Battery and gearbox woe.......

Our visit to Ely has proved to be actually and potentially rather expensive.

Garf, of the boatyard by The Boathouse Restaurant, had a good look at Pippin's Newage PRM 260D gearbox and pronounced it more knackered than originally thought.

The main seal has indeed gone, but the reason for this is the play in the end bearing. This cannot be reduced to correct tolerance with shims, it has to be replaced. Either way, it's a gearbox out job.

Further, it will then have to be taken up to Gearbox Graham in Warwick for a complete strip-down and thorough examination of the internals for other wear/damage.

This has the potential to relieve us of a worryingly large sack of coin.

So that's the bad news.

The good news is that Garf reckons the gearbox removal/replacement is straightforward enough for me to do, which will save a few quid.

I'd popped into Ely to run some errands while all this was going on. I returned to find Jackie had bought four new leisure batteries and a starter battery from Garf. I'd hoped to nurse the battery bank through another winter, but they are all at least three years old and already past their prime, so I bowed to the inevitable.

I then spent a very hot and uncomfortable hour or so bent triple in the engine bay fitting the leisure ones, and I confess to an unreasonable amount of profanity in the process.....

The new batteries also pose a problem.

Pippin's original bank of 12 x 110 amp leisure batteries also started the engine. I have now got to wire up the new starter battery to the engine but must also surely make sure it gets it's fair share of charge.

The starter battery is currently (DEFINITELY no pun intended....) sitting on the back deck while I wonder what to do.

Electrics are not my forte. I can work okay on an established system provided I label clearly and do lots of notes, but wiring something up from scratch is outside my skill set.

So, how is this done? Anyone out there got any ideas?

It's not crucially urgent, as I've wired up the leisure batteries to the starter motor as it was before, so we can at least start the engine.

(Also, with the gearbox issues, we won't be starting the engine or going anywhere for a while anyway.)

However, any help and advice would be much appreciated, especially as Boat Safety is due next June.

It's important to get this right!!