EXHAUST WATER TRAP 43T

[mike]

Has anyone easily removed the exhaust water trap in the bilge just aft of the gearbox? I've a slight leak on both the inlet and outlet stainless steel spigots where they are bonded to the GRP trap which is letting fumes into the boat. It would be much easier to clean up and re bond with epoxy in the workshop rather than in the bilge if it could be easily removed.

I've not removed them as yet but it appears there are just 6 self tappers holding the flange on the trap the the stringers bonded to the hull, fortunately we have an Aquadrive system so the shaft can be relatively easily removed to allow the trap to be tilted and lifted out, the only problem I can foresee is trying to remove the rubber exhaust hose from the spigots owing to its rigidity/ inflexibility.

Has any one been there and done it?

Mike

[mike]

The answer is yes it will come out but with a struggle! Having removed the fore/aft floor stringer aft of the engine box (made to be removable) the short Aquadrive shaft between the engine and the thrust bulkhead was removed - it wouldn't be possible to remove the trap on a boat with a conventional shaft with the boat in the water as the shaft would have to be drawn.

Some flexi water pipes had to be released from their securing clips making it JUST possible to get the water trap out. Its possibly more difficult on our 43t as I moved the engine intake seacock to the space aft of the engine box so it was accessible from the lift up floor panel rather reaching into the engine compartment, also I moved our galley sink outlet to the other side of the keel, the theory being that if the engine was running any food debris going out of the sink outlet wouldn't be drawn into the engine water intake. As a result the hose to the sink had to be taken off the seacock, with this done it was just possible to get the trap out. The other problem was the exhaust hose its self, the short length from the engine to the trap was relatively easy to remove as it has earlier been replaced with a 'softer' convoluted type hose, however it was impossible to extract the spigot on the out going side from the exhaust despite being able to rotate the rubber pipe using a chain type filter removing tool, the heavy rubber pipe was just too inflexible to do anything with, the only option being to saw thought it. Even after removing the trap the pipe could not be pulled off the spigot and had to be cut longitudinally to enable it to be removed. The shortfall in pipe length will be made up with an internal stainless spigot and a short length of flexi pipe.

Water plus gasses have been blowing out of the trap between the inlet/outlet spigots as a result of the bonding to them failing, I intend to grind out the original GRP round each spigot and re glass using epoxy resin and a woven cloth which should give a better bond to the stainless steel.

Mike