There's an old saying that bad things come in threes. It seems to be holding up at the moment. A few weeks ago Forget me Not's gearbox failed again. It was professionally rebuilt in March but since then I've found it impossible to get it adjusted properly. All of a sudden it stopped working altogether. I took it out of the boat and stripped it down at Stalybridge.
The only problem I could find was that two pins were missing that were intended to stop the pressure plate rotating in the clutch. I tracked down two suitable rollpins and fitted them, then started contemplating re-assembling the thing. I'm not really a mechanic and an attack of midwinter malaise made it seem like a big job.
In the absence of a volunteer driver I've been doing shop deliveries with the Land Rover and trailer. On the last Thursday before Christmas I was out doing this, with a couple of strong lads to do the lifting, when I suddenly realised that the indicators weren't working. I checked the fuse, but this was OK. I thought it must be the relay so I went to the car parts shop to buy one. It wasn't listed. Apparently the vehicle is so old (26 years) that parts are becoming unavailable. I looked up the problem online and found that the most likely culprit was the switch. I ordered one online (£34 secondhand refurbished) but we were into Christmas and postal strikes so I knew there would be a long wait.
On Christmas day I was enjoying a bit of quiet relaxation with Emuna. I had a look at my phone and found a message from Nessie. He and Mary were staying on "Hazel" for Christmas, but the central heating pump had failed so they couldn't use the stove. I rushed down there and between us we removed the rather inaccessible pump.
The problem was that the casing of the pump part had split, causing the water to rapidly leak out. It being Christmas day I couldn't really just go out and buy a replacement and, as I've since found, 12 volt hot water pumps are not exactly a standard item. I took it home and superglued it together. Nessie fitted it, but it still wasn't pumping and for some reason it kept stopping. On boxing day I investigated again. The non pumping could just be an airlock, but why did it keep stopping? If you switched it off and on again it would restart, then stop again.
I took the pump out and stripped it down again, but could find nothing wrong. I decided, before re-fitting it, that I would dangle it in the cut and connect it to a battery to see if it would shift any water. I really needed three hands to do this, but managed by trapping one wire under the battery. I touched the bare wire ends to the battery but nothing happened. In an inattentive moment I let go and the pump gently spiralled down to the bottom of the canal. My attempts to recover it with a keb produced a nice heap of mud and plastic bags but no pump.
We had two bookings for people to stay on "Hazel" between Christmas and New Year. With no heating I didn't think they'd like it. They both agreed to cancel.
Today, 4th January, the Land Rover switch arrived. I fitted it and the indicators still didn't work.
This afternoon I cycled over to the boatyard and did a bit more re-assembly of the gearbox. I stopped when I realised that I would need to check the exploded parts diagram to make sure I was putting it together right. The workshop manual is pretty useless and I hadn't brought an exploded diagram with me. I listed some surplus stuff on Ebay as part of my mission to clear out things we don't need, before riding home.
I'm still waiting for the pump to arrive. We have another guest on 20th.
