Confusion over engine gauge wiring...

[sastanley]

Jesse,

Thanks for the tip...I tried it that way the first time and it worked great, especially since it was the first time I had run it on the hard myself.

Since then I've realized I shouldn't really need to run it that long and in my case (due to proximity & PITA factor of hauling 200' of hose) it is easier to grab two buckets and fill them. Any other long-run engine work can wait until I am in the water and have it under load. If I could simulate that on shore, then we'd be getting somewhere

[knitchie]

Running on the hard

I'm sure many of us run our engines on the hard, at least for short periods of time. In addition to keeping the impeller lubricated, make sure you aren't turning the prop shaft and burning up the strut. I find it hard to keep my tranny in neutral very long without nursing it.

[sastanley]

To solve this, I tied the prop to the strut so it wouldn't spin! My worry is burning up the cutlass bearing

[rigspelt]

Is there not some way to lubricate the bearing, if it is hard to get the shaft to stop turning? I guess it would be possible to rig a water shower, but that would require a second garden hose.

[sastanley]

rigspelt..that is exactly what I thought. I already have abandoned the hose in favor of the easier method (in my particular case) of lugging 10 gallons of water up the ladder for ~10 minutes of run time..why would I lug another 100'+ hose to lubricate the cutlass bearing?

Here is a scenario. Since you need to choke down the amount of water coming into the bucket anyway, you probably have sufficient volume that you could add a Y-valve. I also suppose that if you were to disassemble the stuffing box (possibly because you were planning to replace the packing anyway) that you could have a second hose, coming off the Y valve trickling down the prop shaft to the cutlass bearing. Another idea could be to take a longer hose hanging off the side of the boat taped/lashed to the prop strut spraying on the cutlass bearing.

All this work doesn't really gain you anything, because now you can spin the prop in thin air, so the only gain is the ability to see if your reversing gear is working, but you still aren't really putting the motor under any load.

Again, I just found it easier to tie off the prop

Can you tell I am bored at work today and can't wait to get out in this (finally) nice weather here in the Chesapeake and get working on the boat??