Getting The Engine Fixed . . . DAY #3

      One of the most difficult things to do when you want something done "right now" is to trust other people or depend on someone else to do it. But such is life, you can't do everything yourself that you want done especially if, like me, you lack the skills. So ti is that do to circumstances beyond my control, ABISHAG is still without an engine with out a functioning fuel pump and so an engine that will not run. SIGH!

     I'll call the Shaman tomorrow while I am at work and perhaps he will show up, install the fuel pump and all will be right with the world. . . . that is if the non-functioning fuel pump was the one and only problem. Whenever the Shaman shows up, everything will be checked out and I just hope that there is only the one problem.

     I found the leak in the bilge pump system. Most of the piping is rubber hoses but there are some sections of bronze. And in one of those sections, after some 41 years, a hole, actually two holes right next to each other, developed in the pipe.To make it even more fun, the water from one sprayed onto an electrical connection. I am not sure which one it is, but quite possibly it is connected to the bilge pump and the bilge pump switch.  The pump won't operate in "automatic mode,"  a new trick it recently learned, so it may be that the electrical connection is connected to the bilge pump switch system. 

     To fix that switch, I first have to fix the leak(s) in the pipe. That will take a fair amount of cleaning of the pipe, sanding it down so that it gleams, meaning that there is no grease or dirt to be found. Then I will mix-up some five minute epoxy, fill the holes, cover the rest of that section of pipe and let it harden. Following that, I'll test it out. If it doesn't leak, all is good. If it does leak a little, or a lot, then I'll apply more epoxy until it leaks no more.

     Once that is all squared away, I'll have to take the time to figure out what the electrical connection is and if the water has done it an injury. And then go after the bilge switch problem. And who knows what other problems may rear their ugly heads. AH, THE JOY OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!