So, I've been futzing about with this engine since I put the boat in the water this spring, and it just will not start. (In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have put the boat in the water until the engine was running, but I was confident that I could get her running in no time.) Anyway, the engine cranks but will not start.
After launch, I tried to start her up to get her over to her mooring. No luck, had to get towed.
When I got out to the mooring, I started running through Don Moyer's troubleshooting guides (the pdf and the printed A4 maintenance manual), as follows. Please double-check my logic and troubleshooting, and offer suggestions on what I should try next:
My first thoughts were bad/old/stale/waterlogged gas. So, I pumped all the old gas from my tank and refilled with 5 gals of fresh.
Tried to start, no dice.
I pulled the No. 1 spark plug, and, while a teeny bit fouled-looking, it jumped out at me that it wasn't even a tiny bit moist. Bone dry. Hmmm. Fuel isn't getting into the engine?
I took the supply hose off the [electric] fuel pump, to check for good supply there. I had cranked the engine several times at this point, so I expected a steady drip at the very least out of the supply hose. Oddly enough, fuel was not coming out of the supply line. That supply line came from the fuel filter, meaning that fuel was not getting from the filter to the engine. Okay, easy enough, I think to myself. Just replace the filter.
So, I replace the filter, thinking it was clogged. Still, no fuel from the fuel filter. Hmmm, I thought, since I now know the filter is perfect, the problem must be upstream of the fuel filter.
I took the hose off the supply (tank) side of the filter, and saw no fuel coming from there, either. The supply line wasn't even moist with fuel, and it didn't even smell like gas. I started checking the hose for leaks along its entire length (found none), and noticed that the fuel tank shutoff valve was still closed! I slapped my forehead, cursed a few times, and opened the cutoff. Still, no fuel came out of the hose, even though the valve was supposedly now in the open position. I attached a primer bulb in the supply side of the hose, and started trying to pump the fuel into the hose. No dice. No matter how long I pumped the primer bulb, nothing came out of the hose. Arggh!
Next, it occurred to me that maybe the fuel tank wasn't venting properly. So, I replaced the fuel vent hose, and, just to be sure, blew through the vent end of the hose and heard a gurgling noise in the tank. Well, the fuel vent certainly isn't clogged anymore, if it even was before. After doing this, I used the primer bulb again, trying to pump fuel into the hose. No luck again. To me, this indicates some problem with the fuel pickup in the tank. Maybe sludge or something. Well, this is an enclosed SS tank, full of fresh gasoline with no sort of inspection hatch/port, so this is as far as I could take this line of questioning.
Reasoning there was some sort of poltergeist in my fuel tank preventing fuel from being pulled from it, I bought an outboard fuel tank. My reasoning at this point is that I just need to get fuel to the engine, and if it worked I could sail all season this year using the aftermarket tank, and then pull the old tank in the offseason and either fix it or replace it with a new inboard tank.
So, I buy a 12-gallon tank and get the fuel line hooked up. One squeeze on the primer bulb and fuel spurted out as expected. Yay! I hooked this up to my fuel filter, squeezed the primer bulb a couple more times, and fuel squirted
out of the filter. Yay! I attached the hose from the fuel filter to the pump, primed it twice more, and, after running the blower a bit, tried to start the engine again.
Still cranks, but wont start. GRRR.
I pull the plugs again, and the plugs are all STILL bone dry.
At this point, I get curious and decide to pull out the center connection from the coil and try to make an arc while cranking the engine. No spark, no arc, no nothing. Great, I have no spark AND no fuel. Since I have the plugs out at this point tinkering with trying to see a spark out of something ANYTHING, I remember that I've gotten replacement plugs in the mail from moyer, so I gap and install them, and try to turn the engine over again.
No start. Still gives a healthy crank, but never turns over.
I'm at my wits-end. At this point, I've spent every weekend of a great sailing season pottering about in my engine compartment, and, since the boat is bobbing about at her mooring, I've made myself seasick a few times in the process. Sure, I could probably get out of the harbor under sail alone and go for a nice day-sail, but I surely wouldn't feel comfortable in case a storm came up, or when I needed to get the boat back into harbor, through a crowded mooring field, and back tied up to my mooring ball, under sail alone.
So, I raise the white flag, admit I'm at the limits of my expertise, and make a call up to Larsen Marine, up at Waukegan (my marina has no mechanic, and Larsen is the closest). Mark, the guy I speak to there, is very helpful, assuring me that its probably nothing more then points. He tells me how to clean them, and even how to change them if need be, over the phone. They were very helpful! He assured me that I could definitely do this myself without his help.
So, buoyed with newfound confidence in my tinkering skills, I order the complete tuneup kit next-day shipped from Moyer, and the following weekend I set about the task.
I had to do this one-handed, while I held a little shaving mirror with my other hand, because on my boat, there is no access aft of the third spark plug. And let me tell you how quickly you can get seasick trying to change the points on your distributor, backwards, using a shaving mirror and only one hand. There's barely enough room to change the last two plugs, and there certainly is no direct access to the distributor, water pump, dipstick or coil without cutting an access port in the floor of the cockpit.
So, it took me an entire day just to install the points using my shaving mirror, and even though I lost three set screws and a two screwdrivers into the bilge, I managed to get her done! All told, I replaced the plugs, plug wires, points, condenser, and rotor, retimed the engine so No 1 cylinder was at TDC, and tried again.
Didnt even crank. The battery was dead! ARRRGGGH! Another weekend wasted. I took the batteries home for some quality time with the charger.
This past weekend, with charged batteries and a heart full of hope, I journeyed back to my boat. I installed the batteries, primed the fuel system, and turned the key...
AND IT STILL DIDNT F*@&ing START. It cranks, but wont turn over. The plugs are still dry, and I still cant get an arc out of the coil wire when I hold it to the head.
Dear lord, talk about frustrated. I can't even express how saddened I was to miss another weekend of gorgeous sailing weather.
So please, someone, ANYONE give me some advice on where I should turn next.
Thanks in advance.
After launch, I tried to start her up to get her over to her mooring. No luck, had to get towed.
When I got out to the mooring, I started running through Don Moyer's troubleshooting guides (the pdf and the printed A4 maintenance manual), as follows. Please double-check my logic and troubleshooting, and offer suggestions on what I should try next:
My first thoughts were bad/old/stale/waterlogged gas. So, I pumped all the old gas from my tank and refilled with 5 gals of fresh.
Tried to start, no dice.
I pulled the No. 1 spark plug, and, while a teeny bit fouled-looking, it jumped out at me that it wasn't even a tiny bit moist. Bone dry. Hmmm. Fuel isn't getting into the engine?
I took the supply hose off the [electric] fuel pump, to check for good supply there. I had cranked the engine several times at this point, so I expected a steady drip at the very least out of the supply hose. Oddly enough, fuel was not coming out of the supply line. That supply line came from the fuel filter, meaning that fuel was not getting from the filter to the engine. Okay, easy enough, I think to myself. Just replace the filter.
So, I replace the filter, thinking it was clogged. Still, no fuel from the fuel filter. Hmmm, I thought, since I now know the filter is perfect, the problem must be upstream of the fuel filter.
I took the hose off the supply (tank) side of the filter, and saw no fuel coming from there, either. The supply line wasn't even moist with fuel, and it didn't even smell like gas. I started checking the hose for leaks along its entire length (found none), and noticed that the fuel tank shutoff valve was still closed! I slapped my forehead, cursed a few times, and opened the cutoff. Still, no fuel came out of the hose, even though the valve was supposedly now in the open position. I attached a primer bulb in the supply side of the hose, and started trying to pump the fuel into the hose. No dice. No matter how long I pumped the primer bulb, nothing came out of the hose. Arggh!
Next, it occurred to me that maybe the fuel tank wasn't venting properly. So, I replaced the fuel vent hose, and, just to be sure, blew through the vent end of the hose and heard a gurgling noise in the tank. Well, the fuel vent certainly isn't clogged anymore, if it even was before. After doing this, I used the primer bulb again, trying to pump fuel into the hose. No luck again. To me, this indicates some problem with the fuel pickup in the tank. Maybe sludge or something. Well, this is an enclosed SS tank, full of fresh gasoline with no sort of inspection hatch/port, so this is as far as I could take this line of questioning.
Reasoning there was some sort of poltergeist in my fuel tank preventing fuel from being pulled from it, I bought an outboard fuel tank. My reasoning at this point is that I just need to get fuel to the engine, and if it worked I could sail all season this year using the aftermarket tank, and then pull the old tank in the offseason and either fix it or replace it with a new inboard tank.
So, I buy a 12-gallon tank and get the fuel line hooked up. One squeeze on the primer bulb and fuel spurted out as expected. Yay! I hooked this up to my fuel filter, squeezed the primer bulb a couple more times, and fuel squirted
out of the filter. Yay! I attached the hose from the fuel filter to the pump, primed it twice more, and, after running the blower a bit, tried to start the engine again.
Still cranks, but wont start. GRRR.
I pull the plugs again, and the plugs are all STILL bone dry.
At this point, I get curious and decide to pull out the center connection from the coil and try to make an arc while cranking the engine. No spark, no arc, no nothing. Great, I have no spark AND no fuel. Since I have the plugs out at this point tinkering with trying to see a spark out of something ANYTHING, I remember that I've gotten replacement plugs in the mail from moyer, so I gap and install them, and try to turn the engine over again.
No start. Still gives a healthy crank, but never turns over.
I'm at my wits-end. At this point, I've spent every weekend of a great sailing season pottering about in my engine compartment, and, since the boat is bobbing about at her mooring, I've made myself seasick a few times in the process. Sure, I could probably get out of the harbor under sail alone and go for a nice day-sail, but I surely wouldn't feel comfortable in case a storm came up, or when I needed to get the boat back into harbor, through a crowded mooring field, and back tied up to my mooring ball, under sail alone.
So, I raise the white flag, admit I'm at the limits of my expertise, and make a call up to Larsen Marine, up at Waukegan (my marina has no mechanic, and Larsen is the closest). Mark, the guy I speak to there, is very helpful, assuring me that its probably nothing more then points. He tells me how to clean them, and even how to change them if need be, over the phone. They were very helpful! He assured me that I could definitely do this myself without his help.
So, buoyed with newfound confidence in my tinkering skills, I order the complete tuneup kit next-day shipped from Moyer, and the following weekend I set about the task.
I had to do this one-handed, while I held a little shaving mirror with my other hand, because on my boat, there is no access aft of the third spark plug. And let me tell you how quickly you can get seasick trying to change the points on your distributor, backwards, using a shaving mirror and only one hand. There's barely enough room to change the last two plugs, and there certainly is no direct access to the distributor, water pump, dipstick or coil without cutting an access port in the floor of the cockpit.
So, it took me an entire day just to install the points using my shaving mirror, and even though I lost three set screws and a two screwdrivers into the bilge, I managed to get her done! All told, I replaced the plugs, plug wires, points, condenser, and rotor, retimed the engine so No 1 cylinder was at TDC, and tried again.
Didnt even crank. The battery was dead! ARRRGGGH! Another weekend wasted. I took the batteries home for some quality time with the charger.
This past weekend, with charged batteries and a heart full of hope, I journeyed back to my boat. I installed the batteries, primed the fuel system, and turned the key...
AND IT STILL DIDNT F*@&ing START. It cranks, but wont turn over. The plugs are still dry, and I still cant get an arc out of the coil wire when I hold it to the head.
Dear lord, talk about frustrated. I can't even express how saddened I was to miss another weekend of gorgeous sailing weather.
So please, someone, ANYONE give me some advice on where I should turn next.
Thanks in advance.
Comment