Date: April 17, 2000 12:18 AM

I am sure this question will seem quite simple to many but, as a new sailor and an Allied Seawind 2 owner I am just learning. I have to regrease my seacocks in the boat. The type I believe are original they are Wilcox Crittenden. We are having a problem with some leaking and now that the boat is out of the water I must address this problem. Anyone who could offer some advice to a new owner I would greatly appreciate the help. Also, while the boat is out I was interested in installing a grounding shoe on the outside of the hull for grounding of the rig. If any members have any advice on this task I would would also appreciate this.

Date: Fri Apr 21, 2000 11:04 pm

I'm assuming that these are the tapered plug type.

This is what I did, but I make no claims that it is the correct way to go.

EVERYTHING IS SHARP. BE CAREFUL. I WOUND UP WITH THREE OR FOUR CUTS.

Take off the lock nut and slide the core out.

Apply valve grinding compound. (Sears sells it in small quantities)

Reinsert the core and put on the nut, slightly tightened.

Rotate the handle and tighten the nut.

Take it apart again and inspect to ensure that everything (inside the

throughhull and the core) are smoothly polished. If not do it again.

When you're happy with the result, remove the compound with a cloth, solvent

and finish off with alcohol.

Coat with grease and reassemble.

I believe that you can also grease everything w/o taking it apart by taking out the plugs and inserting grease fittings for a grease gun. I'd put the plugs back in when finished


Date: Sat Apr 22, 2000 7:49 am

With the boat on land, remove the nut opposite the lever on the sea cock.

Then remove the center piece from the sea cock body. You may have to lightly tap on the place where the nut came off (use a piece of wood to avoid marring the threads).

Burnish the two mating surfaces: the inside of the body, and the conical piece you just removed, with fine wet/dry sandpaper and a bit of water. Don't scratch the surfaces! Your goal is to remove all of the old crud and wear.

Clean the pieces and coat with white grease (Lubriplate), reintall and tighten.

Dunno about a ground shoe. I'm not sure it's needed since the rig is grounded to the sea cocks. The ground is pretty good; I installed an SSB and use the sea cocks and the water tank and engine as my ground, and have quite remarkable performance out of the radio.

Here's a question for the group: my Hurth transmission sometimes gets stuck in forward. With enough brute force I can get it back to neutral, but am afraid of breaking something. Since I'm leaving for the Bahamas in a month I really don't want to start a major engine/trans removal. Any ideas?