Pump's on the way to the pump doctor!
13 July 2010 | Port Angeles, Wa
Ray here...little warmer..winds calmer
Well, the verdict is in...the fuel injection pump is leaking and they'll have it fixed and ready in about 3 days. I think that's amazing for two reasons...(1) We have a weird sized Perkins (a 4-154... probably made back in the 70's or 80's) and (2) that someone is able to repair it in a timely manner rather than having to go for a replacement pump ala'$800!!
I ended up calling Seattle Injection and as Jeanne from S/V Eagle indicated "Port Angeles is pretty good spot to be for these kind of problems." They hooked me right up with an expert on these things...he had me fax him a picture, and from that was able to give me a quote of $300 to $400 for a re-seal... depending on what he finds inside. Of course shipping is $44 each way...and we have to remain at the dock for five days longer than planned, which put us in another bracket as far as moorage is concerned...which ultimately kicked our going-down-the-coast budget all to pieces ...you can see...when your cruising everything is connected....anyway I feel lucky we even found someone and we can get it fixed so fast (I figured two weeks down and at least $800 to $1200 for parts and labor and moorage!).
The wind finally quit here, it's been very nerve wracking even in the harbor... this is after three days of winds often gale force level! (No wonder the seas were so bad for us coming across the sound!...they even had to cancel some ferry runs as it was too rough!). So, in the next three days we plan to capitalize on the down time with the injector pump and do the things we originally set out to do when we arrived...that being...tune the boat and take care of the items discovered in the shake-down cruise. We've had a chance to visit with family and friends and that's been awesome! Because it's summer vacation, we've also had our granddaughter here with us for this last week! (She's eight and such a jewel...a natural on the boat! She's learning how to swim so she can come see us when we get to Mexico.
Oh BTW...the fuel injector pump...not so easy to get to or replace. Removing it required removing the starter again...and then there are all kinds of keys, dowels, and things that go zing-plop-clunk-and-sploing in the dark dropping things into recesses of the engine room....I've decided it's probably easier to just make the bilge my spare parts bin. In the meantime the %$#@ pump is out and on the way to the pump doctor....I could have sworn it moved after I put it in the box...".it's alive I tell ya...it's alive!"
Ray out for now...