Busy Time Coming Up

Doing a bit of catch up round the homestead on Sunday and only came in quite late to find a message on the answer phone from Chris the gas fitter asking if we could meet on Monday to view what he had got in store and assess what he would need to bring.

Monday morning shot into Melton to pick up the switch labels and then over to Pillings to meet up with Chris. Looks like I was right to ask somebody who knows what is what, he pointed out that the cooker and hob should not really be installed with flexible pipes and only copper olives should have been used, on top of what was already known. The upside of all this is that he can run the new feed over our preferred route and will encase the pipe work in conduit through the engine bay. For the rest of the day it was removing old gas pipe and cursing rusty screws.

On the same again today and once the gas pipe had been removed from the battening the steering pipes and bilge pump wiring was removed also in preparation to give the batten its first coat of paint. Heat lagging taken from exhaust in preparation to reverse the ‘U’ bend as highlighted in the surveyors report. Pilot holes drilled in bulkheads and generally preparing run for next weeks instillation.

I have given up on the kitchen for the time being as there is not much point until the appliances are reinstalled.

While down in the engine bay I measured the travel on the steering ram which came in at 6.5 inches old money and the control arm between the two pivot centres worked out to be 5.5 ins. By my reckoning that only gives me 30 deg of rudder in either direction. I wasn’t a happy bunny when I guessed it at only 45 deg so something will have to be done. With a 2ins rudder post to get 45 deg the centre of the ram connection would have to be 2.25 ins down the arm. Question - would that make the steering too heavy or do we need a longer ram. In due course I think it will be try the former but be prepared for the latter. Anyway it will all be coming out because the piece of ply it is mounted on and glued to the top of the fuel tank was never painted either and is now looking very black and starting to rot – at least it is the last of the major faults to rectify – I hopeJ.