1972 E27-Fixing Everything

[Boat]

At the sailboat factories it was a phrase that popped up frequently to remind ourselves that we could produce a better product at the insignificant expense of a little attention. It's something that once appreciated you'll carry the rest of your life. For example, which of these two electrical installations looks like the electrician cared about what he was doing, paid a little extra attention to detail? Which electrician would you rather have working in your house or office or better yet as an employer, working for you?

lol nice, when I do that the commodore calls it "OCD"

[sdemore]

Two cents (and probably not worth it) on those allen head bolts. I used to use those unknown stainless alloys on motorcycle repairs. After shining them up, a dab of clear nail polish will help to keep them from rusting.

[CajunSpike]

Went to the marina to day to work on replacing the furler rope. Opened up the boat to find a couple inches water on the floor.

The positive wire to the bilge pump float had corroded at a crimp joint and broken, depriving the float of power.

Rigged a temp power line and got 3/4th of the water pumped out when the bilge pump quit again.

Got my continuity tester and determined the float switch died. Went buy new float switch and wired it in place, all new wire. Thats done.

Real problem is the prop shaft seal is leaking pretty good after my work on reinstalling the prop shaft coupling.

What size flax seal/rope would go in a prop shaft coupling for a 3/4" prop shaft? First thought was 1/4" rope size...but that coupling is pretty tight to the shaft and 2nd thought was 3/16".

[ndutton]

Your stuffing box should have 3 rings of flax inside. Open it up, dig out one ring and close it up again to manage the water inflow. Now you can actually measure the size flax you have.

[Al Schober]

As I recall, the last time I repacked my stuffing box it only took two rings. Worked fine for years.

[CajunSpike]

Got a call the rail was fixed...so went pick it up.

The shop machined a stub to fit inside the tubing for strength, between the broken parts.
All welded up and ground smooth.

Managed to stuff the rail in the GTI and get it to the marina.



Leg alignment was just about perfect. Fell into place exactly.

Used up all day light just getting the rail reinstalled.
Hands have spots of 3m 4200 from rebedding the rail legs.

Local West Marine only had 3/16 flax..so got that.
But it took so long to put the rail on I didn't get to the packing.

Last thing I did is try out the tablet I got for a simple nav device.
Its a 8" Galaxy Tab A with Navionics.



MIGHT go back tomorrow and work on the stuffing box.
Bilge kicks in about every 45 minutes to an hour with the leak.

[ndutton]

Local West Marine only had 3/16 flax . . . so got that.

Not the preferred way to select the proper sized flax. Maybe you'll get lucky and it will be correct but in case it's not have a solid Plan B ready to go such as rigging or electrical tape at your fingertips to slow the inrush with the stuffing box apart.

[CajunSpike]

Thanks for being right Neil. Another West store still close enough to drive, has the 1/8th size. Guess where I'm going tomorrow....

[CajunSpike]

Went to another West Marine and got 1/8th pfte flax.
Have to say, typing the numbers then actually seeing the size of the flax is a big difference.
I doubt 3/16th would fit.

Got to the boat after.

Removed the blower to make more access to the stuffing box.
Made short video of the leakage.

http://cajun.dyndns.org:81/seeker/drip.mp4

Somehow the flow rate had slowed on its own.
When I last saw the leak, was 5/6 drips per second.
This time was about 2 drips per second.

Broke the stuffing box nut loose and started to back it off.
Quickly found out its impossible to move the nut far enough forward to be able to put fresh flax in. Just not enough room between the stuffing box and the coupling. I'd have to unbolt the engine, slide it forward, and remove the coupler to do the job. Going to save this for when I have more time. Its a multi day job.

Put stuffing box back together and put the nut just a a little bit tighter then it was.

Fortunately, that was enough to slow the drip rate to about 1/30sec.
Leaving it at that for now.

Did a few other things since I was there.

One of the coupling bolts was the wrong bolt. Slightly longer than original, so I had stacked washers to take up the extra space.
You can just see the shiny bolt head in the video, on the right side of the coupling.

Pulled out the too long bolt, put in right bolt since I found it.
Not sure if a slightly longer bolt and 3 or 4 washers would be enough to unbalance the coupling...but its possible.

Pulled off the distributor cap to replace the rotor. It had gotten slightly damaged when i installed the pertronix kit.

While I had the dist cap off, pulled #1 plug and put the engine at TDC.
Plug was dark brown. Not light brown, not soot covered. In between.
Reinstalled the cap and the plug.

Removed the front engine cover and made tdc marks.
Hooked up a timing light, cranked engine and checked timing. Was way off. Was set at about 30/40 degrees before tdc.

Readjusted it to about 5 degrees(roughly guessing) before tdc. Engine seemed to calm down and run smoother. Locked down the distributor.

Reinstalled the front cover. Adjusted the carb so the engine would not die at dead idle with trans in gear. Went in/out of gear several times. Kept running. I've been doing this idle adjustment by using the screw on the throttle lever. I'm just preventing the carb from closing so much. Should I be doing this with the screw on the back side of the carb?

At this point, engine pretty much starts with a flick of the key once it's warmed up.

Put new plastic covers on the standing rigging lines. The old covers were crumbling. Whats the point of these white cable covers on the cables that hold the mast?
Put 6 gallons in the tank...as I actually ran it dry during last startup at dock. Thought it was wierd it died...until I checked the clear filter near the tank and saw there was nothing in it.

Lest we forget the point of all this work....




On previous trip, pulled off too thick furler line(wouldn't spool right) and replaced it with correct size rope.
Did NOT cut the 70 foot of furler rope till I find out how much is actually needed to work right.

Have a friend who will cut the new cabin handrails from a board.
Haven't given up on that. You can see the spots on the cabin roof where the rail would go. Have the holes full of silicone to block water.
Still need to see if the ancient gauges on the boat will power up. None of them show any sign of life so far. Will use meter to see if power/ground is present for each.

At some point have to deal with the discoloration of the top deck. In areas, the fiberglass has worn and turned black. I know NOT to just put regular paint as it will peel off fiberglass(did that before).
Just want to do it right this time. Not sure of right method though.

[toddster]

I was gonna say1/8, but I went out to grab the spare packet for confirmation and can’t find it anywhere. Guess I’ll be inline right behind you. One of those things that will turn up immediately after buying a replacement...

[CajunSpike]

Not a good day

This is the result of today's trip out, when the motor quit on me at a bad time.


Was out in the lake and knew a front was going to come thru. When we decided to call it a day, cranked up engine no issue. Was motoring back to dock directly into the waves and wind. After sometime of this, the motor slowed down....came back to normal speed for a few minutes, then slowed down till it quit. By this time, we were close to shore but several miles from the marina entrance due to high wind. Pulled out the front sail just as the front came thru. The sail hold back rope got away and allowed the sail to flap itself to destruction. Got two anchors out to keep us stable and called Boatus for a tow back to the dock. While waiting, got engine started again and headed for dock. Got to a piling on the marina approach and immediately tied up cuz the motor was slowing down again. Sure enough it quit and would not restart. Spent no time doing diagnosis, just happy to be back in slip safely. Had just less then 6 gallons in tank, and EI ignition with moyer coil. Just cranks with little to no sign of firing. Have a spare front sail. Have to figure how to remove ripped sail and install spare. Will test fuel flow and spark when I get back to the marina. Told the Boatus guy thank you about 100 times. Was never in a lose-the-boat situation but definitely got rattled.
So general pattern is crank, no firing. If it does start, runs for a while till it slows down and quits. Repeat...repeat...till no start at marina trying to get to slip.

[JOHN COOKSON]

If you have an electronic fuel pump try shorting across or bypassing the OPSS.

TRUE GRIT

[ndutton]

I'd like to know more about the conditions. A quick bit of research showed a maximum wind strength in your area for 1/12/19 @22MPH. What were the water conditions (wind chop, swell, etc.). At first blush the engine issue sounds like fuel contamination to me.

[CajunSpike]

I'd like to know more about the conditions. A quick bit of research showed a maximum wind strength in your area for 1/12/19 @22MPH. What were the water conditions (wind chop, swell, etc.). At first blush the engine issue sounds like fuel contamination to me.

Day started out with winds <= 10mph.
Knew the weather would turn sour but had planned to be in before that happened.

First part of the day was uneventful.

As the front approached, winds picked up so waves began to develop. Doesn't take much breeze to make waves in this lake.
Wind was blowing enough to get to a recorded speed of 6.8 knots, with a lot of lean.
From what I hear, that's pretty fast for this boat.

Rudder control began to get 'iffy' with the lean. Was about that time we decided to head in. Pulled in both sails. Boat began beating headlong into the 2 or 3 foot waves and only doing 3 knots.

To avoid hobby horsing, I turned to nearest shore with the thought the waves would be less near shore, then we could follow shore back to harbor. Going this direction reduced wave beating greatly. Mostly just left to right rolling now and then.
Was pretty near shore when engine slowed from normal drone. Got my attention quickly. It returned to normal sound for another 3 or 4 minutes, then slowed and died this time.

Was about that time, I opened the front sail. Intended to open a small amount but it fully opened. Strong gust pulled the holdback ropes loose, thus allowing the sail to flap and rip. About that time I threw 2 anchors to hold the boat. This worked correctly.

This was the time of the highest wind, as the front blew thru. No working wind gauge on my boat, so can't say what it got up to. Old Kenyon gauges don't work. Just sat thru it below deck.

It was a quick weather passage. Only took about 20 minutes for worst to pass my area. Called for tow. They said would storm would have to pass them before they could get out there..probably 1.5 hours.

While waiting for tow I kept trying to restart engine. Kinda coughed and did restart after about 15 tries. Pulled anchor and bee-lined to dock. Rain had passed but wind was still brisk, coming directly from marina direction. Waves had dropped to small chop, since was so close to shore.

It repeated the stall/die again after 10 minutes...did restart after many tries.

Got to marina channel entrance(lined with rocks) just in time for motor to slow again. Decided to tie up on dolphin rather then try to enter marina and end up on rocks. Just as we got a rope on the dolphin, motor died. Would not restart. Tow got us into the dock. We locked up the boat and walked away. Not back since.

Now lets talk fuel situation. About a month ago, was running the motor at the dock and it died. Checked the visible fuel filter and it was dry. Had just run out of gas. Made two trips with my 3 gallon tank to a nearby gas station and put the fuel in the boat. No fuel available at the marina where I park. That's what I was running on, for this situation.
The way the fuel fill is, its impossible for water to drip into the tank thru the fill cover. The fill is inside a locker, not exposed to weather.
The tank air vent line has a big loop in it, to catch any outside water intrusion. Air vent is pretty high up on the port side rear corner.

During the time of no start, there was fuel visible in the filter, so it was not a run dry situation. Choke/no choke made no difference. Electric fuel pump made its normal sound.

Starter would crank normally but there was no sign of firing. Did not try starting fluid.
I do NOT have a fuel/water separator on boat yet(I know should have one, hadn't got that far).

This was the longest time the engine has run continually since I had the boat.

Only things that come to mind is coil heat soak which I would not expect since I have the right ohm coil matched to the EI system, or bad fuel/clogged carb.

Only observation I could see is when I first put gas in it, the color of the fuel going thru the filter was mostly clear. This day, the gas in filter had turned slightly darker. Have a new filter in hand to replace existing filter. The filter is the first thing the gas passes thru, when it leaves the tank. Tank was new plastic tank installed earlier in the year.

Sincerely appreciate your input. I do suspect you're right. Planning on pulling fuel samples and checking it, next weekend.

[Peter]

Bill,

Was this the first trip you had with a lot of waves and subsequent pitching and rolling?

If so, it might have been sufficient to stir up KRAP from the bottom of the fuel tank.

Peter