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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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OT-ish, wish all small engines were like my genset

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/22/2013 : 19:30:29

It's getting to be that time of the year, when the power starts flickering and it's a good idea to make sure your generator is ready for the winter. Yesterday I took it out of the garage, cleaned the spark plug & re-gapped it, and hoped for the best. I knew the fuel had been sitting for a year, but I'd double treated with Stabil, so maybe it'd be OK. Hah, silly me. I started at the end of the football game we'd been watching was over and there wasn't much daylight left once I'd determined it wasn't going to start.

So today, after the Seahawks whooped up on the Jaguars, I moved everything inside the garage to get out of the rain, and tore the carb apart expecting to find goo inside like I'd found in my little outboard earlier this year. Surprisingly, there was very little stuff inside and a quick wipe and a blow out with my compressor and it was clean.

Then I took a look inside the tank. Aha! I could see water and what looked like rust particles in the bottom of the tank, so I drained the tank and scrubbed it out paper towels. It came pretty clean so I didn't feel like I needed to actually remove it completely from the body (Rita had helped me turn it over to dump the dregs into a measuring cup so we could see what came out, which was nasty water/rust particles/gas mixture). The rust particles came from the vent assembly in the cap, so after scrubbing it clean with a SS brush, I squirted that with some wax lubricant to keep it from rusting again.

We filled the tank part way, and pulled it over about a dozen times to prime the fuel system (I'd blown it out earlier so it was dry). Then started trying to start it in earnest. It started on about the 4th or 5th pull, ran really rough for a minute or so and died. So, gave it another couple of pulls, and it started again, running roughly still. I fiddled with the choke a little bit, and pretty soon it cleared up, and it's been running for the past half an hour to get it up to operating temperature and get oil splashed up into all the nooks & crannies.

I'm more than willing to spend a couple of hours to do stuff like this if I'm reasonably assured of an outcome like today's. However, I finally gave up on my outboard and took it to a shop. $130 later, it was running again. It was missing about $0.15 worth of a rubber plug that cost me $8 & $9 shipping and an extra $35 to have it installed. I'll never go back to this guy's shop again, but he did get it running like a top.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

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Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9081 Posts

Response Posted - 09/22/2013 : 20:13:06

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 I'll never go back to this guy's shop again, but he did get it running like a top.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Why not? He did what you wanted and is making a living doing that. Where did he screw up?

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/22/2013 : 20:29:04

It actually doesn't have much with the work he did, you're correct, he did exactly what I asked him to do (although he did some other stuff I didn't ask him to like adjusting the valves, but I figured that couldn't hurt and it wasn't that much). However, every time I went by his shop, I got the latest story of the ongoing three way relationship he has (had?) with his neighbors and how pissed he was about it, or vague stories about what he couldn't tell me he didn't do while not working as a spook in the military or CIA, or NSA, or some other three letter acronym, while being a sniper. Or stories about how badly his kid is messed up with PTSD because he was stupid enough (his words) to join the Army instead of the Navy or Marine Corps, or, or. All while not working on my outboard, sipping on booze, and blowing cigarette smoke in my face. I learned to have something I needed to do immediately after stopping by his place so I didn't have to listen to the next story(s). I don't know if he thought I was interested because I'm ex-military as he is (I think?), or if he tells all his customers the same stories. I ended up going by his place 4-5 times for various reasons, the first time I was polite & stood there for a while listening to stories. He also didn't smoke or drink around me the first time I was there and just figured he was lonely or something.

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redeye
Master Marine Consultant

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3476 Posts

Response Posted - 09/23/2013 : 03:49:25

Yepper.. It's a damn shame we hafta put up with all those people in the world.... Especially the boat mechanics...

Sounds like a good place to practice your antisocial skills...

Tell him you work for Martha Stewart...

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Sloop Smitten
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1181 Posts

Response Posted - 09/23/2013 : 09:22:43

I think this is on topic:
Last month when returning from Catalina Island, after a 9 hour run under motor, I idled down in the harbor entrance and my Tohatsu 9.9, 3-1/2 year old outboard died. I restarted it but it would die immediately when I tried to idle so I was pretty sure the low speed jet was clogged. I tried all the usual remedies (spraying with carb cleaner, running Seafoam, etc.) with no luck. Then I removed the carb and sprayed all the internal componeents with carburetor spray, reinstalled it and there was no improvement. So I removed the carb a second time and took it home to clean. I soaked it overnight in a gallon can of Chemtool Carburetor cleaner, rinsed it well with hot water and blew it dry with compressed air. There was no visible accumulation of residue or debris, just a light coating, kind of like a haze, in the carburetor bowl. When I reinstalled it, it ran like a top and I was able to adjust the idle with a much greater efficiency than I ever could before. I think the rubber fuel lines may be showing the effects of using ethanol for 3-1/2 years so I intend to add some ethanol treatment to the gas from now on and see whether the issue returns. I am also contemplating adding the carburetor to my annual spring tune-up for the outboard. It was surprisingly simple to remove/replace and given the overall improvement may be worthy of the annual cleaning. One word of warning, if you give the carb a bath with carb cleaner do not dip the float or its accompanying needle jet. This is pretty obvious as the float is plastic and the jet has a rubber tip. The nylon parts attached on the outside of the carburetor (choke cam, etc.) were not affected. There is a rubber gasket attached to the rim of the carburetor bowl which I did not see. The carburetor bath ruined it so I replaced it. ($4.50)

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