Steering Pedestal Installed

Today Reg and I picked up the steering pedestal from Peter at DeGroot Engineering.

Peter said that two out of the three bearings were seized up. The pedestal now has new bearings and has been lubricated. Peter asked us to lubricate the grease nipple ourselves because his grease gun was at another site. That took a bit of effort because we were forced to remove the nipple and clean out the grease channel on the shaft with a piece of wire before we could get grease to pass through.

Reg and I spent most of the day reinstalling the pedestal compass, binnacle instruments, and cockpit table. We cleaned the base of the pedestal and painted two coats of metal etching primer. We then laid it on Sikaflex 295 sealant and we used the right amount because as we tightened the bolts we got a nice bead of sealant oozing out. For the legs of the binnacle we used marine grade silicone sealant.

We got the Trimble GPS repeater on the binnacle to work OK but the Autohelm self steering display would not come up. I do not think that it is a serious problem but if I cannot solve it on my next visit I'll bring in Maritime Electronics.

Also, the binnacle compass has been wired up at the binnacle but I must make the connection at the cockpit. I'm taking the opportunity to remove an unnecessary junction box and joints. Also, I'll remove some redundant wiring that was once connected to a cockpit light now hidden by the table. How I love to remove redundant wiring!