Petter

Gezzer

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Joined
7 Mar 2003
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105
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South Wales / Gosport
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I have an elderly (1974) Petter AB1WM single cylinder engine in my hurley 24, I have got never really got on with this engine but I think it has a problem, and having the throttle cable snap today when reversing out of marina berth, leaving me beam on to wind and no power, and SWMBO hopping from bathing platform to bathing platform fending me off while I wedged into a vacant berth has not helped my dislike for engine.

Did'nt hit anthing though.

1.It is difficult to start from cold and generally needs priming with a dose of oil in the primer.

2. When it does start it picks up revs very slowly (even in nuetral) needing at least 20 -25 seconds (sometimes longer) to get up to cruising or max revs. when it gets to revs however it will happily stay there all day, even when warm the slow rev pickup does not get any better.

3. a general lack of power (and when you only have 5.5 hp to start with it really shows).

I am loathe to change engine for something like a new Yanmar although this would be best thing to do, as I will only be keeping the boat for this season and although in excellent condition I don't think it would increase the boats resale value by much if anything.

So anybody got any ideas on problem before I start pulling thigs apart, and hair out trying to find spares etc

my thoughts are low compression
Exhaust blockage although the fact that the engine will run at high revs seems to counter this

The propshaft runs freely and can be easily turned by hand, the engine does not smoke excessively, bit of blue until warm and a small amount of black when working hard

Many thanks and any thoughts appreciated

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nordic_ranger

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6 Oct 2002
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GREENOCK SCOTLAND
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Sods law, If you are going to have a control cable snap it will be in a Marina or some akward place it happened to me last year.
I had a Petter in my last boat which I fitted as a fully reconditioned engine and it too was slow to get to full revs. from a cold start (most older diesels are), however it had a heating coil to assist starting. The primer is there to help starting and I used it frequently. I think it is a querk of the engine the slow build up of revs.. After starting let it idle for 10 minutes or so to get to a working temperature before starting to manouvre out of your berth. I found most spares readily available from my Lister/Petter agent in Glasgow.

Jim

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clio

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22 Apr 2002
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Iwould check the primery fuel pump the delivery valve sometimes comes loose on the older pumps

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