Hi everyone!
My wife and I bought our first sailboat a couple of weeks ago (catalina 27) and are super excited to get into the sailing life (I've got a decent amount of experience on the water). We have been doing a full clean of the boat and I've been fixing and replacing little things here and there over the last 2 weeks. We ran into our first major issue yesterday...
When the previous owner showed us the boat the engine (atomic 4) fired up right away and sounded great. Yesterday I thought I would fire up the engine myself check out the controls, hear how it sounded. I was told that it starts like a car since its a gas engine. I turned on battery 1, ran the blower for a minute or two, and turned the key. The engine started up no problem but the key basically spun all the way around. I didn't give it a ton of pressure when I cranked it, I don't think anyway. I thought hmm that's weird but OK. I ran the engine for a couple minutes, played with the throttle a little bit to get a feel for it, went to turn off the engine by turning the key in the opposite direction. The key just spun around. This is my "oh no" moment, I have a running engine and cant turn it off. I did the only thing I could think of and turned off the fuel supply. Then engine stalled out a short time later and I felt a brief sense of relief and pride as I just solved my first major issue.
WRONG!
Smoke began coming out of engine compartment. I jumped down, removed the ladder, opened the engine door and I'm met with a ton of smoke. As I peer in it looks like its the electrical wires burning. Time to grab the fire extinguisher. I give it a few short blasts. Panic is over. Went back and grabbed the key and the whole assembly came out with it.
Thanks for reading the back story, here come the questions.
1. Did I some how force the key to hard and break the assembly when turning the engine on?
Repairs, obviously I'm going to need a new ignition, the wiring harness has 1 wire that looks like the coating melted off it, maybe the ground wire?
2. Replace the ignition and just that wire, or replace the whole harness to be safe?
3. Is that all that will need to be repaired or did I eff myself?
4. When all is fixed and I get the courage to try to start it up again do I need to do anything specific procedure wise other than just turning the fuel supply back on?
On a completely different note, my throttle and gear shifters just pull out of the housing, it looks like there are little balls in the housing that should be clipping the shifters in.... any idea on how to fix?
Thanks in advance everyone for helping a first time boat owner noob. Picture uploaded for reference.
My wife and I bought our first sailboat a couple of weeks ago (catalina 27) and are super excited to get into the sailing life (I've got a decent amount of experience on the water). We have been doing a full clean of the boat and I've been fixing and replacing little things here and there over the last 2 weeks. We ran into our first major issue yesterday...
When the previous owner showed us the boat the engine (atomic 4) fired up right away and sounded great. Yesterday I thought I would fire up the engine myself check out the controls, hear how it sounded. I was told that it starts like a car since its a gas engine. I turned on battery 1, ran the blower for a minute or two, and turned the key. The engine started up no problem but the key basically spun all the way around. I didn't give it a ton of pressure when I cranked it, I don't think anyway. I thought hmm that's weird but OK. I ran the engine for a couple minutes, played with the throttle a little bit to get a feel for it, went to turn off the engine by turning the key in the opposite direction. The key just spun around. This is my "oh no" moment, I have a running engine and cant turn it off. I did the only thing I could think of and turned off the fuel supply. Then engine stalled out a short time later and I felt a brief sense of relief and pride as I just solved my first major issue.
WRONG!
Smoke began coming out of engine compartment. I jumped down, removed the ladder, opened the engine door and I'm met with a ton of smoke. As I peer in it looks like its the electrical wires burning. Time to grab the fire extinguisher. I give it a few short blasts. Panic is over. Went back and grabbed the key and the whole assembly came out with it.
Thanks for reading the back story, here come the questions.
1. Did I some how force the key to hard and break the assembly when turning the engine on?
Repairs, obviously I'm going to need a new ignition, the wiring harness has 1 wire that looks like the coating melted off it, maybe the ground wire?
2. Replace the ignition and just that wire, or replace the whole harness to be safe?
3. Is that all that will need to be repaired or did I eff myself?
4. When all is fixed and I get the courage to try to start it up again do I need to do anything specific procedure wise other than just turning the fuel supply back on?
On a completely different note, my throttle and gear shifters just pull out of the housing, it looks like there are little balls in the housing that should be clipping the shifters in.... any idea on how to fix?
Thanks in advance everyone for helping a first time boat owner noob. Picture uploaded for reference.
Is this that FIX IT NOW wiring problem that can cause you to burn your boat down? I can't recall the article that deals with the issue but maybe someone can remember and say yea or nay.
