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Old 10-31-2018, 08:07 PM
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Al Schober Al Schober is offline
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Barbara,
Forget the hand crank. Buy a Gp 24 starting battery.
Hard starting can have several causes. Off the top of my head, a) prime the float bowl in the carb. With a mechanical fuel pump, there's a lever on the side to do this. With an electrical pump, just put a jumper across the oil pressure safety switch (crescent wrench works well). b) make sure you have good spark. Pull a plug wire and insert a bolt - should throw a 3/8" blue spark to the block. c) Make sure your choke is closing fully. A properly tuned A4 requires the choke to start when it's cold.
No flywheel cover? All you see is the flywheel! There's no oil seal flange. The bolts you see just hold the flywheel in place. The drain holes you read about are in the flywheel housing (the piece behind the flywheel). To get to them you have to remove the flywheel and the housing.
Having a 'BOTH' switch is a sign of an old electrical system - not that it won't work. With such a switch, one battery works everything or BOTH batteries work everything. If you install the Gp 24 and get the engine instruments to come on, your depth sounder will work too.
Current trend is for 2 battery banks - a big one for house loads (deep cycle) plus the Gp 24 for the engine. Both are on an on/off switch - no BOTH. Alternator output goes to the house battery (at least on my boat) and when it comes up to voltage, a combiner switch closes and sends charge current to the start battery.
4 hour trip on an unproven boat? Sounds iffy. Definitely have an anchor, cell phone, and provisions - may take longer than 4 hrs. Perhaps a friend with a power boat to follow along? Certainly get a SeaTow/TowBoat policy.
Hope this helps.
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