Refrigerator Is Working!

We had a good day with our mechanical problems.

At 9.30 AM I met Greg Norell from Magic Carpet at the morning coffee get together of Club Cruceros. Once he came up to me I recognized him from that evening at the Richmond Yacht Club that seemed to be so long ago. We spent an hour together chatting about our sailing experiences. During our conversation he gave me two references that turned out to be extremely useful to me: Colin Edgar for our diesel engine problems and Roger Wise of "Avalon" for the refrigeration work. I already know about Roger and Greg confirmed that he was the man to see. I had not seen Colin's name in an of the La Paz services lists and he turned out to be a real gem. Unfortunately Greg's wife Donna was not ashore so I asked him to pass on my regards to her.

Back at the boat I used Arnold's mobile telephone to call Colin Edgar and what a wonderfully helpful person he turned out to be. I went over the symptoms of our engine problems and answered various questions. He then gave the opinion that if the engine had pushed us 50 miles at 6 knots then there was no fuel problem. The black smoke indicated too much fuel, in the sense that the engine was getting more fuel than it could combust. He focused on breathing and exhaust problems as Mark had mentioned. Then he came up with a theory that made sense to me and explains the symptoms that we have been getting. He says that a maintenance issue with engines that are cooled by raw sea water is the "mixer" which from what I understand is bolted to the engine block and has a hose connection at the other end to the exhaust system. As I understand it, this is where the salt water that has cooled the engine is mixed with the gases coming from the combustion chambers. According to him, these mixers tend to get fouled up inside and should be inspected and cleaned every 500 hours. If this mixer gets clogged up the engine cannot get enough air. In our desperate attempt to get more power out of the engine we do the only thing that we can: increase the throttle. That causes the governor to put more fuel into the cylinders, but because the inflow of air is restricted at the mixer there is not enough air to combust the fuel hence we see reduced power and lots of carbon coming out of the exhaust. The remedy presents good news and bad news. The good news is that he thinks that I am up to removing the mixer, inspecting it, and cleaning it. The bad news that he thinks that I am up to removing the mixer, inspecting it, and cleaning it. So this weekend I will have a go at doing this job. He did assure me that if I got into trouble he would assist me and that they have the resources to machine any fixes and replacements that have to be done in this area.

I then telephoned Roger Wise of Avalon. Boy, was he helpful! I told him the story of the refrigerator repair and how it appeared that the unit needed regassing. I told him that it was an old Danfoss but he wasn't sure exactly what gas it would take. He agreed to visit the boat in only 90 minutes. I told him that we could clean out the starboard quater berth area and have full access to both the compressor and the refrigerator compartment ready for him. I telephoned back a few minutes later to tell him that according to the manual the refrigerator took R12 gas.

Roger arrived with his tools of the trade which included a super sensitive sniffer that could detect leaking gas - I mean SUPER sensitive. In detecting the minor leak that had taken weeks to bring the fridge down this instrument went berzerk. The leak was tracked down to a screw-on joint. Roger kept tightening and sniffing until he was satisfied that there was no leak. He then took the pressure up to 10 psi using a gas that he calls "hot shot" (414A) and we chatted a while before he checked the pressure again as well as the temperature in the evaporator. The pressure had held and the fridge was cooling very well according to him. I could see and feel frost on the evaporator. He then told me to get some small canisters of R12 gas at the hardware, including a special hose that will connect to the refrigerator plumbing at one end and pierce the R12 cannister at the other end. He then showed me how to use the control on the hose to slowly let the gas into the system and stop when the suction line on in that section began to frost. It is lucky that I am in Mexico because R12 is banned in the USA. Also, he confirmed that the German-made Danfoss compressors are indestructable, as Doug Roth had told me in Seattle. According to Roger, they can go 24x7 for 25 years before failing.

Anyway, for $55 USD I had a "boat" call from a technician, had the refrigerator leak located and stopped, got the unit regassed, and got a lesson in how to do it myself when I'm cruising in the future. I was very happy with the result to say the least. My only regret was that being Good Friday I would have to wait another day before being able to stock up the fridge with beer. It will be an occasion of great joy to have a cold beer on Pachuca again and I think that many times in the future when I crack open a cold beer I will put out a good vibe for Roger in La Paz as I still do for Doug Roth in Port Townsend.

After Roger left, Arnold and I restored the boat to order then went ashore to have some cold beers and a meal at the marina restaurant. However, the marina restaurant was closed because of Good Friday. Fortunately the place across the road where We've been doing some internetting was open so we had a couple of ice cold beers and Arnold treated us to a meal: superb sirloin steak for me and grilled fish for Arnold. We actually find that restaurant a better value than the one in the Marina.

I am going to blow my modest internet quota for the day by including to photos: one of Greg and Donna's Magic Carpet here at the La Paz Marina, and the other of Roger Edgar after he had repaired Pachuca's refrigerator.