dognovel Chapter 105 Gap
Chapter 105 Gap
Three days after Director Zheng left, the copper gasket still hadn't been approved.
Ahai disassembled and reassembled the diesel engine oil line connector. The last copper gasket had been pressed onto the fuel injector for two days. When he took it off, there were some indentations on the edge, but when he ran his finger around it, it was still not cracked.
He turned the pad over and placed it on the old newspaper, then slowly wiped it with cotton yarn soaked in diesel.
There were two aluminum washers left in the toolbox, and Ding Haifeng measured them with a micrometer.
The thickness is the same as that of copper gaskets, but the hardness is not enough. The pressure of the diesel engine oil line joint is high, and the aluminum gasket will leak after less than half a day.
"Brother Haiping, we still have enough aluminum gaskets for the flange clearance. But if the copper gaskets for the oil line connectors don't arrive soon, the boats from Hekou Village won't be able to handle it next week." Ahai put the cleaned copper gaskets back under the injector cap and tightened them with a torque wrench.
Jiang Haiping squatted under the loquat tree and spread his account book on his lap.
The copper gasket inventory column was marked with "zero," while the notes next to it were filled with the dates and locations of the aluminum gaskets that had been substituted.
He closed the ledger, stood up, and walked to the workshop door.
Wang Cunzhi's Jialing 70 turned in from the seawall, sputtered for a while, and stopped at the gate of the yard.
When he got off the bus, he had a canvas bag hanging on his shoulder and a brown paper envelope in his hand.
He walked into the courtyard, stood under the loquat tree, and handed the envelope to Jiang Haiping.
"The copper gasket purchase order has been returned again. The logistics department said that the application form submitted by the service station last time did not fill in the 'reason for purchase' section as required, and the blank column was not filled in completely."
Jiang Haiping opened the envelope. Inside was a purchase request form that the service station had submitted three days earlier. There was a red stamp in the lower right corner with four words on it: "Returned for Correction".
He flipped the application form over, circled the blank remarks column on the second page with a pencil, and wrote in pen next to it, "The reason for the purchase must not be left blank."
This is an old format that the service station has been using for two years, and it has never been returned before.
He leaned against the loquat tree trunk for a while.
"The service station will fill out a new form and submit it again. The process will take several days." He folded the application form and put it in his pocket.
"Normally three days. If the logistics department handles it promptly. But weekends are not included." Wang Cunzhi placed the canvas bag on the stone slab.
"In reality, it will take at least five days. Five days later, the boats from Hekou Village will have been here for three days. There are no copper gaskets at the oil line joints, so the three boats will have to wait on the rafts." A-Guang ran over from the worktable, clutching the register in his hand. He flipped to the old parts inventory page, where the copper gasket column had been marked with several marks by his fingernails.
The sea breeze blew in from the north, making the loquat leaves rustle.
The few small loquat seedlings around the circle of broken seashells were a little wilted by the wind. A-Guang wrapped the roots with straw, and when the wind lifted a corner of the straw, he squatted down and tucked it back in.
Old Fang walked over from the workshop entrance with a cigarette in his mouth, then took the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked off the ash.
"Aren't there still two copper gaskets being used on the fuel injectors? Let's remove those two and distribute them evenly. Install one copper gasket on each boat. Replace the remaining joints with aluminum gaskets where possible, and then replace them back when the copper gaskets are approved." Old Fang squatted down and drew a rough sketch on the stone slab with a twig. There are four fuel line joints in total for the diesel engine: two for the high-pressure fuel line and two for the return fuel line. "The high-pressure fuel line must use copper gaskets. The return fuel line has lower pressure, so aluminum gaskets can last for a couple of days."
"How long can the aluminum gasket on the return oil pipe last?" Jiang Haiping squatted down next to him.
"Two days. Three days at most. Aluminum gaskets will oxidize in a diesel environment, and the edges of the gaskets will slowly turn white, and oil will start to seep from the sealing surface. Once oil seepage is detected, it must be replaced immediately."
"One copper gasket is used in the high-pressure oil line, and aluminum gaskets are temporarily used in the return oil line. The number of copper gaskets per ship has been reduced from two to one, and the current inventory is enough to last for a few days."
Jiang Haiping drew the sketch Lao Fang made into the ledger and marked "copper" and "aluminum" next to the oil line connector.
Ding Haifeng stood up from under the window of the old parts warehouse.
He had been listening the whole time, clutching a micrometer in his hand; the white tape with the word "Peak" on the handle was already worn and frayed.
He put the micrometer back in the box and walked to the loquat tree.
"There's something I'm not sure if I should say," Ding Haifeng said in a low but steady voice. "The service station's copper gasket procurement is stalled; the approval hasn't come through. My dad still has some old connections in Baishakou. Some of them are people he knew from dealing in used ship parts. He doesn't touch those things anymore, but the channels through the secondhand shops are still there."
The courtyard was quiet for a few seconds.
The sea breeze blew the damp cloth drying at the kitchen door onto the wall, making a pattering sound.
Jiang Haiping, clutching half an old newspaper in his hand, squatted under the loquat tree without saying a word.
Ah-Guang flipped the register to the page for copper gaskets and traced the inventory figures back and forth with his finger.
"Who are the people your father found?" Jiang Haiping folded the old newspaper and put it in his pocket.
"The owner of a secondhand shop. We used to do business in used ship parts together, but we stopped. The shop has some old copper washers salvaged from scrapped machinery, which can be used after cleaning and testing."
"Are those copper gaskets from legitimate sources?" Old Fang took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked at Ding Haifeng.
Ding Haifeng paused for a moment.
He put his hands into his work clothes pockets, his fingers touching the cold, square-shaped wrench inside.