Restoration Blog

A new tug!

by Dave Irving

We had another good day today with our new tug Margaret.

The new rudder bearing arrived (thank you Ken & WD) and was installed. After a little struggle, the rudder settled nicely into its new home and will hopefully be happy there for some time.

The new battery arrived and was installed. The isolators were switched, the instrument panel turned on, the starter switch pushed, and ... the engine started first time! Here's a picture of part of the engine, although it's difficult to tell if it's running (Ed - can we do movies on the blog? - Yes, there are some posted already, but not too long please.)

The engine itself runs well, but there was vibration at low revs.  This was traced to a broken bracket which is part of the hydraulic pump mountings.  We'll need to address this before she goes properly into service - we have a few ideas already.

With the engine warm, pumping out the old oil was quickly done, the filter removed and a new one fitted, and she was filled with new oil. We'll be fitting a new air and fuel filters in the near future, too – our thanks to Rollo Power Solutions of Bristol for their support with these items.