Power Steering

I'm working on the power steering but really don't have much to post in terms of pictures. Most of the work right now revolves around routing the hydraulic lines, drilling holes, and mounting all of the bulkhead fittings. All the lines have been routed and are in the back of my truck ready for a trip to the hydraulic shop where Chuck will smash the ends on.

My hydraulic steering system is basically a power steering system. I have a pump that is driven off of a gear that runs off of the timing gear on the engine. I have a six gallon reservoir for the hydraulic fluid and a filter in the return line. The engine mounted pump drives my helm pump which is what the steering wheel bolts too via a 3/4" tapered, keyed shaft. The helm pump then sends fluid to a dual ram steering quadrant that turns the rudder. This is a pretty simple system that is what I would call robust, and should give me decades of trouble free service.

I'm still waiting on the pump drive adapter from Deere, but that should be in this week and I'll then be able to finalize the installation and start posting some pictures.

Here's another diagram showing how the auto pilot solenoid valve will plumb in to the circuit.

Water tight doors

While waiting for parts for the steering system I decided to install the water tight doors in the engine room. As my son would say, " everything tight doors" is really a better description.

The doors have been laying around the shop ever since I bought them at the start of the build. I welded the frames in to the bulkheads, then forgot about the doors. The door leading into the engine room from our cabin is a six dog quick acting door with a port light. Since I don't need the aluminum dead light that came with the door, I took it off. The port light glass in this door is 1/2" thick tempered, and the door itself is 1/4" thick. This door is what I would call severe duty, and is both water tight and fire tight. When this door shuts, things are pretty much final, and no air or water is getting past it.

The door leading from the engine room to the lazarette is a four dog door that is not quick acting. It too, has a port light and is also 1/4" thick. Since this door has no adjustments, the new gasket and dogs are still tight, and I have to use a rubber dead blow mallet to close the dogs. I don't have to hit the dogs to hard, but the mallet works better than my hand. I'll end up buying a dedicated mallet, and hang it on a hook next to the door.

Both doors have a bronze port light in them, and we decide to polish the port light. I had some stainless steel pickling paste in the shop, and brushing some of that on the bronze took the tarnish right off. It was almost too easy and looked like one of those Billy Mays commercials except for the fact that pickling paste is nasty stuff and will give one a good burning if you're not careful. After the acid treatment, I gave them a good scrubbing in cold water, the put a paste wax finish on them to try to keep the tarnish at bay. We'll see how this works out.

Both the AC and DC light switch for the engine room is in our cabin so I can see in to the engine room through the port light without opening the door. I felt like this was important in case something was going on in that room I wanted to see and still maintain the integrity of water and fire tight. It also makes it easy to do a quick check without letting the noise and heat in to the cabin. The light switch for the lazarette is outside the lazarette, in the engine room, for the same purpose of being able to look in without opening the door.

I think I'm going to fit some mineral wool insulation in the quick acting door from our cabin. The engine room is heavily insulated, and the door is really the weak link in the insulating chain. I'd guess an inch of insulation will knock the noise that will be hitting the door down by 80%.

An update on the fuel system is also needed. I had to re think the priming pump as the chevy pump I had on my shelf was not up to the lift out of the day tank. I found a new Walbro pump on Ebay for not much money, and got it installed. Walbro is a top of the line pump and with just three moving parts, this pump should last the life of the boat. I'll only use this pump to prime either the generator or main engine after I service the filters or for an emergency such as an engine loosing prime, or one of the engines loosing it's factory mounted lift pump. This pump is rated at continuous duty, so if one of the factory mounted lift pumps fail, I can always rely upon he Walbro as a good back up. Once I got the pump installed and fired up, it quickly picked up the fuel and filled my filter. I opened the valve leading to the generator, and got fuel flowing to the fuel pump. Just for kicks, I cracked one of the injectors, and had fuel spitting out of the injector. That engine is primed and ready to fire. I might use some street 90's for connecting the pump to the valves, and do away with the loops you see and make things more streamlined.

I'm still putting pieces together for the steering system, and should be working on that within a week or so.

Generator install is complete

I finished making the wet exhaust connections to the generator, so for all practical purposes the generator a about as complete as I can get it right now. I'm waiting on a clamp order to get here before I can double clamp all the connections.

For the wet exhaust hose I used Gates hose with wire in it. I wanted to keep the exhaust hose pretty tight to the bulkheads so I used some fiberglass fittings to turn a 45 in to the water lift, and two 90's to get to the bulkhead. To make the turn in to and out of the bulkhead I used stainless steel 90's and sch. 80 nipples. I clamped the hose to the plywood fuel tank covers using two mineral ac clamps and I have a sch. 80 nipple welded in to the hull for the discharge about 12" above the water line.

The suction line from the sea chest to the generator pump inlet is 3/4" suction hose with stainless wire in it. I had bought a 100' roll of this stuff for the fresh water system, and had plenty of it left over so I used it for the generator. The generator is set up for 1/2" suction hose, so I had to remove the 1/2" barb fitting from the pump and increase it to 3/4" with an adapter coupler. I don't think the generator will mind the increase ( decrease in head) suction pipe size.

I've yet to install the DC conduit from the engine room to the wheel house, so I have no control wires from the generator to the wheel house. Along with the generator control panel in the wheel house, I'd like to be able to start it from the engine room, so I will need to source another panel.

I had the generator running about a year ago, but I think I'll fire it up inside the engine room within a few weeks as I'm curious to see how loud it is in place. A 55 gallon drum on my scaffold will mimic the water line, and a sump pump in a bucket below the discharge will get the water back up to the barrel. This is how I was planning on getting big electricity at the launch site, so I might as well see if it will work.

Lazarette

Before I can move forward on the steering system, I needed to finish sheathing the lazarette. The lazarette is the area aft of the engine room and underneath the cockpit. The rudder post and steering gear is located in this room. The room is pretty large measuring about 14' x 7' x 48" high.

While the lazarette is home to the rudder and steering gear, I also have put some more equipment in here. The marine air conditioner that will cool the salon and wheel house will be in the lazarette along with the water heater, freezer, air compressor, 90 gallon black water tank, and generator discharge line ( wet exhaust), and fresh water hot and cold manifold.

When I was welding the boat I framed a level pad for the black water holding tank. Other than that one level area, the lazarette floor follows the shape of the hull.

I sheathed the lazarette with 1/2" B/C plywood then painted on a coat of primer( actually, I had my 16 year old son Conall Jr. paint the room), and three coats of white enamel house paint. Since I was working in that are, I decided to install the light wiring and the conduit and boxes for the various electric equipment. I had already run the wires to the big junction box next to the generator in the engine room so it was no big deal to continue the conduit run in to the lazarette. I decided to install a light switch outside of the lazarette on the engine room AC light circuit ( this will be on an inverter circuit). There will also be two DC lights in that room on a switch.

The lazarette room turned into a little bit of work and I found myself saying " since I'm in here I might as well...". Since I had finished the electric conduit and box's I decided to finish the generator discharge line. I also completed the water line manifold and made all those connections.

The water line manifold turned out to be a nice way to complete all the water lines for the boat. Instead of using "T's " hidden behind walls, I ran lines for every fixture back to the lazarette. I used a PEX manifold that comes with a nice re usable compression connector that has a shut off valve for each line. I still have to install the lines for the clothes washing machine, the salon 1/2 bath, and the aft deck outdoor shower, but I will have to wait to do that when the boat gets to the launch site. The nice thing about this manifold is that it is easy to expand and will be a breeze to winterize all the fresh water piping from this manifold by some simple valve turning and my air compressor. This was the smallest manifold my plumbing supply house sold with 9 hots and 12 cold ports. The 1" cold inlet goes all the way through so I can feed it from either the top or bottom.

The lazarette is going to be the closet of the boat and I have a feeling it will be jammed with all kinds of stuff. Once I have all the components installed I'll probably fill all the wall space with shelving. I'll wait to install the 3/8 plywood ceiling once the boat gets to the launch site. I'm only a few steps away from having the fresh water system complete, and I might head in that direction before I work on the steering and hydraulic system.

Fuel system is complete

The fuel delivery end of the job is complete with the main engine and generator connected to the day tank. It was kind of anti climatic as I screwed down the last hose clamp, and realized I have no more work to do on the fuel system.

I installed check valves after the manifold. I was worried that one engine might try to pull fuel out of the other engine. I spoke with a few diesel mechanics, and all agreed that check valves would not hurt and were probably needed.

The line supplying the main engine after the manifold is 3/8" coast guard rated rubber fuel line. The return line from the main engine is the same rubber line only in 1/4". I had JIC fittings crimped on the fuel supply line for the main engine and used push on connectors for the returns.

I routed the supply and return for the main engine through the engine bed. I used a hole saw to create the bores, and then used 1 1/2" rubber grommets to pretty up the bore and prevent any chaffing of the lines. I used the same detail on the generator supply and return

The line feeding the generator is 5/16 coast guard rubber fuel line,and the return line is the same 1/4". I had to bush the return line up from 3/16 @ the generator return port. The fuel supply line on the generator is a push on connector as the generator manufacturer uses the Banjo style fitting at the fuel inlet.

The 1/2" electric priming pump looks as if it is not going to work. I got the pump to prime with a 5' piece of brake line and a bucket of fuel. However, in the real world, the pump will not pick up the fuel once I have it installed and it has to lift through the fuel filter, pipe network, valves and four feet of lift. I have to re visit the electric priming pump and get a model pump that can handle the lift and friction loss I'm placing upon it.

All the return fuel lines enter the tank at return manifold.

While both engines could be fired now, I'm really not ready as I want to get the exhaust systems completed for both engines. I'm working on the generator wet exhaust first, then I'll attack the dry exhaust for the main engine. Since I'm going to be doing the generator wet exhaust, I need to finalize the wiring in the lazzerette and finish sheathing that room. Once the lazzerete is sheathed, I can make the wet exhaust connections and check another item off the list. I'm at the point now that I want to be able to scratch these jobs off of the list and not have to re visit them. This order of work is logical as I won't be able to start the steering system until the lazzerete is completed, and the bulky wet exhaust gear is installed.

Since I am now working on the wet exhaust system for the generator, I might as well install the sea chest as the generator will be needing it's cooling water. I even hung a spare gasket for the flange connector, and the wrench for the strainer housing. Once the wet exhaust is completed, I can fire the generator. The numbers you see in the last picture is how I labeled the fuel tanks. #2 is the 200 gallon day tank, and #1 is one of the 500 gallon storage tanks.

Generator

I'm waiting on the fuel line I ordered to finish the fuel delivery system, but in order to connect the fuel lines when they arrive, I had to mount the generator.

The generator is powered by a 3 cylinder Isuzu engine, wet exhaust, and is rated at 10,000 watts @ 240 volts. I've been rolling it around on 3/4" pvc pipes for the last year now, and to be honest with you, I'm glad I'm finally getting it mounted.

Before I could mount the generator, it was going to be easier to finish installing the conduit from the wheel house to the engine room. The 1.25" conduit terminates in a pvc junction box along side the generator. Since I am going to finish the conduit run, I might as well install the wiring since all this gets a little more difficult once the generator is mounted.

I dropped the water lift muffler in its location to see how things lined up. I'll have to rotate the exhaust elbow on the generator a few degrees, and use a 45 to get the line from the generator to the water lift.

The conduit from the wheel house passes through a junction box in the master cabin. All the AC wire from the cabins make their way to the wheel house through this junction box, just as all the AC wires in the engine room pass through a junction box in the engine room. I already have the lower hull lighting circuit in the conduit but I wanted to pull as much through the duct as I could think of on this pull. I pulled the four #6 wires for the generator, I pulled the #10 wires for my inverter, I pulled the #6 ground wire for the AC system ( this will bond to the hull at the engine bed along with the DC ground), I pulled the lower hull receptacle circuit (#12), and enough 12 wire for my battery charger circuit, water heater circuit, and the air conditioner circuit ( two ac units on board with one residing in the lazzerette). There is a fair amount of wire in that 1.25" conduit, but there is room for more so I left a pull string in the duct for any future wire installs I might want to make. Because the duct is filling up, leaving a pull string in the duct is easier than trying to suck one through with the shop vac or using the fish tape.

When it comes time to connect the generator to the hard wires in the junction box, I'll have a four wire rubber cord made up using stress relief cord grips and clamp it to the drip pan. A six foot cord should be plenty to get to from the generator to the junction box.

Now that I have most of my AC wires in the engine room, I can finish wire all the receptacles and AC lights in the cabins and engine room and start getting away from extension cords.

The generator has a stainless steel pan it is mounted to via some nice isolation mounts. I had been planning on mounting the generator and stainless pan directly to the aluminum diamond plate sole I installed in the engine room. I decided to replace the aluminum diamond plate under the generator with some 3/4" painted plywood. I also added some rubber pads to place between the stainless steel pan and the plywood. The metal on metal of the stainless pan and the aluminum sole was causing me some worry in regard to vibration, and also the potential for more than one path to ground should a failure of the generator circuit might occur. I do think the plywood will add a little more of a buffer vs the aluminum diamond plate.

The fuel line will be in the shop on Monday, and I'll be able to drop off the lines and have Chuck at the Parts Connection crimp on my JIC fittings. All the hard piping is completed and now that the generator is mounted, I'll finish the fuel delivery system this week.