Awesome Steve. I have one engine running now and can leave it idling to help conserve your fuel. I can not steer on one engine but with it at an idle it should help considerably if we go that way. I will still try to get both engines on line and be able to run up if I can get the dink running again. The water was real clear yesterday and the bottom looked like it was building up again. I started scraping on the outer side of the port hull and intend to go over the entire bottom again before moving the boat. I could actually see the rudders and props. It would have been a good day to dive and have a look for the lost anchor but I had to keep after the engine work. The anchor isn't going anywhere. I took a couple of pictures of the rudder and prop and will try to find them later.

The hose clamp sounds right on target because the engine primer bulb was not working this morning when I went out and started poking around. I may have already found the problem without really getting into it.

First off I have to run a couple of errands in a few minuits and fire my insurance company and hire a new one. I have been with Progressive for about 15 years and in the last year they have raised my rates three times from $54 a month up to $200 a month. The last increase went from $106 up to $200. That won't fly around here. I have not had an accident that was my fault since 1961. I had a windshield damaged, a fender damaged by a hit and run on a parking lot that was paid out at $750 and the Dodge was T-Boned and totalled but it was paid for by Farmer's Insurance, the insurance company of the hit and run driver after the police caught him. There is no reason for $200 a month car insurance payments. My house insurance is only $100 a month. I can add the truck on my home owners policy for $14 a month. Yup, I am going to fire Progressive and see who will give me a good rate. Maybe check with the lizzard or the general. When we were traveling we had insurance on the boat, car and the house for under $100 a month.

Maybe I can steal an hour when I head into town and stop at the beach and pull out the detector for an hour. I need a break, even a short one. Before it is to late!!!

Whataday! I got tied up at the VA all day and have only scratched the surface of the dink work. I did find out that there is no spark. I don't feel up to digging out the electrical test gear tonight but will go at it in the morning before sanity wains and tempratures climb. When I started messing with the outboard it felt like there was a slight drag on the flywheel again. When I pulled it off there were scrape marks on the magnets and the sensors. I reset the sensors and cleaned the grease off the center hub and discovered that there is a slight play in the timing plate bearing. There is a copper ring that is supposed to let the timing plate rotate while keeping it perfectly centered but it has about .010 play and that seems to let the sensor coil touch the magnets when the engine run. I will check the resistance and see if that might be the problem. If the engine was scraping the sensor it could have done some damage to the sensor coil or shorted out the powerpack. I should have been looking for the wear on the centering bushing and double checked the clearances. I just slapped the flywheel back on and run the engine. With a slight scraping I could not hear it with my old man hearing. This engine has the CD-2 ignition system and it is usually very reliable. This could be anything from a failed stop button to a fried powerpack. I guess I'll find out tomorrow instead of going detecting at the beach. Bummer!

It looks like the problem was in the wires under the flywheel. I found a wire coming off the charge coil had broken where I put a connector in when I replaced the coil. I guess I over crimped it and the vibrations from the engine running just broke it. Anyhow, after much searching and agravation I got the engine running. This morning I am going to run the dink back down and try to get some more work done on the boat. Once the port engine is running I can run it up river. I still am watching the weather in case of developing storms.

Okay, time to get to work.

Today was a bad weather day. This morning I got to the boat ramp and was in the middle of some heavy thunderstorms with lots of lightning. I thought better of heading out on the water with things in an uproar and decided to fish off the dock a while and then head home. The better part of weathering the storm is getting in out of the rain and lightning. One fried boat is enough.

I fished off the dock a couple of hours and just fed the little fishies. When I got home the wife said that her golf car was not running so I checked it out and pulled the batteries out. I took them and had them tested and found one was shorted out and has to be replaced. Bummer!

Tomorrow is another day as long as you get through today alive.
Lightning looks like it is headed for Feather again,

Hey Russ,

I have tried to send you an email thru the forum, but not heard back. I know that you have been working on the White Feather and getting frustrated.

Can you give me a call...I am looking for a Carri-Craft to purchase.

Michelle

I woke up this morning to all the thunder and didn't think you'd be going out to White Feather. I spent all day laying tile and grouting the bathroom and it is fianlly done other than clean up! Now it's finally getting time to play... No more working on the houses! They are ready to sell... It's me time now Now where did I hide that bottle of rum!

Michelle, I already have a couple of offers but I won't do anything until I have it running and get the lightning damage repaired. Yes, I do get frustrated but it is something I have to do. I also want it upriver in case of storms and hurricanes. I'll put your number away and let you know what is going on later. You can delete it out of your post if you don't want it published on the forum. I already wrote it down.

Chuck, I am heading out this morning after I get some breakfast and coffee. If it starts flashing and wetting everything I may just wait but it looks pretty good this morning so far but it's only about 5:40. A lot can happen between now and lunch.

Maybe I'll get a little swing/swim time on the detectors this weekend.

Thanks for the word White Feather. Keep us in mind for when you are ready to sell. We have been planning a boat purchase for the last 2 or 3 years and I am ready to set sail! I have never considered my self a treasure hunter, but my husband infidelity calls himself a pirate.

Have fun to day...hope the sun stays shining for you

Yesterday I managed to get the port engine to crank but it doesn't have any spark. I think it may be in the computer or coil assembly. Lots of crazy electronics in that black box on the back of the engine that I have very little experience with and I don't have the test equipment for proper testing. I also looked at the bottom and it is in need of scraping again already. I think I'll wait for a few days and go at it again. Right now Sherene's golf car is not running and the home owners group is getting on everyone about getting our mobile homes cleaned and spruced up. I have a hurricane shutter that is in need of repair work and the gutters are clogged so bad that I have grass growing in them. Washing the mobile down is always needed about every 6 months because of living a few yards away from a secondary road that throws up a dust cloud every time someone drives down it. Eventually it settles on our homes and when it rains the sides show streaks. The boat has got to wait a few days while I get things around here back in order. Besides, I want to get a day or two for detecting and I have to do a brake job on the truck before we can go any distance. I've been procrastinating long enough. I'll get the house and truck back in order and then get back on the boat. Meantime I put the dink over at the marina and covered it until I get it ready to go scallop hunting again.

I'm going to scallop down your way! They don't have those kind of scallops off the Crystal River!
Aquanut

That's why they don't want everyone scalloping along the Treasure Coast.

Well, I got the brake job done on the front of the truck. Next month is the rear brakes and two tires for the front end and the two best remaining tires go on the back. That will get the truck ready for the run up to Panama City. Sherene needs to see one of her doctors and visit the kids. We will take a few days and do some scalloping over Port St Joe Bay while we are up there and may run by the Crystal River area on the way back. It's not illegal to scallop a shipwreck, right? For the ones like I have in the picture above you need a detector.

Sherene's golf car has a bad battery. I pulled all 6 and run them to the golf car repair shop and had them tested. One bad one and the rest seem good. I'll get another one next week. I usually just buy a good used one rather than replace one single battery with a brand new one. When I have to replace them all I'll buy all new ones. It seems that when I replace one battery with a new one the others start failing one at a time. The same with the boat batteries. Replace one engine room battery and the others start getting weak or failing completely. Now I just replace a single one with a used one and wait until I can afford to replace them in sets.

I just loaded my fishing gear and the snorkel gear in the back of the truck. The dive tanks are out on the boat. Maybe I'll get a chance to run out to the beach for a little detecting soon. I still have a couple of little things to fix around the house but I can catch that stuff up fairly easy. A few days away from the boat will do me good. Maybe I'll just wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to get back at the boat. Right now we have rain and storms. Lots of thunder and lightning and a little wind but no big deal for now.


Well, I guess it's time to throw something on the grill and kick back for a while. Man, 2:00 and I'm ready to knock off for the day. I don't remember the last time I quit working before 5 or 6. The boat damands some real long days when you have to launch the dink and spend the heat of the day working. Nope, I could get to like this lazy day work schedule. Hey, I got time to run down to the beach! That's a thought. Or maybe I'll build myself another dune buggy. You never know......

Russ, that is the way to deal with battery banks, the weak will feed off the good one making the new one bad quick. Same if you have one bad one, the good ones get drained by the bad one, ruining all of them. Always try to stay near ages of the batteries too. But I see you knew about that! That is why batteries should be checked 4 times a year at least, cleaned at all connections near the battery, water topped up just above the plates or mat with distilled water, specific gravity checked after charging, Voltage tested between cells, and total battery voltage fully charged and sat for a while, and if any question on voltage or any starting problems, disconnect all and charge all seperately and do load test on each battery. That will definetly show which is bad. I can give you a hand sometime with your boat bottom. Or electronics fixing. We can test to see where voltage is good, and where it is not, that should tell us if an ECU or ignition board or whatever is bad, The engine with the fried board, I feel that should just get a new/used points or HEI distributor and coil. That is easy to fix. I wouldnt go back with the Mercruiser electronics board thing. Not that it was a bad thing, but it so much easier to just replace simple parts, and that was very expensive. Just run the purple wire to a 12 to 9.3 volt ballast resistor and your yellow w red (maybe ? on yours)starter solenoid wire to distributor side of resistor, then to coil and pick up off dist to coils other side. HEI uses straight 12 volt, no ballast resistor. Pretty simple. guess they dont like have 500 zillion volts pumped through it!

Well Steve and Russ,
It sure seems you guys know what your talking about! I ran across the old ballast resistor thing with a coupe of 350 Chevys and had a friend fill me in a long time ago, thank goodness. I'm not a mechanic and actually know enough to call a friend before I screw everything up. It looks like between the two of you, there will be no problem getting everything worked out.
Good Luck,
Aquanut

Russ there is a Mercruiser thunderbolt ighition system for sale on Craigslist for $200. I was looking on the Sarasota area one. It is in Holiday, which I think is North of St Pete. It has the black box, dist, coil etc. Check that out. If you dont want to go that route again, I am sure Don's Marine salvage has something. Unless your blocks are tall blocks it will work. I will try to find out if yours are tall. Some truck 427s were. I will find out how to find out.

OK, I looked it up and quickest way is, the short blocks upper water pump mounting hole is 1/4" from deck, and the tall block is 11/16". The flat area where the water pump mounts on a short one is pretty much flush with deck and the tall has almost a 1/2" of block between the flat area and the deck. But you could still use all the other parts, just dist is going to be too short.

Wow Steve.. I am constantly amazed by the knowledge you have on the mechanics of a boat that you don't even own.... Russell is very lucky to have you around. Should I ever need assistance with my boat I know who to call. Glad you got yours back running again and were able to get out with it, always like hearing about your adventures!

I can do the same with marine toilets, I would often tell people over the phone how to fix their marine toilets just off the top of my head, a couple places I worked they called me the Head mechanic-head as in boat toilet. I suppose no one wants to work on a toilet anyway, so why learn about it? I used to be a marine mechanic, then a diesel marine mechanic. I have worked on and completely built cars and boats from scratch pretty much. I also was a marine electronics rigger. So I am very familiar with all the parts and systems of boats.They kind of generalized wiring colors in boats, purple is ignition, pink is fuel sender, brown is bilge pump float switch, brown with white stripe is bilge pump switched, stuff like that, so that part is pretty simple, and GM small and large blocks use the same distributors. Just the tall blocks are .4 taller than a low block big block. a little less than 1/2 an inch at the block where the cylinders are. They used them in trucks over 1 ton, like the 4500 series and bigger. Only the 366 and 427 were tall blocks stock in vehicles. For boats now they make tall blocks with the 502 and 572 or whatever size the big one is. The longer block allows a longer rod to have higher compression ratio and still use pump gas. Higher cylinder pressure, and not knock. There is a perfect rod length to stroke ratio of 1.7 to 1 and it is hard to get that, but it works with these blocks. I dont know if Russ's blocks are long or short. But the ignition system that is on craigslist would work for him, the distributor too if he has a short block.

Steve, what would you charge to come up and fix the gas leak on my Jet boat?

Mercury 120 sport jet. Thanks, Dell

Dell, I would do it for you if you could pay for my gas round trip, and any parts.. I dont think a fuel leak would be too horrible to find and fix. Like a fuel pump diaphram leak or something like that. We should be able to get it running. Is it a carberator or fuel injection? I am sure the 120 is a 2 barrel carb, but the newer ones could be fuel injecttion. Wat year is it?

Russ, they are predicting this hurricane to come our way. If I dont hear from you, I will call.