Got stuck in my boat yesterday

[Paul B]

Yes, its true. And I pride myself on always getting a mechanical device running no matter what is wrong.
Yesterday we took my boat to City Island. It is a small Island about a mile long and a few hundred yards wide in between the Bronx and Queens in NY.
We go there often because the place is famous for great seafood restaurants on the water that you can get to by boat.
We were supposed to pick up some friends at a marina there where they have their boat and sail around to the restaurant.
We made it there and picked them up with no problem.
We pulled away from the dock about 5' when one engine stalled.
I can run the boat on the other engine but not very fast and with no power steering. You practically have to sit on the steering wheel to steer the thing so I had to pull the boat into a slip in the marina to repair the problem.
Normally when that happens it is a simple repair like a loose cable, cracked distributer cap, short circuit etc. So after trying those things to no avail we decided to drive on the Island to the restaurant. I hate driving to restaurants by car in the summer.
Anyway after dinner we came back to the marina and now it was after 10:00 so we decided to open some champaign and hang out for a while before we went to sleep.
The boat is self contained so we slept on it. Our friends there have a larger boat in the next slip.
This morning I woke about 5 and sat out side to watch the sunrise over the sailboats. It was really awesome. Then I took a walk on the island for some coffee.
We went to breakfast in a cool place on the water then went to buy some spark plugs. I knew that would not fix it but what the heck.
Then my wife and I headed back to my marina on the one engine.
We arrived there in about an hour, tied the boat up and went home.
I went back to the boat today with a bunch of tools to fix the thing. I used to be a GM mechanic and have no problem with engines.
Until now.
The engine turns over well, has good spark, has good gas, and compression. It should run.
But it don't.
Luckily I have two engines so I can exchange parts between the engines to try to find the problem. I swapped the carburator, computer, and distributer guts. Nothing.
So now on monday I will go back with my compression tester and timing light. There is one more module I could try but it is a horror to remove and you really need to be Houdini to get to it.
The marina would charge me $275.00 an hour to work on it and thats not going to happen.
I doubt the mechanic there could find the problem anyway.
Now it is a quest and I am excited to try to find the problem.
I am going to be more excited If I fix it.
So far, there has not been an engine I couldn't fix and I hope this isn't the first one.
Engines used to be simple but now you need to be a computer whiz to work on them and common sense does not work any more.

 

[edwing206]

Sounds like boating is a little more expensive than reef keeping.
I always like reading these stories you post Paul!

 

[akunochi]

Hey paul,

Not sure what kind of motor you have in there, but if it is EFI and uses a ECU then you also have to look past the spark, gas air and start looking at the timing, fuel map, load. I am not a boat mech, but have built several turbocharged race cars. LMK if i can help you out looking for ideas.

 

[Paul B]

Sounds like boating is a little more expensive than reef keeping.

One year of boating costs more than my 40 years of reefing.

Akunochi, the boat is carburated and not fuel injected.
I am going there tomorrow with my timing light and compression meter.
It will give me more insite as to what is going on.
Thanks
Paul

 

[edwing206]

I wonder how much 40 years of boating costs.

 

[akunochi]

Paul,

Best of luck. I am in the process of rebuilding a wankel motor right now....lol

 

[Paul B]

I wonder how much 40 years of boating costs.

About 40 million dollars.

Good luck with the Wankel

 

[Paul B]

Happy days are here again, I fixed the boat today and it was a simple thing. I was hoping that it was the shift cut out switch, but it was not.
I tested the compression and that was good so that eliminated a lot of expensive, pain in the butt problems.
I checked the timing which was perfect. I tried to start it again, and nothing.
I again pulled a spark plug to test the spark and it had a nice strong spark so it could not be the coil.
It was the coil. I still can't figure it out but I switched the coil and it started right up.
It is never the coil if you have a spark, but it was. $40.00 later and it was as good as new. I took it out and burnt up $50.00 worth of gas just to make sure.
A great end to a perfect day.

 

[akunochi]

Wow any explanation on the not a coil but is the coil? That is just weird. Mid wire short? In better news i have a vacuum leak to track down in my wifes supra

 

[Paul B]

I know from my old mechanic days that an auto coil would get 12 volts to start the engine then a resistor would cut that down to 8 or 9 volts to run. I don't see that resistor on a marine engine, not even in the schematic so I don't think marine engines use it and I believe they run on 12 volts.
I also think the old coil I removed was an automotive coil that was probably supposed to run on 9 volts. That could be the reason it failed. The new coil and the coil on the other engine are Merc Crusier coils but the defective one looked like an auto coil with no markings on it. Many car parts look exactly the same but are different. Most auto parts are not interchangable especially the belts, starter, water pump and alternator.
They will fit and work but not for very long. Fuel pumps and starters especially should not be used from a car because car fuel pumps could leak. In a car it would just leak on the street with no problem but a marine fuel pump is sealed so if the membrane leaks, it will not fill the bilge with gas. Also a marine starter is explosion proof, that does not mean it will not explode but it means that it is sealed so that fumes in the bilge will not get in the starter to ignite and cause an explosion. Auto starters have vent holes in them because there are no fumes in a car which is open to the bottom.
Water pumps for a car are iron and the bronze bearing is made for clean antifreeze which has a lubricant in it. A marine water pump has a stainless steel back and the bearing is designed to work in salt water with some grit in it.
When I bought this boat I had to sail it around Brooklyn, through the East River to the Long Island Sound a trip of about 40 miles. I lost one engine under the Varrazino bridge because of a dry rotted belt. I replaced the belt with the same belt from an auto store. In one week that belt looked like a frayed piece of rope. A car runs at about 2,000 rpm and that is going pretty fast because a car has gears the engine does not have to go very fast and it is only pushing air out of it's way. A boat engine can run at closer to 4,000 rpm at cruising speed because a boat has no gears and it is pushing water out of it's way.

 

[eddiecorrea]

If you have a good spark when you pull the plug it doesn't mean you have good spark when its in the spark plug hole. Thats why you need an inline plug tester. Shows you if there is steady spark or just once every few seconds.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I wonder how much 40 years of boating costs.

one year of house-ing

 

[Paul B]

If you have a good spark when you pull the plug it doesn't mean you have good spark when its in the spark plug hole. Thats why you need an inline plug tester. Shows you if there is steady spark or just once every few seconds.

That is of course true but it is not something I carry on the boat and as you know the first thing to do is pull a plug and test for spark. If there is no spark,it is an easy repair.