Hello again

[David Marchand]

I have been away from this forum for a while, but since I am now helping a friend get his new to him Cummins powered trawler in shape for a 900 mile trip back home, I thought I would reintroduce myself and follow the forum more closely.

The boat and engines I am working with is a 42′ Jefferson aft cabin powered by twin Cummins 6BT 210 hp engines. The boat is a 1987 model. He just purchased it and the surveyor noted a few problems/deferred maintenance items that he is working through. He is replacing all filters, fuel and coolant hoses, repairing a questionable main heat exchanger (I recommended replacing, they aren’t that expensive, right?), changing oil, etc.

The main issue that remains to resolve is the hydraulic steering- Teleflex. The surveyor said the boat was difficult to control from the upper helm, but a mechanic looked at it, topped off a little fluid and said that it felt ok to him at the dock. I haven’t seen it myself but I will in a few weeks and take it out for another seatrial to convince me it is ok for this trip.

I am aware of the belt idler problem and that will be dealt with after we get the boat back to Maryland. Isn’t there also a better coolant routing that I read about in the past on boatdiesel? Any other issues specific to this engine that should be addressed?

David

Topic

[David Marchand]

Could be it. The boat did sit idle for some time before George bought it. Will grease the rudder bearings up and see how that works. Maybe also heat the shaft a little, not enough to affect the packing and see if that doesn’t also redistribute the grease.

David

[Bfuller]

Jefferson 42

I have a Jefferson 42 also and in reference to the difficult steering issue, mine had the same problem. The boat had sat for a long time and the rudder shafts’ grease had hardened. I pumped new grease into the zerks and it freed up the steering.

[Author]

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