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**skipperpete** · 17-02-2023, 14:13

Recently, a friend of mine messaged me that her Perkins 4-108 had stopped dead while at sea, and after a bit of troubleshooting she found that the injector pump had seized and snapped off the drive shaft. This left the broken bit of the spline in the timing gear carrier and all efforts to remove it failed so she decided to tackle the job of removing the timing cover, extracting the pump timing gear assembly and getting a machinist to press out the water pump">raw water pump drive to gain access to the inner end of the broken spline and knock it out.
This is no easy job for even for a pro mechanic, it involves some serious effort just to undo the front pulley bolt and extract the timing cover not to mention removing the large circlip that locates the pump gear but she did the job seamlessly , put it all back together and installed the rebuilt pump..... and it started.... and runs perfectly.
So she managed to sail to a marina, repair the engine and remain calm and positive throughout..... am I impressed? Hell yeah.
Pete J

team karst · 17-02-2023, 15:37

[emoji1320]well done.

Pegu Club · 17-02-2023, 15:46

Thats one hell of a job, big props to her! I for one hope I never have to do that

Fair winds,

jordanbigel · 17-02-2023, 16:08

If you have cruised more than a trivial number of miles, something like this has happened to you. For me it was a broken water pump belt tensioner. Learning to jury-rig an engine is a right of passage, and it can't be taught. It's also like running aground; there are 2 types of sailors in the world, those who have run aground and those who will run aground soon. same thing with this. Eventually it will happen to you too.

**Wotname** · 17-02-2023, 16:35

Very impressive - sailors can be a handy lot when pushed!

**JPA Cate** · 17-02-2023, 20:39

Kudos to your friend, skipperpete.

Ann

**Don C L** · 17-02-2023, 23:10

Get your friend to crew on your boat from now on!

**skipperpete** · 18-02-2023, 00:09

What’s more amazing about the repair is that everything that could be difficult ....Was difficult in ways that required a lot of creative thinking on her behalf. It’s uncommon to break a Cav DPA splined shaft and extremely unusual for the broken bit to remain firmly stuck in the drive gear. A normal pump swap on a 4-108 Perkins with no hiccups is a couple of hours work, but on her boat, just getting into the drive gear took a major effort and I suspect more than a few cups of tea and skinned knuckles.

**JPA Cate** · 18-02-2023, 00:47

Ah, yes, the skinned knuckles, or otherwise dinged flesh, the revenge of engines on plain folks.

Know it better than might be best.

Ann

Tortuga's Lie · 18-02-2023, 03:51

She must be well versed in the inner workings of a diesel engine to even troubleshoot that issue, most people have would thrown in the towel and called SeaTow or sailed to port. I consider myself fairly handy on engines, but this one might have eluded me and I had a 4-108 for 20 years too!
Kudos to the captain on this one!!

OldManMirage · 18-02-2023, 03:57

I've always maintained that no mechanical task is complete without a blood sacrifice. Even if it's just a skinned knuckle, blood must be shed before it will work.

Kudos to your friend !