March 31, 2021
That’s the fourth job done from our major 5 list: Replace Transmission Damper Plate.
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New Galley CounterInstall an Air Conditioner- Repair Dry Rot in Head Bulkhead
Install Lithium BatteriesReplace Transmission Damper Plate
I’ve been hearing a noise from our engine that seems to be getting worse. It’s subtle and sometimes I wonder if I’m really hearing it. For about a year, I’ve been telling myself it’s probably nothing, then I got an email from a friend asking if I’d ever changed the damper plate in my engine. No. I hadn’t.
He sent me a video showing how his engine and transmission makes a thunking sound when he rotates the prop shaft with the engine off and transmission in gear. I tried this on Legacy and while it wasn’t as bad as his boat, it was definitely there.
Here’s a quick video that’ll show you what I mean.
While kind of expensive ($580 NZD), it didn’t turn out to be that hard to replace the damper. I’ve had the transmission off two previous times to replace a leaking oil seal. I have the process down now. I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t replaced it. I think it’s unlikely there would have been serious consequences.
The damper plate “dampens” the vibrations from the engine to the transmission. I guess if it wasn’t doing its job at all, the transmission could have eventually been damaged, though we might be talking about a process that would take many times longer than the remaining engine life (we have about 6,000 hours on our engine and are hoping to get to 10K).
So while I feel good about getting this job off the list, it feels a little pointless. Oh well. -Rich
(Note from Cyndi: The noise Rich was hearing was bothering him. When something like this happens; it inevitably gets worse. We’ll never know what would have happened had we let this go, but we’ll feel better not having to worry about it.)
Update on our last task…
We have the wood cut, glued and filled to fix the head dry rot. We’re varnishing a couple of pieces now. In a few days we should be done with half the project. I say half because there’s another small panel on the other side of the head that is also damaged.
Update on our lithium batteries…
Wow, I love them so far. We did a capacity test and our 400Ah batteries clocked in at 350Ah. There’s probably a good reason for the missing 50Ah. I am only charging to 14.2 volts rather than the maximum 14.6 volts, and that probably represents 10% or so of the rated capacity.
I also did a five hour test rather than a 20 hour test, running our space heater from the inverter until the batteries were empty. While discharge rate makes less difference in battery capacity than it does with lead-acid batteries, it still accounts for some of our missing amp-hours.
I’m very happy with our charging system(s). The DC to DC converters via the start battery are flawless. Here’s the post with a system diagram so this paragraph makes sense.
Air Conditioner…
OK, since I’m doing an impromptu roundup here, the air conditioner is great!!! It’s not hot enough now that we need it but every once in a while, we turn it on and it feels so nice! It’s been particularly muggy the last few days and fifteen minutes of aircon lowers the humidity to a very comfortable level.
