A bit of engine trouble and trip on the river

[Ian45]

We managed to make the most of the sunny day we had on Saturday. We headed to the marina with excitement of getting out on the river.

All was going well until I turned the key to fire up the boat and all I got was the starter motor going full pelt! Not to worry as the engineer I used earlier in the year, when we had carb trouble, explained how the system sucked the petrol down the pipe while the starter motor turned the engine over. I went through the process as I had done on previous occasions - Turn the key and let the starter motor run then stop so as to not burn it out and repeat and normally after two or three times of this it would fire into life...not this time though.

After about the eighth time I decided to try the next thing the guy in the Marina office suggested, tip some petrol straight into the carbs. Did this and hey presto in the old gal fired into life and a good day was had cruising upriver for a few hours.

Don't think I will ever understand the way boats are so temperamental from one week to the next but but at least I am gaining a little knowledge along the way...it could be dangerous ;-)

And here is a small clip of us on the river in the late afternoon sun.

 

[oldgit]

Yup that sounds just a like a petrol boat to me .

Glad you had a nice run out,rumour is,this weekend will not be too bad for October
Think thats what the weather girl said.!

 

[Deefor]

Heh Ian, if you ever need a tow . Fancy bumping into you at Hambleden lock a few weeks back.

Hopefully we won't need another one as we bought a 4hp auxillary as a back up for the old unreliable Evinrude. Just to top it off, we then decided to dump the Evinrude and invest in a brand new Tohatsu 20hp. Several thousand £'s later and hopefully we've got reliability.

Hope you work out what's wrong and keep getting out. See you around sometime

 

[vandy]

Don't think I will ever understand the way boats are so temperamental

Well, marine engines are generally designed quite compact. The vibrations caused by the high rev generally causes faster aging/ loose of the engine components.

The problem you mentioned is probably to do with your carbs either need a proper rebuild/your choke does not work.

I am not lucky enough like you guys to be able to continue boating on the Thames, but now if my engine fails at any moment, I have no choice but to quicky have the liferaft ready in case we have to use it as we can only take the boat out in the East Anglia area! So if I feel the engine is just a tiny bit unwell I have to get it checked and sadly with new engines it always needs a laptop to read the errors...

In Thames, whatever happens, you may have just some embarrassment and nothing serious! That's why you may find it abit difficult to justify spending ££££ on your engines!

 

[rafiki_]

We managed to make the most of the sunny day we had on Saturday. We headed to the marina with excitement of getting out on the river.

All was going well until I turned the key to fire up the boat and all I got was the starter motor going full pelt! Not to worry as the engineer I used earlier in the year, when we had carb trouble, explained how the system sucked the petrol down the pipe while the starter motor turned the engine over. I went through the process as I had done on previous occasions - Turn the key and let the starter motor run then stop so as to not burn it out and repeat and normally after two or three times of this it would fire into life...not this time though.

After about the eighth time I decided to try the next thing the guy in the Marina office suggested, tip some petrol straight into the carbs. Did this and hey presto in the old gal fired into life and a good day was had cruising upriver for a few hours.

Don't think I will ever understand the way boats are so temperamental from one week to the next but but at least I am gaining a little knowledge along the way...it could be dangerous ;-)

And here is a small clip of us on the river in the late afternoon sun.

Sounds like choke not working properly.

 

[Ian45]

Heh Ian, if you ever need a tow . Fancy bumping into you at Hambleden lock a few weeks back.

Hopefully we won't need another one as we bought a 4hp auxillary as a back up for the old unreliable Evinrude. Just to top it off, we then decided to dump the Evinrude and invest in a brand new Tohatsu 20hp. Several thousand £'s later and hopefully we've got reliability.

Hope you work out what's wrong and keep getting out. See you around sometime

A pleasant surprise it was too. Hopefully next season we will get up to your stretch of the river again and meet up for a beer.

My carbs were decommissioned by the engineer, our engine is a fairly basic one and as they don't make the original carb anymore I was told I could do without it, it would just mean giving the throttle a bit more attention during start up until it was warm.

Been absolutely fine during the summer but now the colder weather is here it may be a bit more of a problem. I always turn my petrol off when leaving the boat but when we left last time I left it on to see if it makes a difference when we go back down. We shall see...

 

[rotrax]

A pleasant surprise it was too. Hopefully next season we will get up to your stretch of the river again and meet up for a beer.

My carbs were decommissioned by the engineer, our engine is a fairly basic one and as they don't make the original carb anymore I was told I could do without it, it would just mean giving the throttle a bit more attention during start up until it was warm.

Been absolutely fine during the summer but now the colder weather is here it may be a bit more of a problem. I always turn my petrol off when leaving the boat but when we left last time I left it on to see if it makes a difference when we go back down. We shall see...

Hi, If you can easily reach the carb on your boat try restricting the air intake with your hand for a few seconds while you get someone to crank it over. After all, thats what simple chokes do.......

 

[Ian45]

Hi, If you can easily reach the carb on your boat try restricting the air intake with your hand for a few seconds while you get someone to crank it over. After all, thats what simple chokes do.......

After last time I left the petrol tap in the 'on' position and when I went there on Saturday it fired up after the usual three turns of the key. Will see if it does it next time.