GETTING THE ENGINE FIXED - DAY1

     Dealing with mechanical things for me is right up there with dealing with electricity. Eric, the Engine Shaman, came by today after deciding last week that the problem was " a biological infestation" of the fuel system.  Dosing the fuel with magical potions  and letting them mix with the fuel should solve the problem. I did that last week and when he was able to come by today, I expected that the engine would fire up with no problems.

     After examining the engine and tinkering here and there, Eric sprayed the air intake with another magic potion, "starting ether" I believe, we made five attempts to start the engine and get it to turn over. No joy, despite many invocations and incantations. This caused eric to do some more tinkering.

     As I mentioned, dealing with things mechanical is not high on my list of fun thing because there are parts, lots of parts. And with lots of part, most(all) of which I don't understand, there is the potential of something going wrong with them. SO naturally Eric discovered that the exhaust system was leaking exhaust. Of course, it wasn't out in the open, rather it was a piece of pipe wrapped in insulation tape. He discovered two wires, unconnected to anything, just there! He thought that possibly, maybe, they were connected to ignition system and were part of the shut down (kill) system for the engine. Turn out not so. We also discovered a leak in the discharge hose for the bilge pump.  It is small and I wiill fix it tomorrow, but when the pump is used, it does spray water in various places. And soooooooooooo that has got to be fixed.

      As I said, lots of parts, and the one I thought was the fuel pump wasn't. Eric finally figured it out and , crawling over the top of the engine, discovered the "real fuel pump" on the unexposed side of the engine. He had to get into the "in-law apartment" ( cockpit locker), lift up the floorboards to get at it. It was/is mechanical ( of course) fuel pump that is at east 20 years old and looked it.  Based on all he had discovered and how the engine reacted, Eric deduced that the fuel pump was shot and had to be replaced. Of course.

     After discussing it with Eric, we decided to replace it with a new fuel pump, electrical not mechanical. He will attach it to the fuel system leaving the old one in place until it is absolutely clear that the old pump is the problem. He will make the attempt at the fix. I am certain it will be fixed as Eric is one of those guys that hates to fail.

AH, THE JOYS OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!