Compass Bubble

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BungalowBill

BungalowBill

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Feb 22, 2005
49
Hunter 33.5 Lake Superior
I have a binnacle mounted compass on my H28. When I splashed the boat this spring I noticed a large bubble of air in my compass. It was not there last season. Any ideas how/why this could happen? I thought if there was a leak all the fluid would be gone. Not sure why only a few tablespoons of fluid is missing...... Maybe this has happened to someone else, seems weird to me. Thanks in advance for any help!
 
M

MoonSailer

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Jun 7, 2007
875
Pearson- 323- Mobile,Al
Add some Fluid

Sometimes you can get a bubble and all you have to do is add some oderless mineral spirits. Sometimes you have a cracked globe or a bad O-ring. Several years ago my ritchie developed a bubble and all was fine after adding some fluid. Then I got a bubble this spring and after filling the bubble reappeared after a few weeks. I had noticed some fine cracks in the globe that seemed like they were superfical. But I ordered a new globe and O-rings from Ritchie and thie was early march. So far so good as no new bubbles. I bought the oderless mineral spirits at Lowe's for afew dollars. Ritchie said that Isopar-L is better but that oderless mineral spirits would work and they had used that as their fluid for many years. Actually mine is a older compass about 1980 and that was the original fluid. It was something of a pain to put back together and you have to be carefull with the o-ring. But it is doable for someone handy fixing things. Putting a vaccum on the OMS nefore using will lessen the possibilty of bubbles. Storing the fluid overnight in the freezer will help too. The easiest thing to do is have someone repair it for you if someone is local. For me there is no local repair facilities and I figured it to be easier to fix it myself. Also I don't know if it would survive shipping!!!!
 
Joseph Shirley

Joseph Shirley

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Jun 13, 2005
559
Irwin Barefoot 37 CC Sloop Port Orchard WA
You lost the fluid through a very minor leak somewhere when

the fluid expanded. Probably when the sun hit it. Then when it contracted you sucked in a dribble of air. Hence the bubble. Have fun Joe S
 
C

casmith

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Mar 16, 2005
20
Hunter 28 Madison, MS
Had our compass rebuilt

Our compass started leaking, I refilled it and it continued to leak. We sent our Ritchie to an authorized repair facility and had it rebuilt. Cost was about $75 to $100 with shipping. They installed a new compass card, polished the globe. It came back looking like a new compass and it doesn't leak. Should be good for years.
 
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