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Old 01-24-2018, 03:00 AM
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Before I get too far, I should be specific regarding exactly what the problem was as I knew it. I purchased the boat from the previous owner with the engine in a "no-crank, no-start" condition. Zip, zero, nada when I turned the key. The PO claimed he had "taken the boat to his 'car guy' over in Alameda who had 'rebuilt' the engine." He said that he then motored/sailed it back to his slip in Redwood City (15-ish miles down the Bay) where the boat sat for *awhile* unused. When he attempted to start the engine after the hiatus, it wouldn't start and out of frustration he purchased a 4hp Mercury outboard, installed it on a pivoting transom mount and called it a day. I know, I know,...now. I should've seen it coming a mile away. Why didn't he demand his mechanic fix it? Why did he "give up" after just having "spent all that money on a rebuild?" What exactly did the "rebuild" entail? All valid questions. Truth be told by this point hotel expenses were adding up, I wasn't finding any other suitable boats on Craigslist, and I was getting impatient. When the PO agreed to drop the price to $5k, I thought the price drop would cover any repairs necessary to make the engine operational. (Not even close)

With my limited mechanical knowledge at the time, I started my troubleshooting with the starter. The first car I ever owned was a 1976 Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4 pickup with a 350 V8 who's starter bendix had a tendency to "freeze up." My remedy was always to hop underneath and smack it with a hammer while a friend would turn the key which usually worked. Not this time. I was met with the frustrating sound of silence every time I turned the key. About this time my dock neighbor happened to stop by and seeing my obvious frustration, offered to take a look. What followed was an all-to-common conversation which I'm sure many here have had. It went something like this:

Well-intentioned dock neighbor: "Oh, its an Atomic 4? I thought it had a diesel. Are you sure you want to bother fixing that old thing?"
Me: "Well, I have to. It's what the boat has and I don't have the money to repower with a diesel."
Well-intentioned dock neighbor: "Well, I mean, you could probably find an old diesel on Craigslist for a couple grand. Just drop one of those in and you'll be set!"
Me: "I only paid $5,000 for the boat to begin with."
Well-intentioned dock neighbor: "Even better! When you're done, the boat will be worth $10,000!"
Me: "I don't have the tools, time, or knowledge to do that. Besides, I want to start using the boat, like, soon."
Well-intentioned dock neighbor: "Be careful with that Atomic 4. Those things are dangerous. It's a gas engine after all. They have a tendency to catch on fire. In fact, they all catch on fire. Every one of them. Yours will catch fire. It will burn, the boat will explode, you'll be launched over the Golden Gate like Evel Knievel's failed motorcycle jump at Ceaser's Palace, the Coast Guard will pull you out of the water in a Jayhawk helicopter, give you a fine for negligence, and you'll be the laughing stock of the marina for the next millennia."

Okay so he didn't exactly say that but pretty much. And many other well-intentioned dockside "helpers" would too in the months to come. However, my neighbor did impart some wisdom when he asked "Do you know if the motor even turns?" Ummmmmm, uhhhhhh, no I didn't. I noticed a pin on the front of the crankshaft that looked like I could fashion up a socket and breaker bar set-up and turn the motor by hand. (No I didn't know Moyer Marine, or this forum existed and that Moyer sells a tool exactly for turning the crank when I went through all this trouble) So I "modified" a perfectly good 14mm socket with my Dremel to slip over the crankpin:

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Yank! Push! Ug! Marf! Wouldn't ya know it, the engine didn't budge. Time for a bigger breaker bar! Yes! That'll do it!

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To know what would happen next, you don't need to be a rocket scientist but you need to be smarter than I was. The engine didn't so much as squeak a tiny bit loose but the feeling of sudden rotation was from 1/2 of the crankpin shearing off. Sh#%*

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So there I had it. Learning had occurred. Apparently when an internal combustion engine sits idle in the marine environment for too long, the pistons and various other moving parts can become immobile. This just went from a simple "spark plugs and gas" fix, to something much more. My dock neighbor suggested removing the spark plugs, squirting some Marvel Mystery Oil into the cylinders to soak the piston rings in hopes of helping them unfreeze from the cylinder wall. I figured $3.88 of Marvel Mystery oil was a cheap gamble, so I squirted some in every few days for a month while I turned my attention to other things.

To be continued...

P.S. I know these posts are a little lengthy but I'm in no rush with the narrative since I'm still in the midst of a rebuild. However for the A.D.D. crowd, I thought a Clif Notes summary of what I learned and what I'd do differently could be helpful. So....

What I learned
  • Many sailors have an irrational prejudice against the Atomic 4 but can't point to specific examples of catastrophe vs its diesel counterparts
  • The people who possess the knowledge to help you fix an A-4 are more likely on this forum than on the dock..unless one of the frequent contributors here happens to be on your dock
  • Engines shouldn't sit unused for a long time. More boats seem to suffer problems from disuse rather than overuse
What I'd do differently
  • Ask the seller more questions about the boat's history/maintenance/ etc
  • Search the Moyer forum for an existing thread pretaining to the problem at hand. Failing that...
  • Call Moyer and talk to Ken
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Jonathan
1979 Catalina 30 #1497
An old Airline Pilot proverb: "If we don't help each other nobody else will."

Last edited by Launchpad McQ; 01-25-2018 at 12:50 AM.
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