History:
We bought a 1974 C&C 30 foot MK1 with an Atomic 4 about 2 months ago. It's in good sailing condition but the PO didn't need to motor longer than 200 or 300 yards before putting up his sails so he didn't do much more than required upkeep of it. Just to note, I'm very inexperienced with engines but I'm trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can.
During the Survey the Engine died and would not start back up, we foolishly had got distracted and left the choke out for about 30 minutes and just figured we flooded the engine. We talked to the PO about it and found out that the gas in the tank was probably around 2 years old. So we thought that between the old gas and mistakenly leaving the choke on for 30 minutes that the stall out wasn't a big problem.
After the boat purchase I drained all the gas from the tank and filled it with 10 gallons of fresh gas. After that I changed the Sierra fuel filter. We then took the boat out for 2 short trips. On those trips the engine was stalling out if we didn't give it choke the whole time. However, the engine ran better toward then end of the second trip so we assumed that the bad gas from before had worked itself out of the system.
Then we needed to sail the boat from it's previous location to the slip that we had set up. On that trip the engine ran great overall. Over a 10 hour trip we motored for at least 4 hours and it only stalled once but started back up right away.
Since it's been back in it's home location things have gotten worse. We got caught in a bad storm on the first trip and the engine died in 6 foot seas and wouldn't start back up. I assumed that all the boat heaving had flooded the engine, after the storm we sailed it back to a temporary slip. The next day it started and ran fine for us to get back to our slip.
The next 4 trips the motor has died multiple times, usually after about 10 minutes. You can hear the engine start to loose power, then within about 10 seconds it dies. One time I got it started back up with spray starter fluid and by tapping the carb but the other times I've had to wait anywhere from 30 minutes to the next day.
Current Situation:
After today's 2 stall outs I assumed that the Carb was dirty or a jet was clogged so I removed the carb to clean it. I removed the Main Passage plug and the scavenge tube to drain the carb but less than a teaspoon of gas came out. The inside of the carb was bone dry. That made me think that it wasn't the Carb after all. I checked the wire that goes from the oil pressure safety switch to the fuel pump an noticed that I was able to pull it off it's termination without much effort. Here's a picture of that termination.
What is the blue cable that's on that same termination for? I included a picture of where that cable runs too.
Could this be just a loose termination problem?
Could the fuel pump be bad?
What are some other things I should check for? \
I just got the manual from Moyer Marine and downloaded the video, so I'm going to clean the carb and see if that helps the problem. I just want to know if there's other ways I should be troubleshooting.
Thanks for your help, reading this forum has really helped me out so far in my struggle to understand how to get this engine working.
We bought a 1974 C&C 30 foot MK1 with an Atomic 4 about 2 months ago. It's in good sailing condition but the PO didn't need to motor longer than 200 or 300 yards before putting up his sails so he didn't do much more than required upkeep of it. Just to note, I'm very inexperienced with engines but I'm trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can.
During the Survey the Engine died and would not start back up, we foolishly had got distracted and left the choke out for about 30 minutes and just figured we flooded the engine. We talked to the PO about it and found out that the gas in the tank was probably around 2 years old. So we thought that between the old gas and mistakenly leaving the choke on for 30 minutes that the stall out wasn't a big problem.
After the boat purchase I drained all the gas from the tank and filled it with 10 gallons of fresh gas. After that I changed the Sierra fuel filter. We then took the boat out for 2 short trips. On those trips the engine was stalling out if we didn't give it choke the whole time. However, the engine ran better toward then end of the second trip so we assumed that the bad gas from before had worked itself out of the system.
Then we needed to sail the boat from it's previous location to the slip that we had set up. On that trip the engine ran great overall. Over a 10 hour trip we motored for at least 4 hours and it only stalled once but started back up right away.
Since it's been back in it's home location things have gotten worse. We got caught in a bad storm on the first trip and the engine died in 6 foot seas and wouldn't start back up. I assumed that all the boat heaving had flooded the engine, after the storm we sailed it back to a temporary slip. The next day it started and ran fine for us to get back to our slip.
The next 4 trips the motor has died multiple times, usually after about 10 minutes. You can hear the engine start to loose power, then within about 10 seconds it dies. One time I got it started back up with spray starter fluid and by tapping the carb but the other times I've had to wait anywhere from 30 minutes to the next day.
Current Situation:
After today's 2 stall outs I assumed that the Carb was dirty or a jet was clogged so I removed the carb to clean it. I removed the Main Passage plug and the scavenge tube to drain the carb but less than a teaspoon of gas came out. The inside of the carb was bone dry. That made me think that it wasn't the Carb after all. I checked the wire that goes from the oil pressure safety switch to the fuel pump an noticed that I was able to pull it off it's termination without much effort. Here's a picture of that termination.
What is the blue cable that's on that same termination for? I included a picture of where that cable runs too.
Could this be just a loose termination problem?
Could the fuel pump be bad?
What are some other things I should check for? \
I just got the manual from Moyer Marine and downloaded the video, so I'm going to clean the carb and see if that helps the problem. I just want to know if there's other ways I should be troubleshooting.
Thanks for your help, reading this forum has really helped me out so far in my struggle to understand how to get this engine working.
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