Oil Leak

Wiki: A governor, or speed limiter, is a device used to measure and regulate the speed of a machine, such as an engine.

It's a good job we've been stress testing the engine on our river trails, because we've discovered that the governor is leaking. According to Steve, there are two ways of describing what's wrong. First.. "There's lateral movement on the shaft". And secondly, "That spindle arm is waving around like a prick in a bucket".

It's nothing too major, and easy enough to fix. Just a few convex/concave washers, and a new rubber ring. But it's meant we haven't been able to 'mess about on the river' for a couple of days. Upside of the problem is, now we know what a governor does. And how to tweak it. Slowly, day by day, mysterious bits of the engine are revealing their secrets to us.

Thermostat

This was leaking. With the kind help of other boaters, I now know that it's our engine's thermostat housing. They also told me how to get it off, and how to fix the leaks. If the big brass bit is welded onto the engine body, it's (allegedly) quite a simple task to redo the joint again. If it's not, then all that needs doing is to replace a couple of gaskets, and make sure the top screws are torqued correctly when tightened up. Then I can slap some more red paint on it. job done.

Looked more serious than it actually was.

Gearstick

Gearbox sounds good when underway. Gearstick works fine. Forward, Reverse, and tickover. With varying degrees of power inbetween. Everything we need. But the housing is cracked, and lets in the rain. The previous owner had taped over it. The starter panel (and big red stop button) is also dangling by two screws and in need of some love. A job for January, when dogma is next out of the water.

Big Red Engine

We have a Bukh engine. The operations manual is 2' thick.

The manufacturer's website was quite helpful. So now we can authoritavely state that it has 2 cylinders, and is capable of delivering 24 horse power under full load. Which (given the length and weight of our hull) translates to a massive 3 knots of forward propulsion! To say we're slightly underpowered would be an understatement. This engine has to propel us up the Thames to the safety of canal land, so we're hoping the river gods will smile on us and not impede progress with any fast flowing currents.

The propeller turns clockwise, we are reliably informed.