Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Thursday, 2 June 2011

a 'stacey' disaster

Just when things seemed to be going so well with 'Stacey' our 1971 motovespa restoration....we hit a snag.......an expensive one.  Below is the front hub assembly.......


The spindle goes through the central hole in the silver back plate. Unfortunately, when it was powder coated, the team worked on the spindle by bashing it  out with a hammer. This stripped the nut in the middle of the spindle which had a screw thread on the outside of it. It locked into a screw thread on the inside of the shaft section on the silver plate....or it did!  It doesn't any more.  Ah well - a new hub unit is £60  and a new spindle with all the bearings is a further £30.   Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I know a lady up north who used to collect bits of primaveras for years and she has several crates of bits and pieces in her 'tardis' like shed ('Tardis, for our overseas readers is the time machine in which Dr Who travels. TARDIS stands for 'time and relative dimensions in space'. It is cult viewing over here and a bit like Marmite....you either love it or hate it......in this household we are HUGE Dr. Who fans and have been since the 1960's). Anyway I hope our friend up north has one stored in one of her magic crates and that she might do us a deal......otherwise.......it's going to be a very expensive mistake to put right!

A crestfallen Steve

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve:

Which is stripped, the inside of the silver plate or the outside of the spindle? Also, what diameter and thread pitch is the part in question?

You might take a look at a product called "Heli-Coil," which is used to repair stripped threads. It looks to be available up to an M39 thread or 1-1/2" imperial.

You might also try talking to a machinist and see if they have any suggestions.

God bless!
Wayne

steve said...

hi Wayne - how you doin?
thanks for tips - situaion is the thread inside silver plate is intact. the spindle is a complete write off but we've managed to source one from germany. the big issue is getting the external nut which has the thread on the outside of it.....that's proving to be more difficult and the one I have is unsalvageable regretably. thanks for the advice - will look into this

take care
steve

Anonymous said...

Steve:

Things are going well here. I have glued the seat tops in place, but now need to cove some of the joints (voids need filling). As this coving will be through a 6" access plate, it will be FUN!!!

Best of luck with the scooter! If you can't find the nut, you might see if a machinist can weld it up a bit and re-thread it. I don't know if Heli-Coil makes a part for repairing external threads.

God bless!
Wayne

steve said...

now there is an interesting defintion of the word FUN!! I had similar problem!!!! Good luck!!!! Have plenty of patience my friend, walk away often, and then come back to it.......it helps keep blood pressure lower! and thanks for tips on heli-coil - am investigating and on the case

steve