Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Tuesday 3 April 2012

a 'Stacey' update.....

'Stacey' is still alive but barely. Revision, archery and riding get in the way of her completion (my son's hobbies not mine). However, some progress was made today. We
  • threaded through the clutch cable because we'd left it out, forgotten it and realised we seemed to have a 'spare' cable knocking about
  • took out the carb to fit the clutch cable through the floor and then refitted the carb

    regulator correctly wired up - we hope!

  • took off the regulator, sanded the inside of the frame where it attaches back to bare metal and then put the black earthing wire on the bolt and between the regulator and bare metal frame before reattaching the regulator
  • cleaned  up the lower steering bearings

    does all of this look right to anyone?

  • used the dremell to clean up the lower steering socket cone so that the steering bearing would fit (the paint seemed to make it a tighter fit
  • put the front steering assembly back in loosely to check it all


So problems - well the new bearing ring we bought seems to be smaller than the 'larger' individual bearings we took out - so will that be an issue....and no don't say 'put the originals back in' because we are two short and a slight accident when taking them out caused several to make a bid for freedom out of the garage, down the drive and onto the road........sadly two went MIA, never to be seen again.



So next steps on 'Stacey'?

  1. take the front steering assembly out, dremell the top of the steering cone and then refit the lot - depending of course on whether the primmy bearings will suffice or not - and we await expert advice from the small frames forum members on that one.
  2. attach the led spring - we need to get a 'puller thingy' for that job believe me!

    that gap is looking awfully big for a non stretchy spring!

  1. attach the petrol tank to the hose and insert into the mainframe body
  2. test the engine - now forum members told us to put the gears in neutral; mix a little 2 stroke and pour down tube; kick start engine and let it run without throttle cable, just to see that it runs OK. To stop the engine we put hand over carb and cut off air supply apparently! Um!


After that, it's on to the headset assembly and the throttle and gear arms. Then the final wiring of headlight assembly etc and we should be done!
There is just a small glimmer of hope that I might get to retrieve my garage by July!

Steve

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