(snip) from BB
The instrument shows the pressure inside the gearbox....What is the reason
for its installation? What is
the meaning of its indication?
(endsnip)

I'll put the useful (sort of) information at the top of this post just to be
courteous, then my usual irreverent story line follows.

All my gearboxes (Capitol Gear reduction/reverse, and Warner "V" drives)
have an active oil pump that pumps oil to the bearings and gears (similar to
an engine oil pump). They are all equipped with pressure gauges AND
temperature gauges (as an engine would be) so you can spot failures,
impending doom, massive destruction, and that sort of stuff.

That said, the reading of 9 bar (130 PSI?) seems very high to me . . . all
mine are in the normal range around 30-40 PSI (2 bar). I would seek out a
manual on your gears and find out what is normal.

So my control board has 6 oil pressure gauges and 6 temperature gauges
(along with lots of voltage/amperage gauges) to keep you entertained.
Combine that with engine and shaft tachs, filter vacuum and fuel pressure
gauges, all the genset and watermaker operating guages, and a host of other
stuff I have not even figured out yet and you have an interesting panel.
Since I like gadgets so much, and believe diligent monitoring of all the
information you can get will spot potential problems just before they bite
you in the butt, this is right up my alley. It will only get worse as I put
the boat back together.

Wife says: "Honey, what's this gauge for?"
Says I: "Hell, I don't know. But it's moving! Cool huh?"

Since I have a 20-ton steel boat, I can just see the accident investigator
now . . .

Him: "Son why did you run onto the rocks?"
Me: "What rocks? I thought that was a ship."
Him: "Well, THAT," he says as he points at a series of bubbles and a
spreading oil slick disturbing the water some distance away, "was a ship,
but we'll talk about that later. Right now I want to talk about the rocks."
Me: "What about the dock?"
Him: "We'll talk about the dock after we talk about the destroyed seaside
restaurant and the missing CG helicopter."

I am a bit embarrassed about the helicopter. My mast is only 48 feet. I
really thought I had the air clearance.

The food was never any good at the restaurant anyway.

Him: "Can we please get back to the rocks?"

Me: "Well . . . OK . . . If you insist."

I have found you should not argue with angry government types. I have a
steel boat, so I had already backed her off the rocks. I shrug, put her in
gear, and drive her back onto the rocks.

Me: "There. Is that better?"

The whites of his eyes are showing now. Foam flecks his lips. A truly
impressive vein is pulsing in his forehead. I stare fascinated. You would
not think somebody that was so high strung would want to be an accident
investigator. He washes down 12 Advils with a quart of Scotch. Seems to
improve his concentration.

Him: "About those rocks . . ."
Me: "Well sir, it couldn't be avoided. Every time I move the throttles every
needle on the 20 gauges in my board moves and attracts my attention. All
these digital thingys count up and down, and more than a few things go
'boop' and 'beep' and 'bzzzz'. It's really cool!"
Him: "Ur . . . well . . ."
Me: "And they do it even more of you move these levers forward and back a
lot. If you do it enough you can get a lot of these lights to flash too.
Really cool! I mean, check this out!" I enthusiastically demonstrate.
Him: "Urk . . . um . . .aaaachk . . . snort . . ."

By this time we are erratically zooming about the harbor in my 20-ton Ronco
dock-chopper at speeds between -8 and +8 knots. We have even dredged a new
channel or two, and the marina's parking lot (not to mention their hot tub)
will never be the same.

We are both staring fascinated at the panel. Lots of thing are moving
around. There are some "beeps" and "boops" and we have even managed to get a
red light or two to come on.

CRUNCH, BANG, Gurgle . . . gurgle . . . bloop.

Him: "What the hell was that!?"
Me: "Looks like a jet ski."
Him: "Oh . . . Okay then . . . Hey, cool! What's this gauge for?

CUAgain,

Daniel Meyer
http://cuagain.manilasites.com

Daniel: Just in case you get flamed for using up precious bandwidth
with your 'irreverence', I enjoed reading about your gauges and
having a good long giggle over it.
Keep it up. I'm only a wannabe trawlerite, still living and cruising
on a 27 ft sloop. But I'm in love with Dennis Brucker's Albin 27 and
as soon as someone parks one in our marina, I'll steal it ;-).
Meanwhile, I buy up any old interesting gauge I can find, regardless
of whether they'll ever be used or not. I even have a 35 year old
control-panel from a Honeywell mainframe computer with an awful lot
of  lights, knobs and switches. Runs on 12 volts. Think of the
possibilities....  <g>

George, just a collector for now....