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07/08/21 Sat. Nothing much happening, still strong winds during the afternoons and still doing a little each day with the instrument pod filling and sanding.
09/08/21 Mon. Into town today to Immigration - waste of time really. After 2 hours there, we were told to come back on Thursday as only the boss can issue visa extensions, and he's off until Thursday.
11/08/21 Weds. Sprayed the instrument pod white today and the rest of the day looking into 4 pulse generators.
12/08/21 Thurs. Immigration day........we have our visa extension until the 9th Sept., a total of 3¾ hours to staple a bit of paper into our passports!! The next application will have to go to KK office. We had 100 litres of diesel delivered to the marina and transferred that to the boat.
13/08/21 Fri. Spent the day trying to figure out the wiring for the new tachometer which has 8 wires as opposed to 2 on the old one.
14/08/21 Sat. We went into town again this morning at 0700 for our 0800 appointment for vaccination. We should have known better! The queue on arrival was round two sides of the community hall, our numbers were 153 and 154. By the time they opened the doors at 0800, the queue extended around three sides of the car park as well. Four and a half hours later, we came out fully vaccinated. Why does the health department think it's a good idea to get over 500 people gathered together in a hall before starting to jab them, yet only a few people are allowed in supermarkets etc? Unbelievable!
16/08/21 Mon. Sanding the coachroof grabrails today, in preparation for varnishing. All woodwork on deck is in need of varnishing - a job which is not high on my favourite list of pastimes!
21/08/21 Sat. Rant and frustration time again! Advances in technology are not always that great, as I am experiencing once again with the new tachometer wiring. Two full days of trying to get the new tacho to work all resulted in failure. A brief background.......the old tacho and engine instruments are all German made VDO gauges and as I am replacing them all, I searched for new VDO gauges so that I would not have to change sender units etc. The tacho had to work from a pulse generator mounted on the rear of the injector pump as opposed to inductive, magnetic or alternator sensors. OK, got one of the new Viewline VDO tacho's which is supposed to work from a pulse generator. Firstly, the old tacho only has the two wires from the sender unit, it has no power inputs or any other wiring - the new has 3 power inputs, a ground wire, 2 sensor wires and 2 wires to connect to a pc for programming! Figured all that out and ran temporary wiring to test it before fitting to new instrument pod, it didn't work! I contacted Veratron, who are now the Swiss owners of VDO and was told that the unit was a piece of crap and they had withdrawn production (or words to that effect) but of course the retail supplier in UK hadn't told me that. Veratron suggested I go for the same model but with the LCD screen showing engine hours etc., that is all very well and good except I would have to change the pulse generator as well, and they retail around the 400USD mark. The search to resolve the problem goes on......
25/08/21 Weds. I have moved the original 'old' tachometer to a new location on the forward bulkhead and I am thinking now that I will wire in a new tacho (when I get one!) to run off the alternator. The problem is that my alternator does not have a 'W' terminal to wire it to, so I would have to modify the alternator by adding an A/C take off point to the coils OR buy a new alternator with a W terminal. I replaced the alternator in Oman, so it is some years old now and perhaps could do with replacement. Meanwhile, the retailer from whom I bought the Viewline tachometer is saying, "No problem, just return the defective one and we will replace it." Ah, if only it were that easy, with no outgoing international mail and the nearest courier service in KK (where we cannot go), sending anything out of the country is a major problem!
30/08/21 Mon. The electrickery problems continue. I have removed the alternator and fitted a 'W' terminal to the coils but I am now in search of a new alternator to replace the aging one. I remember having problems with fitments when we were in Salalah (March 2010) and of course, those same problems are now raising their heads again! I am currently not able to find a Lucas A127 alternator locally and so I may have to get a one sent from UK, but the shipping costs are the crippling factor as usual, and I would still have the mountings and pulley problem. The second hand pulley I fitted in Oman, although it's the right profile for a 'B' belt, is the wrong diameter. It's 82mm when it should really be around 60mm - that makes the belts very difficult to fit and slows the rpm of the alternator. A partial solution of course would be to fit a B45 belt instead of a B44, a better solution would be to have a new pulley machined by an understanding workshop. I wish I could remember what alteration was needed to the mounting brackets when Jean-Claude and I fitted the new alternator in Salalah!
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