Working on the outboard
05 March 2014 | Puteri Harbor Marina
Cool and clear.
For those of you that have been following our blog, you know that we have had problems in the past with out outboard motor. Sometimes it would start and sometimes not. Sometimes, it would run for a few minutes and die. Yesterday, we started at the basics to try and get her purring again. We emptied out all the gas from the tank and filtered it and then put it through a "BAJA" filter. The "Baja" filter traps any water that might have gotten in the fuel. We put it through twice and through extra filters at the same time. I'd already changed out the fuel hose, but not the squeeze bulb so off it came and on went a brand new one. I'd already replace the fittings that attach the hose to the tank as well as the motor. I'd already replaced the tank itself. I checked the oil and since we had no way to drain the carburetor with out some of the fuel getting into the water, we left it alone. The marina gets quite huffy about fuel and oil getting in the water. Every day, we see them pouring soapy water and detergents in the water around the marina trying to devolve the oil and residue on the surface.
I'd watched the repairman that worked on our motor in Kota Kinabalu and he always pulled the lanyard a couple of times very slowly before he gave it the first hard yank. Those first pulls would put a bit of fuel in the cylinders. I pulled out the choke and pushed the fuel primer button(also replaced a few weeks ago) and gave it a yank. It wanted to start but it took a few more pulls and a few more pushes on the primer button. She started up and ran a bit rough. A few minutes later, it died. It did restart when I pulled the lanyard and this time, I played with the screw on the carburetor that controls the idle speed, speeding it up a tad. She seemed to run well and I let her run for about a half hour trying to get anything out of the carburetor that might have gotten in it. With the fuel line detached, the engine will run several minutes before it dies. This time, I let her just sit there and run. I'd attached a water line from the faucet on the dock to the raw water intake on the motor so it was getting plenty of water to keep it cool. At the end of the trial run, I shut her off and let her rest for about 45 minutes before restarting her. Again, it took a couple of pulls but she started and ran alright. At this point, I've changed out about everything I know on the motor(even the spark plugs are new) so maybe she will keep running. It's like have no car when you live in a house. Once at anchor, you depend on your dinghy and outboard to get you places. Let's hope all is well from here out.
Around noon, we made a Skype call to our son in Oakland, California. It's been quite a while since we have seen him but the internet is strong enough to allow us to make the call. On Borneo, it's much more hit or miss on getting a good connection where you can video chat.
We had lunch at the marina at a nice restaurant that specializes in Ramen noodle dishes. I, of course had the Curry Pork Ramen noodle bowl while Tracy had the Teriyaki Chicken. A nice restaurant with good food.
The rest of the afternoon, it was just too hot to do much so I sat in the Chart Room and read and surfed the internet. Tracy stayed at the boat and read and napped.
Today, off for Singapore!