damper Plate replacement

Replacing the Damper Plate on our Universal M25XP engine.

After replacing the Engine Motor Mounts on Eximius' Engine, the noises from the engine also changed. I spent several hours working on the Alignment of  the engine to the Prop-Shaft, the noise from the engine at about 1200-1400 RPM was not normal. The propulsion system has always had a sweet spot throttle setting where the vibrations were minimum but now the sound was so bad that I would not feel comfortable even motoring to the end of the canal.

I called a buddy that had told me of a similar situation on  his boat a year or so ago and he graciously gave me the contact info of the mechanic that solved his issue ( alignment ).

When I called 'Greg' he responded that he could meet me at the boat at 11:00 today, WOW! anyone in South Florida knows that if a boat mechanic responds like that then you get your butt in gear!

Greg was at the dock before me and I was early - this is a really good sign.

Once aboard, we discussed previous work I have done on the engine:- Replaced the motor mounts 8 years ago, had the Injector pump rebuilt by RPM a local company, new injectors at the same time and new fuel lines from the pump to the injectors, replaced the Alternator and installed a Serpentine Belt system and External Alternator Regulator, installed a PYI PSS ( shaft seal ) and done an engine alignment, Oil and Filter changes every 50 hours of engine run time. Completely new control panel engine harness wiring.

It was time to flash up the engine. I opened the raw water thru hull valve and heated the Glow Plugs and Started the engine - she started right away.

Greg had me change the throttle settings and gear shift position a few times and increasing the RPM until the noise occurred. During this time, Greg watched the engine and felt various parts giving the engine a lot of attention.

The good news. His opinion of the engine was positive, no excessive vibration but the noise was definitely an issue that should be dealt with promptly. Greg discussed the consequence of the 'Damper Plate' failing and how it could do significant damage to the engine &/OR gearbox. So, I'm on it.

Greg provided me with the contact of a local company that probably has the Damper Plate in stock. 

We shared a few stories about our similar backgrounds in the Navy aboard Aircraft Carriers, his time aboard ending before mine began in 1964. 

I called the company and found that they do have 3 types of damper plate in stock and the best thing to do was to bring the plate from the boat to them and they would confirm which one to use.

Greg advised that the Damper Plate should probably replaced every 1500 hours. Eximius has about 7,000 hours and is 37 years old, that comes down to about 200 hours a year. We do that easily! probably more.

So, we're going to replace the Damper Plate.

Adding Aqua Maps to our Navigation System

Upgrading our Navigation System with AquaMaps

Our Navigation System is pretty good, but I wanted to add some redundancy. Yes we have Chart Books for our sailing areas, I just like to be prepared.

Here's our Current Nav Electronics Inventory.

• Garmin 741XS Chart Plotter
• Garmin DST 810 Depth, Speed, Water Temperature Transducer
• Garmin GMR 18" Radar
• Garmin GWind Wind Transducer
• Garmin GMI Display 
• Raymarine EVO 100 Autopilot 
• EmTrak AIS Transceiver

On a recent trip from Lake Boca to Port Everglades, the Garmin 741xs Chartplotter had an episode, didn't want to play. So we rebooted it. That's when it failed, would not boot up. At the time we were just North of the Hillsboro Inlet which is notorious for shoaling. Our 5'8" draft means we have to avoid those shoals, so monitoring our Depth is a must. With the Chartplotter not functioning, we had to rely upon the GMI display to show our depth. It could do this because all of our Electronics are on our NEMA2000 Network. and the DST 810 is also a NEMA2000 device. Hence we were able to monitor our depth as we went out of the HI inlet, whew!

Once outside on the Ocean, we switched everything off for a minute and turned it all back on. The chartplotter woke up and we were back in business.

But what if our Chartplotter failed and would not reboot!  Well, we have a 10" tablet with Navionics and Aquamaps, so we could continue navigating. However, they do not display AIS data so we do not know what the other boats around us are doing. Our Radar only displays on the Chartplotter, so we would be out of both AIS and Radar.

Aquamaps has an interface to connect with a WiFi server but it is not compatible with our Garmin Products, only with NEMA 0183 and all of our gear is NEMA 2000.

I searched the net and thought I had found a solution. Digital Yachts make a lot of electonics products for interfacing boat systems. An email to them resulted in a solution.

Digital Yachts NAVLink2

This is a neat piece of electronics.

Basically it's a NEMA 2000 WiFi Server that translates all of the NEMA 2000 Data to NEMA 0183 and delivers it via a WiFi Server.

The best part is that it works for Aqua Maps. In fact, visiting the Digital Yachts website they have the instructions for interfacing with NAVLink2 to Aqua Maps and it's the first App on their list.1

So this should mean that I'll be able to connect Aqua Maps to my NEMA2000 network and receive the Wind, Depth and AIS data.

Thus it will all be available on my Tablet or Phone!

Now if my Chartplotter fails, we will still have the majority of the Navigation data displayed on the Tablet!

Installing the Digital Yachts NAVLink2 

This should be a breeze. The unit gets it's power from the NEMA2000 Backbone, so there is only one electrical connection to make. Simply add a new NEMA2000 'T' onto the backbone and then connect the NEMA2000 Drop cable from the NAVLink2 Server to that 'T'. 

The Instructions for the install are that simple, but if you want to customize the setup, then a Laptop could connect to the NAVLink2 Wifi and access the built in webserver to make any changes required.

Of course, Digital Yachts has all of the details on their website. They also have very clear instructions for connecting the Tablet with Aqua Maps to the NAVLink2 server and setting up which data to display.

I had several emails back and forth with the customer support at Digital Yachts ( I'm pretty sure they are in England ) and they were very polite, clear and obviously know what they are talking about.  I'll provide the links at the bottom of this post.

Mounting the our Samsung FE 7 Tablet ( 10" ) 

Ideally, our Samsung Tablet would be mounted at the Helm with the option to relocate it to the Cabin. I purchased some RAM mounts to accomplish this.

This is the Mount. It allows for the Tablet to be held across it's short side but can be rotated so that it is mounted vertically, that's ideal for the Aqua Maps App.

However, this mount on it's own would place the Tablet in front of our Chartplotter. I would rather it be higher than the top of the Chartplotter and not obscure our view when at the helm

The best solution seems to be to extend the RAM mount so that it can be mounted to the back of the Nav Shelf at the helm and positioned above the Autopilot control panel.

I'll bolt the lower part of the RAM mount to the shelf.

This is a RAM extension. It provides a wide choice of locations for the Tablet and will extend the Tablet above the Nav Shelf and the Autopilot control panel.

The Lower end of this extension will fit on the Ball that is getting bolted to the Nav Shelf.

To join the top of this unit with the RAM mount that is detached from the Bottom of the piece shown above to the piece that holds the Tablet, requires another Ball unit.

This is the missing link ! 

Now all three pieces can be joined together.

I was a bit concerned about the rigidity of the combined pieces, but they are fine.   I now have a spare of the missing link because the package from Amazon contained two pieces. 

Will probably purchase another base unit so that I can set the Tablet on a shelf in the cabin to have eyes on our Navigation from down below.

The end result:

Wow! I mounted my Samsung Tab 7 Tablet at the helm using the mount and RAM joints as planned. The display at the helm is fantastic,

The vertical position is not so clever so I moved it to be Horizontal and level with the top of the chart plotter. Much better.

The screen is bright enough that I can see it clearly even when wearing my prescription sunglasses.

The picture shows us at Anchor in Sunrise Bay Florida.

Peggy suggests that I get a smaller Tablet, it's a 10" display compared to the 7" Garmin 742xs. I tend to agree but wonder if an alternative Tablet will have the brightness of the Samsung Tab 7.

This was the first time that we have used Aqua Maps to follow a route. It provides the distance and the bearing to the next waypoint on the route, very clear.

We do have a couple of issues with the NavLink2 but they are minor and I'm hoping that Digital Yacht can resolve them.

This is a screenshot of the AIS List on Aqua Maps, there is spurious text data on either side of the vessel names. The rest of the information appear correct when we compared it with the AIS data on our chart plotter. 

The list is IMHO easier to figure out on Aqua Maps. 

I'll take more screen shots next time at the boat to display more of the AIS features.

In the Aqua Maps WiFi settings the list of connections shows which data items are connected.

Here you can see that GPS data is Off - that's as I set it because I wanted to see that everything else worked if our Main GPS Chartplotter was down. I turned it off.

The depth data is being supplied by our NEMA 2000 DST 810 Depth, Speed, Temperature transducer.

Heading is being provided by our Raymarine EVO 100 Auto Pilot compass header.

Wind Speed & Direction is provided by our Garmin GWind Wired Transducer on the Mast head.

The AIS data is being provided by the EmTrac AIS unit.

This screen shot of Aqua Maps while we are at Anchor in Sunrise bay.

On the left is the data provided by the NavLink2.

Several people asked me how the NavLink works and my simple reply is 'Magic' !!!  

However here's what it does.

The NavLink2 is connected to the NEMA2000 back bone via a drop cable which is attached to the NavLink2. All I had to do was remove the NEMA2000 Terminator on the end of the backbone, connect a new T connector to the backbone and reconnect the Terminator to the other end of the T. Then connect the NavLink2 NEMA cable to the T - All done.

Then I turned on our Nav Instruments circuit breaker which powered the NEMA 2000 network. I turned on the Garmin Chartplotter so that I could disable the AIS alarm then turned on the EmTrac AIS system.

With the Nav equipment all running, it was time to connect the Tablet to the NavLink2 WiFi Server.

On the Tablet I turned on WiFi and looked for the NavLink2, found it and provided the password. 

At this point I expected the NavLink2 'Status' lamp to change from Flashing Green to Steady Green but it did not happen.

After reading the advise on the Digital Yacht website I rebooted my tablet to make sure no other wifi apps were hogging the system.

Once rebooted and reconnected the WiFi to the NavLink2, I tried to connect Aqua Maps. There's a very clear set of instructions on the Digital Yacht website on how to make the connection. That worked.

Now the List of connections shows up on Aqua Maps.

So that brings us up to date. I'm waiting for a response from Digital Yachts about the flashing status light and the odd chars on either side of the vessel names.

In a nutshell: NavLink2 gets the NEMA2000 data and converts it to NEMA 9183 and transmits it on WiFi, Aqua Maps receives the data via the WiFi on the tablet and displays the selected data on the Aqua Maps App.

Or, as I said earlier - Magic!

See you on the water.

UPDATE

Response from Digital Yacht.

Seems I have a newer model and the Flashing Status lamp is normal. so cross that one off.

They have asked for details about the unit ( firmware version etc. ) So I have to go down to the boat in the next couple of days to get that info. But so far I'm impressed with their post sales support.

For now it's Back to work.

UPDATE

March 23rd 2024.

It has been a busy few weeks and I have not gotten down to the boat in order to respond to DY's questions.  But I did get down today to check on the boat after the rain storm yesterday.  Didn't get to check on the Firmware version. So it'll have to wait till next weekend. I have a bundle of work to do and finish by April 1st which was just moved forwards to being completed by March 29th. So no trips to the boat this week.

Replacing our Hot Water Tank

Replacing our Seaward Hot Water Tank

Our Hot Water Tank was leaking when we pulled Eximius out of the water at Playboy Marine in Fort Lauderdale. Was it the piping or the Tank?

I Could see water dripping from the front bottom edge of the tank ( The face where the heating element electrical is located.) But it could be from almost anywhere, so time to pull the tank.

I removed the access door and frame on the port ( inboard ) side of the galley in order to maximize the space for tank removal.

The tank has 4 pipes connected, two to the front for the Hot & Cold water and two at the back for the Supply and Return of the coolant from the engine coolant pump. I had to disconnect the mid line pipe connections of the coolant pipes in order to drain some coolant into a bucket. Then I could disconnect the Coolant pipes from the back of the tank, it's virtually impossible to capture that coolant so I let it go into the bilge and pumped it out with a hand pump into an empty bottle.

Disconnecting the Hot & Cold pipes was easy but disconnecting the electrical supply not so. I had to cut one of the wires as I could not reach down to the terminal near the bottom of front of the tank.

The Tank is held in place with 4 screws into a wooden base beneath it, easy.  I had to unscrew the water pump from it's mounting in order to be able to slide the tank out. I say 'Slide' but in reality it took ten minutes to manipulate the tank into a position that it would come out of the galley structure.

I brought the tank home plus the bottles of the coolant/water mix that I pumped out of the bilge before leaving the boat at the dock.

Seaward S-700 Hot Water Heater

After dinner, with the tank at home, I removed the Stainless Steel outer housing. All of the fiberglass insulation between the housing and the tank was sopping wet. It took about 30 minutes to get the housing off then another 10 cleaning up the outside of the tank. Now the bad news! It looks like the tank has corroded near the central weld that joins the two ends of the tank. 

Of note, I found that the previous owner of the boat had the tank repaired at some point, his name and phone number were written on the tank.  Not sure when it was repaired but I decided to bite the bullet and replace the tank.

Looking online I found the identical tank ranging from $577 + tax+ shipping from several vendors, some had free shipping but slightly higher prices.

Kuma 6Gallon Hot Water Heater

I also found another brand for $414 inc Shipping & Taxes. It looks almost identical but with a couple of key differences.

The housing is Aluminum not Stainless steel, the Position of the Cold water inlet is several inches from that on the Seaward, but other than that, looks the same unit Size and all.

The new tank 'Kuma' arrives on Wednesday 12/272023. And we are heading out on the boat on 12/29/2023 for the new year's eve cruise.

So now the question is: Do I leave the tank out till after the new year and just bypass the coolant pipes and the Cold-Hot pipes so that we can run the engine and have water pressure for the weekend trip - - or Do I install the new tank as soon as it arrives - AND - what if it doesn't arrive.

Here's my plan. I'll cut the old Cold - Hot pipes out and replace them with longer pipes and then put elbows on both of them and a bypass pipe ( PEX ) between them - That way we can have water pressue and I'll remove the rubber hoses from the ends of the coolant supply and return and then put a bypass hose between them.  So if the new tank does not arrive, then I can simply fill the coolant tank on the engine, run it to burp any air out of the system and we can be on our way. If the new tank arrives on Wednesday, then I just need to remove the pass hoses and cut the cold/hot pipes to the correct length in order to connect them to the tank, then remove the coolant bypass hose, connect the pipes to the coolant supply and return to the tank, and then top up the engine coolant tank and burp the engine and we're ready to go.

It's a plan.  I'll go down on Tuesday and install the bypasses.

Meanwhile, what do I do with the old leaky tank and that nice Stainless Steel Housing????

I'll post an update in the New Year.

Installing Bougerv Fridge Freezer

Installing a 12V Portable Car Fridge Freezer

We're planning on a six week cruise to Georgia ( or at least as close as we can get dependent upon the weather. ) in April 2024 and wanted to increase the amount of cold storage we have aboard.

The Bougerv CRPRO25 26 Quart 12V Portable Car Fridge Freezer looked like it would big enough for holding quite a bit of cold or frozen food/drinks and not too big to exceed the space we have on the boat to keep it secure.

It arrived on time and was easy to setup and test.

We loaded a few bottles of water, plugged it in to a 110v outlet at home, turned it on and let is sit. 

It quickly went down to below freezing and we soon had a few frozen bottles of water.

I was pretty sure it would fit sitting on the seat at the front of our Aft Berth and we set it up using the hold downs and some webbing for our trip up to Lake Boca over the Oktoberfest HISC Cruise.  We set the temperature to 45ºF and left it running for the long weekend. It easily held all of our 'bottles' and 'jars' that would normally go into our regular freezer/fridge aboard. That made a huge difference to our cold storage. My only disappointment was in my choice of the size! I would have gotten a bigger unit as it would fit in the same space. But that's a minor disappointment. I'll not lose any sleep over it.

The only issue with it being mounted on top of that seat is that we lose storage space and access to the small storage locker beneath the seat. So I figured that if there was a shelf mounted higher up, then we could put 'stuff' below it and also have access to that locker.

I came up with this design ( sorry it's not 3D ) 

Shelf Construction

Plan is to make it from Marine Ply, finished with epoxy. 

The shelf will be supported by a brace screwed to the bulkhead another along the seat back and a triangular brace below the aft end of the shelf.

The Fridge Freezer will be strapped down with webbing straps on either end. 

I did notice a voltage drop indicated on the unit's digital display, I'll check the wire gauge of the supply to the 12v outlet. It should be at least 10awg ( I use the BoatHowTo ABYC Wire Size Calculator ) 

Then I had a thought! Would it be worth it to make the shelf removable.

If it were, then either hinge it upwards against the seat back or just lift it out and stow.

The hinge option will not work. The angles are not 90º

To make it removeable, I would hinge the aft edge support brace to the underside of the shelf.

To much complexity for my woodworking skills, so it' going to be fixed.

Ok, plan  done.

Steps:

1. Make a template as the shelf is anything but rectangular
2. Cut a piece of ply for the shelf and the three support pieces
3. Hot glue everything in place to check fit - adjust a needed.
4. Coat everything with an Epoxy resin.
5. Install
6. Make straps to hold down the fridge/freezer.

Made the hot glue gun templates in about 30 minutes today. There are 4 parts:-

• Outboard Support 
• Aft Support
• Forward Support
• Shelf

I cut the support pieces from a piece of ply I had in the Garage and sanded them down - a quick trip to Lowes Hardware for a piece for the shelf. 4' x 2' x 1/2" ply.

The Outboard support piece is not cut to length, I'll do that after the Forward and Aft support pieces are screwed into position.  Talking of securing the supports, The forward support can be secured using SS screws into the wooden bulkhead between the aft cabin and the galley, but the outboard support is fiberglass, so I'm going to use nut rivets & screws.

Making progress. My templates didn't account for the angles where the pieces meet but I have them all marked out and ready to cut. I could get to this during a short ride from the Marina where Eximius is on land right now but splashes on Tuesday. 

That happened!

We splashed from Playboy Marine at 0800 Tuesday December 19th. We had Patagonia Marine Services paint the bottom and apply a fresh coat of PropSpeed - as always, they did a great job, the Teams down there always do. 

From Playboy marine, we slowly motored up the ICW to Lake Sylvia, I was checking the new Packless Shaft Seal ( PSS ) for leaks. There was a leak - just a drip every minute or so, from the Vent Hose connection. Also the vibration was higher than normal, looks like my alignment was not as good as I thought. 

Anyway, I was able to install the new BougeRV Fridge Freezer Shelf in the Aft Berth. My woodwork would not win any awards but it's very functional. 

The design is longer than needed for the 26Quart unit we have, but I figure, if we ever replace it we'll get a larger one.

The 12v power outlet will come up from the seat locker behind the seat back and the unit will plug in, hopefully no need to drill a hole in the shelf.

The shelf is plain plywood right now, but I'll take it out after the New Year's eve cruise and give it a coat of epoxy with White pigment.

The unit is held down with 1/8" braided line right now, but I'll make some webbing straps with plastic buckles.

As mentioned, there's room below the shelf for a couple of boxes, either provisions or tools, I always need more space for tools!

Another deciding factor for the position of the shelf was where the lid would open. 

There's plenty of room for the lid to open up and swing back against the bulkhead. 

I'm really pleased how this worked out. 

It's convenient being right inside of the door of the Aft Cabin.

It really does not remove any space from a guest that might use the Aft Cabin

It's mounted beneath the LED lamp so it'll be easy to see the contents.

Just what we needed.

I'll get the power setup before our NYE cruise.

See you on the water.

Paul

Replacing the Bilge Pump

Replacing the powered Bilge Pump 

It was working ok but it's 8 years old and due to be replaced.

We have 4 bilge pumps onboard. 2 manual, this one - non-automatic 2000 GPH 12v and our Dry Bilge Pump.

The main one, this one, is 8 years old, and it's just time to replace it.

The hold down clips ( those two red bits on the sides  above the base ) had broken a while ago and I had replaced them with Zip Ties.

When testing the Bilge pump before leaving the dock, I noticed that the 'Manual' operation did not work. Automatic worked fine, so I figured there was a wiring issue somewhere but it could wait till we got to the Haul Out Yard at Playboy Marina.

The replacement was easy:- 

• Dry the bilge so that no water would get into the screw holes when the base is removed.
• Cut the wires from the old pump close to the Butt Joints in the wires from the control switch. 
• Cut the Zip ties to release the pump from the base. 
• Remove the 4 screws holding the base to the bottom of the bilge.

That's the demolition complete.

This wiring diagram was from the BoatUS.com site but it's basically the same as the one included in the installation sheet that came with the Bilge Pump.

Our wiring is slightly different. The join in the wires from the pump and float switch are actually on a Terminal Block that is behind our electrical panel at the Nav Station. My reason for doing that was to move the join from the bilge area.

With the old pump removed I spent a few minutes cleaning up the bottom of the bilge, it's pretty shallow on Eximius compared to some other boats. It cleaned up pretty good and I was able to remove the old 4200 sealant from the holes and applied some fresh 4200 to seal them.

Screwing the base back onto the bottom of the bilge and seeing the sealant squishing out was reassuring. 

I cut back the old wiring close to the original heat shrink tubing and slid some 1/4" Heat Shrink tubing over the wires. Then I crimped Blue Butt joints onto the supply wires. Next I slide a larger Heat Shrink tube that was long enough to extend pass the ends of the butt joints over the whole assembly. With that done I just needed to crimp the pump side of the butt joints onto the pump wires and use my heat gun to shrink the tubing to completely seal the wiring joint.

I knew that the wiring to the pump was ok as the old pump ran when I operated the float switch, so the issue had to be in the wiring from the electrical panel to the terminal block. I opened the panel and straightaway could see the spade terminal on the Manual side of the switch had pulled off. Pushed it back onto it's terminal and tested the pump on Manual - works. Operated the float switch - works! All done.

The issue with the spade connection on the switch is just another reminder that I really need to work on that electrical panel. One more reminder!  It's on my to-do list and just moved up a notch.

Pump working - next job on the list - Packless Shaft Seal ( PSS )

Getting close to being back in the water.

Paul