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JOSEPH SOAR’S 50TH BIRTHDAY RE-FIT continued

This first article features work on the Gardner engines. Under RNLIPlanned Maintenance Schedules, a ‘Partial Survey’ would be carried outevery four years on Joseph Soar, which for the engines would involveremoving the cylinder heads for overhaul - cleaning any carbon off thehead valves as a result of cool running, a light re-grind of the seats oncompletion, together with checking cylinder bores for wear or scoring andall engine tolerances. Injectors were tested and all pumps were strippedand checked for wear and all auxiliary drives were checked, especiallythe hydraulic oil pump/generator couplings.

A ‘Complete Survey’ every eight years involved removing the engines forcomplete strip-down and rebuild. Taking out the engines also facilitatedremoval of the sealed aluminium floor plates, allowing access to themain engine coolers/heat exchangers and to the inner surfaces of thewooden hull.

I decided on the ‘Complete Survey’ specification to achieve the very bestresults and I began with Joseph Soar’s lift-out in October, transferred toher winter shed accommodation in Coleraine and then preparation forremoval of both Gardner engines. I designed a pair of ‘Engine Transportand Work Cradles’ to facilitate lifting by forklift, ease of transport and as an accessible platform on which to work on the engines. Lifting out theengines proved remarkably straightforward, even though the engineroom coach roof panel was two inches shorter than the length of theengines! We used a small 35 ton mobile crane for the lift, which ensureda very stable and secure lifting platform and had both engines out withoutincident and on their cradles in a couple of hours.

The cradles were designed to allow both Gardner engines to betransported side-by-side on my own covered 8ft X 5ft trailer. Although atapproximately 1 ½ tons each, they took carrying capacity towards themaximum legal limit, but towed effortlessly behind my trusty Land Roverthe 300 or so miles, to a workshop at Cork Dockyard and to Gardnerengineer Mr. Mason.

Mr Trevor Mason has worked on Gardner engines for over 40 years,firstly with Gardner Main Agent Atkinson and then Gardner until the mideighties. He maintains Gardner engines in South America, South Africaand the Middle East, maintained the Gardner engine on the late AsgardII and has recently rebuilt a Gardner engine for the A. K. AIlen.

We dismantled and surveyed the engines – every single component part,every single nut, bolt, washer, gasket, bearing, shaft, piston, ring,sprocket, rod, gear, and casing. It iwas incredible that every principalcomponent of both engines were in exceptional condition and still withinthe manufacturers tolerances after fifty years of use and that includes heroriginal pistons >

The crankshaft re-installed 007

Engine crankshaft back from the marine shop 005

Rebuild takes shape, machined blocks, piston rings etc. 010

Re-assembling Gardner 2UC gearbox 008