How many projects at once?

Water tanks, inspecting and cleaning.

This project actually started shortly after moving aboard and filling our two 65gal stainless water tanks.  Fooling with the tank selector switch, I noticed it did not work as smoothly as I would like(actually this was bothering me from the day we took possession). Our fuel and water selector valves are mounted to the side of the sink cabinetry, as well as the corresponding gauges, which are also nagging at the back of my mind, since they don't seem to work either.

before

This coupled with the musty smell in the under sink cabinetry prompts a slight inspection.  after removing the covers to the selector valves, no leaks are found, although by now I have already decided to replace the sticky selector valve for the pressure pump-to-water tanks.  The old galley faucet is leaking however, which explains the moldy smell in the cabinet that will not dissipate.

Me: "Found the leak."

Sam: "Yay! what is it?"

Me: "Our faucet"

Sam: (frowning) "So we can't use it?"

Me: "Let's replace it."

Sam: "Yay!"

This leads to following the leak under the access panel to below the sole(floorboards).  Hmm, maybe I'll clean all the wet moldy saw dust that was left behind from 96' when they refit the tanks that's been collecting the water leaking from the faucet.  while I'm at it, I'll:

Cleanthetopoftheforwardtank/vacuumthelockerunderthedinnettetogettotheforwardtank/scrubbothtanks/starttinkeringwiththegaugesandsendingunits/removebothwatersendingunitsandonefuelsendingunit/usethesendingunitholetoinspectandcleanthetanks/ordernewunitsandgauges/startotherprojectswhilewaitingforthewatertankparts.

You get the idea. 

you get the picture....

To keep my wife's sanity intact, I finish installing the new faucet, and restore the boat to a more normal working state.  

While waiting for the new gauges and sending units we took a look inside the tanks, since there are no inspection ports we had to do everything through the 2" or so hole for the sending units.

We were very pleased with the inside of the tanks,  the water tanks were very clean and we pulled a sample of diesel out of bottom of the forward fuel tank with no sludge or water in it.  Hoo friggin Rah!  We used a hose wand with the head remove to spray and swish and clean the water tanks the best we could using the small hole, some dish soap, and a bit of bleach lastly.  Then vacuumed everything out, and installed the new gear that had arrived from Wema.  We liked Wema's white back with stainless ring gauges, and the fact that they had matching units for fuel and water sold me.  Plus they have the option of either yellow or red illumination, slick.  Whoever had installed the old set had used fuel gauges, cracked them open, and stuck printed tiny "water' labels cover the factory printed word "fuel".  It worked for awhile, but just not the way I wanted it. 

the goods from Wema

The fuel tank sensor I pulled looked good, so we only replaced the water tank sensors for now, which were the lever type, and were crusty from 14 years of hard water (later I will pull the other fuel sensor and have a look at it and the tank).

We will eventually paint as much surface space as we can in most of the cabinetry that is prone to moisture, so for right now I just painted where the gauges will mount, which will be boxed out and covered by a 1/4" plywood bow which we will also paint along with the shelf.

new sending units in and leak free

 cleaned and somewhat dry(new faucet and tank selector have been installed)

 old wiring

 primed and painted(somewhat)

 new gauges and clean wiring

after

 red illumination