- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,160
It seems that driving to the boat brings such anticipation. And when the boat fails to work such a anxiety. We made good time on the 250 mile drive. The plan was to check out the boats equipment. Remove and replace the aged just quit fresh water pressure pump and get ready to go for an overnight sail.
We picked up the pump and installed it with out incident. Felt great getting pressured water to the sinks. My, S/V Hadley ( a 1974 Cal 35 Cruiser ) is new to our family. We have had s few miss steps in starting our cruising experiences. But I felt after the bad fuel issue a month ago we were turning a corner.
Not so fast. I went to start the motor and she would not start. Well I have been down this road. I grabbed a flash light and opened the engine room. Fuel was seeping out the bleed screw. I went to tighten it and nothing tightened. I pushed the lift pump and air and fuel bubbled from the screw. Not good. I backed out the screw with my fingers and as I pulled it up I could see shiny strips of metal I'm the threads. I looked into the hole left by the screw and no threads. The previous owner appears to have tightened the screw to the point of striping the threads out of the oil filter head.
Time to step back and access the problem. No cruise this time. If I had a shop I might be able to re-thread the bleed screw hole. Then I'd need larger screw. It's like falling down a rabbits hole. So instead I sipped a cold Coors and decided to call the Perkins distributor in the AM.
The local branch in Kent WA said they had a filter head taken off a Perkins engine used for a truck air conditioner, but not sure they had all the correct seals. You see, as I learned. The Perkins 4107 has four different sizes of seals for the three fuel lines that connect to the filter. I brought one of the fuel lines with me. Sure enough the parts shop had 3 of the seals. All the wrong size. They called several other motor supply shops all to no success none had the right size. We racked our brains. We had almost solved our challenge only to be stopped by three small seals. Then I asked. Are there any hose shops near by. Maybe they have something that will work. Duane my parts guy knew a place. We took the filter head and one of the old seals to Motion Fluid and found success.
With our parts we headed back the 45 miles to the boat in Everett WA. We got the filter installed. Learned how to bleed the fuel lines through trial and error. Finally with what we thought was all the air gone we fired the engine. It turned over for about 10 long seconds then came to life. For a brief moment I thought of Gene Wilder in the Mel Brooks version of Frankenstein. "It's Alive!"
With a little bit of outside the box thinking you can sometimes give an old engine new life. The next AM (our last day on the boat this trip) we fired up the engine and headed out to the sound. There was no wind so we motored. The little engine purred. What a great feeling.
We picked up the pump and installed it with out incident. Felt great getting pressured water to the sinks. My, S/V Hadley ( a 1974 Cal 35 Cruiser ) is new to our family. We have had s few miss steps in starting our cruising experiences. But I felt after the bad fuel issue a month ago we were turning a corner.
Not so fast. I went to start the motor and she would not start. Well I have been down this road. I grabbed a flash light and opened the engine room. Fuel was seeping out the bleed screw. I went to tighten it and nothing tightened. I pushed the lift pump and air and fuel bubbled from the screw. Not good. I backed out the screw with my fingers and as I pulled it up I could see shiny strips of metal I'm the threads. I looked into the hole left by the screw and no threads. The previous owner appears to have tightened the screw to the point of striping the threads out of the oil filter head.
Time to step back and access the problem. No cruise this time. If I had a shop I might be able to re-thread the bleed screw hole. Then I'd need larger screw. It's like falling down a rabbits hole. So instead I sipped a cold Coors and decided to call the Perkins distributor in the AM.
The local branch in Kent WA said they had a filter head taken off a Perkins engine used for a truck air conditioner, but not sure they had all the correct seals. You see, as I learned. The Perkins 4107 has four different sizes of seals for the three fuel lines that connect to the filter. I brought one of the fuel lines with me. Sure enough the parts shop had 3 of the seals. All the wrong size. They called several other motor supply shops all to no success none had the right size. We racked our brains. We had almost solved our challenge only to be stopped by three small seals. Then I asked. Are there any hose shops near by. Maybe they have something that will work. Duane my parts guy knew a place. We took the filter head and one of the old seals to Motion Fluid and found success.
With our parts we headed back the 45 miles to the boat in Everett WA. We got the filter installed. Learned how to bleed the fuel lines through trial and error. Finally with what we thought was all the air gone we fired the engine. It turned over for about 10 long seconds then came to life. For a brief moment I thought of Gene Wilder in the Mel Brooks version of Frankenstein. "It's Alive!"
With a little bit of outside the box thinking you can sometimes give an old engine new life. The next AM (our last day on the boat this trip) we fired up the engine and headed out to the sound. There was no wind so we motored. The little engine purred. What a great feeling.