My 1977 Albin 25 Deluxe rebuild thread

[hetek]

Killed two birds with one stone...

Adjusted the trailer to fit the boat better and, in the process, moved the boat forward 12" and now I have clearance to pull the prop shaft all the way out. That's a "win-win" in my book.

My "plan B" was to drill a hole in the fence to pass the shaft through. "Look, Hon... A squirrel must have eaten a hole in the fence... or else it was a knot hole that popped out". Yes, my daughter still has my Jeep (tow vehicle).

Next project: TBD, weather permitting.

[hetek]

Next project ended up being rebuilding the engine beds. A previous owner had shoehorned a Westerbeke 50 hp into it once upon a time. Unfortunately, it required a lot of surgery to the engine pan and beds to get it to fit. My project was to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Before...

KIMG0968.jpg

During...

KIMG1006.jpg

Done!

KIMG1019.jpg

Next is to drill and tap the beds for the engine mounts. My diesel has a date with a fork lift after the 4th of July.

[Jay Knoll]

Great work

[WillieC]

Nice! Love the long tappable beds.

[hetek]

WillieC - You bring up a good point...

Albin 25s - at least a '77 DeLuxe model - do have steel plates embedded in the engine pan for just that purpose from the factory. Most people (including myself) think that it is just wood encapsulated in 'glass. Not true.

Wonder what the guy that did the Westerbeke install though when he hit steel when he modified the beds! My Vetus diesel's mounts needed a little extra room fore and aft so I extended the plates an extra inch or two.

Now I know I have a good solid foundation for the mighty Vetus!

[WillieC]

Well good luck on the mighty Vetus! My rebuilt VP is doing very nicely in sea trials, almost have my first ten hours on.
You did some very nice work with the glass. I have steered clear so far of fiberglass work but that is a skill I may need to take up, but not this year. I may bug you later.

[DesertAlbin736]

Lots of fun that fiberglass work, eh? Nice job!

[hetek]

Fiberglassing isn't that hard but it sure is messy and dusty. Working in a full hooded Tyvek suit in 80+ degree days wearing a respirator, goggles and ear muffs and Nytril gloves while grinding for hours on end... Not fun. Especially when you have to sneeze!

Glad that's done!

[DesertAlbin736]

"Fiberglassing isn't that hard but it sure is messy and dusty. Working in a full hooded Tyvek suit in 80+ degree days wearing a respirator, goggles and ear muffs and Nytril gloves while grinding for hours on end... Not fun. Especially when you have to sneeze!"

Ha ha, yeah, been there, done that! At least I was able to work on it during AZ's mild winter where it was low 70s in my unheated garage, with a little help from a "Mr. Heater"

DSCN1916R (1024x768) (500x375).jpg

DSCN2002.JPG

The place where I purchased all my 'glassing supplies is aptly named "Sticky Stuff Sales"

http://www.stickystuffsales.com/

[hetek]

Ha! I just realized that I was complaining how uncomfortable I was wearing full fiberglassing battle gear in the summer heat...

... to the guy in the ARIZONA DESERT!

My apologies DA! I don't envy your working environment at times. Although, a "mild winter" for us is anything above the 20's.

Small update: Spoke to the guy who's replacing the seals in my Hurth gear yesterday. He forgot about me! He apologized profusely and said he's going to jump right on it. No worries. I wasn't ready for it until now anyway.

[DesertAlbin736]

No, I would never even attempt working fiberglass in summer here unless I had access to an air conditioned RV garage. We've hardly had a day in more than a week where it didn't hit over 110. The worst was last week when it got up to 118. Yeah, it's a dry heat, really no worse than upper 90s with high 80% humidity, but that still too darn hot. At least the house is air conditioned & we have a pool. We'll be on our way to L.A. and Catalina Island a week from this coming Friday. At least it's low 70s over in Avalon & Two Harbors on Catalina. It's so hot here we're not even going to attempt to load gear and provisions on the boat until we get over to our launch point at Huntington Beach. And we'll leave here after 7 PM and cross the desert at night to arrive early in the morning.

I know all about those NY winters. I moved out here 40 years ago this year from Upstate NY near Saratoga. I do have a friend who has this big shaded industrial shop space downtown where I was able to do bottom paint & service trailer hubs in the shade before the real summer heat hit, so that helps.

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[hetek]

Well, it's back! My Hurth gear is back from the shop and better than before!

In order to replace the output shaft seal, the entire box has to be disassembled to get to it. I was quoted 4.5 hours plus parts for the job. For working on something the size of a cantaloupe.

When I dropped the gear off, the mechanic said the shaft end play looked excessive. Good news: While he was inside replacing the seal, he adjusted/shimmed the endplay and its tight now! Bonus!

$500 all said and done. I can't complain.

Here it is in all its painted and installed glory:

KIMG1048.jpg

And here's the template I made to align the motor mounts. It's a plywood surrogate with the same dimensions as the Vetus and Hurth.

KIMG1049.jpg

Much easier to move a piece of plywood than a +200# diesel.

Drilling and tapping beds are next. Stay tuned!

[DesertAlbin736]

hetek,
That template is primo work!

Looks a lot like this one Joe DeMers at Sound Marine Diesel in Plainville, CT built for repowering an A25 with a Beta engine up in Connecticut

AA Engine template.jpg

Text along with that picture on the Sound Marine Diesel page says this, "One picture shows the plywood engine template fitted into the engine space, with a dummy prop shaft of black iron pipe supporting it. Note the actual flexible engine mounts installed on the template. This method makes engine bed modification [ if needed ] obvious and straightforward. Once the template fits the engine bed, the engine will also fit."

[hetek]

Good find, DA!

I made a hybrid of two templates I found online. One was Joe's as you show. I liked his design for the fact that it uses the actual mounts.

The other was from the Bateau site that, instead of using Joe's black pipe imitation prop shaft trick, it uses a wire and cross hair arrangement.

See the hole in my template's coupler with the cross hairs? I pass a thin wire from the prop end of the shaft log through the hole to a v-block on the fore end of the template. When the wire is centered at the stuffing box end and the cross hairs, it's aligned!

And to agree with Joe, it does indeed make engine bed modification obvious and straight forward.

[DesertAlbin736]

See the hole in my template's coupler with the cross hairs? I pass a thin wire from the prop end of the shaft log through the hole to a v-block on the fore end of the template. When the wire is centered at the stuffing box end and the cross hairs, it's aligned!

Sounds like a plan! Last I checked the Google Maps street view of the Sound Marine Diesel shop in Plainville, CT (we stopped by for a visit there once in 2015), Joe still has two Albin 25's on blocks at the back of his shop's parking lot/storage yard. That street view was taken in 2016. Not sure what he plans to do with them, but they are a little worse for wear from what we saw looking at them. He's a good guy for advice, since he's already done what you're doing, also does repower jobs on sailboats.

We'll be across the Sound from you at the end this summer , spending the week after Labor Day in September at a beach house in Weekapaug, RI. Just us though, not bringing our boat with us like we did two years ago.