Sometimes, its better and (safer) to just pay a professional to do what needs to be done on your boat. (online article) Where did that little bolt go? Kevin has a pretty old boat and an even older 2-stroke carbureted outboard motor. Because of his work schedule he doesn’t get out on the water but every couple of months or so. When he does get the time, it never fails that the fuel in the boat has gone bad and he ends up paying to have the carbs cleaned, a couple hundred dollars he could have spent elsewhere. Well, a few months ago Kevin found a different outboard motor service shop that offered to teach boaters how to clean carbs, change out water pumps and things like that. Needless to say, he jumped at the opportunity and quickly learned that it wasn’t nearly as hard to do as he thought. Having learned how to clean his motor’s carbs came in real handy … well, almost. Kevin removed the motor’s three carburetors, disassembled them and cleaned them just as he had been taught. Then, while reinstalling the top carb and hooking up its linkage he dropped a tiny little bolt. He saw it drop inside the motor and bounce, but after looking inside and outside the motor it was nowhere to be found. Luckily he found another identical bolt in his garage and finished the job in a matter of minutes and was off to the bay for a day of fishing. After launching the boat Kevin fired up the motor as he untied from the dock. The motor purred like a kitten and Kevin was now glad he had taken the time to learn how to clean his carbs. Then, just as he pushed the boat away from the dock the motor began making a loud clatter, died and wouldn’t restart. He took the boat to the repair shop and explained everything he had done, even about losing the linkage bolt and wondered if the replacement bolt had anything to do with his sick motor. The following day a technician phoned Kevin and said, “I found your lost bolt,” and continued to explain that it must have bounced into an open carburetor intake to the reed valve area. Then, once the motor was started and he accelerated the bolt was sucked up into the cylinder where it destroyed the piston, cylinder wall and head. The tech then asked Kevin, “Would you like a price on a new fuel injected motor so that you won’t have to clean carbs ever again?” Lousy fuel economy When Augustine bought his new 21-foot shallow water bay boat he had no idea of how many new friends he would suddenly have. The boat is one of the more popular boats, especially in South Texas, but despite its $60,000-plus price tag there were only a few rod holders on it that could actually be used. The four on the T-top were too high and the four on the back of the leaning post were under the T-top and unless you used four-foot long Mickey Mouse rods, a standard rod wouldn’t fit. That left only the two rod racks on the back of the raised bridge, hardly enough for him and his new-found friends. So, after a fishing trip he stopped to refuel his boat’s 40-gallon fuel tank and picked up some triple rod racks. Augustine had decided to install a pair of triple rod racks on each side of the console down on the raised bridge so that there would be plenty of height clearance. He initially intended to bolt them on, but after looking through a side hatch on the raised bridge he realized that that area was blocked off for some reason and he ended up using screws instead. Yup! You guessed it. Now his new boat’s completely “buried” and “inaccessible” fuel tank had 12 screw holes in it and almost all of the 40 gallons of fuel was now inside the hull and soaking up into the foam flotation. After calling the manufacturer and several boat repair shops, none would even attempt to cut open the fuel laden boat to replace the tank. Luckily, Augustine had a good boat insurance policy that pays off for stupidity and he now has a different new boat … with an accessible fuel tank. AS ALWAYS, STAY SAFE & HAPPY BOATING!!!
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:49:08 +0000
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