Bilge pump revisited

[Roger Long]

I previously reported on the tiny little chip of plywood that stopped my Bosworth Guzzler manual bilge pump cold by jamming in the outlet valve.

I didn't actually test it after putting it back together because I'd put more antifreeze in the pump when it didn't work the day before. Besides, these are such simple devices, what's not to work? Wrong!

I tested it today prior to putting all the stuff attached to it back together and it didn't work. Took the valve housing apart again and found nothing. Put it back. It still didn't. After the next disassembly, I figured out that the flat rubber flapper valve had taken a set due to the chip in it and air rushing back in wasn't enough to pull it into place. I turned the flapper over and it worked.

While studying the flapper, I realized that they should be installed with the "hinge" down instead of up as I've been doing habitually because heavy metal check valves need to be installed in that orientation. This way any debris will tend to fall to one side or the other when the water level drops instead of catching on the the rubber edge that sometimes forms a slight ridge at the opposite side of the opening. Vigorous air pumping will be more likely to dislodge any debris if gravity is helping.

Next time I have this pump out, or maybe tomorrow, I'm going to epoxy the nuts into the housing and replace the screws with Phillips that are easier to get a screw driver into upside down with the wrong hand over my head in the dark. Three trips down another hatch into a different part of the bilge to retrieve the nuts was bad enough secure in the shed. I wouldn't want to be chasing the nuts around the boat with the water rising.

 

[Marty A]

Sounds like a good plan, Roger, and you've clearly learned something today (and thanks for sharing so that we can learn too).

Your story did remind me of an event that you and others may enjoy - we didn't at the time, but it's become something of a legend with my friends and family, so I'll throw it out there.

We had recommishioned a boat after a long spell on the hard and had to get it to a deep channel thru a shallow harbor with a mud bottom. We had the help of a friendly powerboater, but we still pushed the engine pretty hard and the overheat buzzer was going off well before we hit the channel, but we persevered and soon were in deep water.

Even after getting squared away, the engine remained on the edge of overheating. The heat exchanger on this engine had a vent screw, so we convinced ourselves that it was airbound and wasn't doing it's job. One unlucky crew member was given the task of bleeding the air, with the fateful instruction - "Don't drop that screw!!"

As you'd expect, we all listened to the small brass screw "tink, tink, tink" down into the (completely inaccessible) bilge as boiling hot coolant fountained from the open hole.

Without any reasonable hope of success, we did find another screw of the appropriate size and got operational again, but ever since then the phrase "don't drop that screw" has entered our lexicon as defining a task that is crucial to success but entirely impossible to complete.

Hope your sailing experiences continue to be as educational and enlightening!

Marty