A puzzle to entertain your vacation for a moment or two

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johngriffiths
Warming the Engine
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Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:13 pm
Boat Name: Tenacity

Re: A puzzle to entertain your vacation for a moment or two

Post by johngriffiths » Thu May 26, 2016 9:08 pm

Is it a water tube level made of black water pipe and which has been lifted to free the liquid of pesty bubbles, and what is the yellow liquid...?
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PeteThePen1
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Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:53 pm
Location: Aberystwyth, Wales, Europe
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Re: A puzzle to entertain your vacation for a moment or two

Post by PeteThePen1 » Sun May 29, 2016 10:43 am

Hi Folks

Thanks for your wonderful replies. As ever you are an eagle eyed lot and clearly the LoadRite mudguard was something of a clue. Actually, what was going on relates to the parking brake which is a European requirement but, I gather, not necessarily required in most US states. I love it because the drive for this house is on a slope and I am paranoid about the trailer and boat taking off on their own.

The brakes have been added to the LoadRite trailer in the UK using calipers from California and Morse cables from somewhere here. The latter I had assumed were stainless and so I have ignored them. Having cleaned up the trailer of algae, bird dropping and so forth I spotted rust. I suddenly realised that the huge effort required to pull up the parking brake might actually be cable friction. I then decided that I would take off the cables and soak them in oil if possible. In fact is was not possible as I have been unable to unscrew the cables from the caliper fitting. One of my old imperial 1/2" spanners will fit the nuts perfectly but is too short to give any useful leverage. Dousing with WD40 has made no impact and I am scared of getting a flame on it for fear of melting the cable covers.

(This is an old photo, as I am not at home to take a current one)
Image

Thus it was that Mike R came to the rescue with the idea of pouring oil into the suspended Morse cables. His 'Killer Tip' was to cut the top off small soda bottles, and fit a cork tightly in the mouth (champagne corks are fat enough). Next, drill the cork out as a tight fit on the cable thread and hence you have tiny hopper into which you can pour oil. The only trouble was that with the other ends still fixed to the trailer, some form of raising up was required.

The result has been to make the cables move with silky smoothness, although I have yet to reconnect everything. I am still tempted to try to release the other ends of the cables as that is where the main brake adjustment lies, a bit like a bicycle.

Hope you are enjoying your vacations if you are luck enough to be away.

Regards


Pete
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