Sterndrive Inspection

[AndieMac]

My hearing isn't good enough to pick up anything nasty there Gary.....

Maybe a winter project could be to cut some short lengths of 50mm poly pipe to cover the exposed metal brackets, between the inside edges of the rollers on your trailer.
Cut a length way slot, wide enough to get your fingers into (20mm?) then spread and push down over the bracket. It needs to be a tight fit. Secure the cover/poly pipe with a couple of heavy duty cable ties.
This will protect the stem/fwd. keel section from damage when loading the boat, if it goes off centre.
Total cost......2 and 6 pence.

 

[DavidJ]

I'm sure you wouldn't but don't put any Molyslip in the box. My brother has just done this to his yacht engine gearbox resulting in massive cone clutch slip. I don't even know if you have a cone clutch but just a friendly warning.

 

[tinkicker0]

I'm sure you wouldn't but don't put any Molyslip in the box. My brother has just done this to his yacht engine gearbox resulting in massive cone clutch slip. I don't even know if you have a cone clutch but just a friendly warning.

No they have engagement dogs on the Alphas.

Gary: Watched the vid, did not hear anything out of the ordinary.

 

[oGaryo]

Thanks again guys... got a 'seriously daft' question to ask now I power washed the bilge area last night expecting it to fill with water like the bayliner used to and I could then open the bung to drain most of it off and suck out the rest with the old vax I've got that is now dedicated to removing excess water from the boat... a couple of surprises that I think must be embarassingly obvious but I can't help myself and must ask about them..

1. there's no bung on this boat so I presume the bilge pump is used to drain off excess water..

2. I ran the bilge pump, it sprang in to life but no water pumped out, on inspection of the bilge area, all the oily water had drained away down a couple of slats towards the rear of the bilge presumable in to the hull of the boat.. does it just sit there festering away or do I need to do something to get it out of the boat?

Best Regards, Gary "don't know sh"t about boaty basics" Pearson

 

[AndieMac]

The bilge pump should be mounted at the lowest point, which sounds like under those slats you talk about.
Can you see the pump? How much room have you got in case you have to replace the pump?

Would you think about retro fitting a transom bung? If so, seal the area between the outer bung housing and the freshly drilled hole in the transom, to stop water ingress into any timber.

In the mean time, stick the vax into the bilge and suck out the water.

 

[tinkicker0]

Thanks again guys... got a 'seriously daft' question to ask now I power washed the bilge area last night expecting it to fill with water like the bayliner used to and I could then open the bung to drain most of it off and suck out the rest with the old vax I've got that is now dedicated to removing excess water from the boat... a couple of surprises that I think must be embarassingly obvious but I can't help myself and must ask about them..

1. there's no bung on this boat so I presume the bilge pump is used to drain off excess water..

2. I ran the bilge pump, it sprang in to life but no water pumped out, on inspection of the bilge area, all the oily water had drained away down a couple of slats towards the rear of the bilge presumable in to the hull of the boat.. does it just sit there festering away or do I need to do something to get it out of the boat?

Best Regards, Gary "don't know sh"t about boaty basics" Pearson

What attitude is the boat sat at on the trailer? The water may have flowed away from the pump to the "lowest point" that is not the lowest point when the boat is in the water.

 

[lovezoo]

On mine, the bilge pump is right at the back (aft) of the engine compartment in a completely inaccesible place. There certainly are no slats etc to drain the water, it just stays in there until the bilge pump removes most of it. I then use a sponge to get rid of what´s left.

On mine the bilge pump is connected by a plastic hose to a skin fitting on the starboard side. If no water is coming out, your pump is quite likely knackered, or something is blocked. I fitted a new pump/float switch on mine this year and had to put it at the front of the engine compartment. Not as good a place as at the back, but at least you can get to the thing to clean it out etc.

Use a digital camera to take a picture under the engine block to see how yours is set up.

 

[oGaryo]

Sterndrive noise now sorted... ended up ordering a couple of quarts of high performance lube and a proper pump.. drained the drive, cleaned out the green vicous goo in the bottom of the reservoir, filled the drive from the bottom up after flushing once with new lube... just ran her up and even with my lughole pressed against the upper gear casing, it's hard to hear anything turning.. well happy with that result

Engine's idling rough intermittently so am in the process of sorting that out... very smooth when not faltering. cylinder compression's are all good and balanced on all 4, plug 3 was under gapped at 0.025 so sorted that, flame arrester was clogged so cleaned it up with easy start and dizzy points were fouled with calcium deposits so they've been cleaned, have also run some Sea Foam through the carb throat and added a tin to the petrol.. A little better but still not quite right so I'll be getting a new set of plugs in the morning as 3 of the 4 look old (service schedule shows just one was replaced 2 years ago.. goodness knows why only one was sorted). If not the plugs then I'll take the lid of the carb to check for varnish deposits considering it's been sitting a while.

Going to give her a big hug before putting her to bed tonight.. about time she had a bit of tlc

Got some pics of the sump area that I'll put up later...

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Engine's idling rough intermittently ... very smooth when not faltering.

Spoken like a true techie.

 

[oGaryo]

here's the pics of the Bilge area (as opposed to sump.. doh!)

look where the water's collected.. there's slats and holes for the water to drain down.. the trailer is positioned bow high so all the water's flowed to the stern

this is the bilge pump that's been fitted... you can just make out a float mechanism.. the motor kicks in when manually selected from the helm position so it seems to be working.

several litres of water went in to the boat when I was power washing the bilge and all of it went down the holes/slats.. you can see from the pictures that this water routing happens by design yet the bilge pump has no chance of getting rid of the water as it's sitting above the holes where the water went

is this a standard setup and I'm just being a muppet being concerned about where this H2O has gone.. or is there something I can/should do to get the water off the boat?

cheers Gary

 

[oGaryo]

Spoken like a true techie.

 

[hammyloz]

i had the same problem which i solved by adding an extra bilge pump halfway down the boat

 

[tinkicker0]

Sterndrive noise now sorted... ended up ordering a couple of quarts of high performance lube and a proper pump.. drained the drive, cleaned out the green vicous goo in the bottom of the reservoir, filled the drive from the bottom up after flushing once with new lube... just ran her up and even with my lughole pressed against the upper gear casing, it's hard to hear anything turning.. well happy with that result

Engine's idling rough intermittently so am in the process of sorting that out... very smooth when not faltering. cylinder compression's are all good and balanced on all 4, plug 3 was under gapped at 0.025 so sorted that, flame arrester was clogged so cleaned it up with easy start and dizzy points were fouled with calcium deposits so they've been cleaned, have also run some Sea Foam through the carb throat and added a tin to the petrol.. A little better but still not quite right so I'll be getting a new set of plugs in the morning as 3 of the 4 look old (service schedule shows just one was replaced 2 years ago.. goodness knows why only one was sorted). If not the plugs then I'll take the lid of the carb to check for varnish deposits considering it's been sitting a while.

Going to give her a big hug before putting her to bed tonight.. about time she had a bit of tlc

Got some pics of the sump area that I'll put up later...

Might be time to consider replacing the distributor cap, rotor arm and plug leads. Apart from plugs, they are the most likely culprit for a missfire.

 

[oGaryo]

Might be time to consider replacing the distributor cap, rotor arm and plug leads. Apart from plugs, they are the most likely culprit for a missfire.

they look in very good nick to be honest mate but will change them out if there's still probs after doing the plugs.. it has old fuel in it which'll not help either.. The engine itself is in immaculate condition, the odd spot of rust on a few bolt heads but that's it, thing's like the timing cover and push rods cover look as if they'd been installed new yesterday.. similarly, the HT leads look new and the dizzy cap if very clean with no tracking marks inside, it was just the contacts needing a bit of a clean.....

testiment to a very good overall heavy duty winter cover with meshed vent to let the boat breath and reduce dampness within the boat...

 

[tinkicker0]

That is a nice cover. Make sure you put something inside to support it likke a tent before the heavy snow or rain comes or it willl sag. fill with snow or rainwater and tear.

You are looking for a pitched roof effect, so the snow and rain will run off.

 

[oGaryo]

That is a nice cover. Make sure you put something inside to support it likke a tent before the heavy snow or rain comes or it willl sag. fill with snow or rainwater and tear.

You are looking for a pitched roof effect, so the snow and rain will run off.

comes with an adjustable pole with rubber fitting on each end and a little hole for it to poke through in the material.. you can just see it poking through in the photo.

Fitted plugs with no difference in idle, higher revs around 1200 rpm are now fine, haven't taken it above 1500 on the muffs. giving the carb a sip of Sea Foam clears the idle issue so I'm putting it down to very old fuel that has lost its octane value... will syphon it out, check the water / fuel seperator and put some new fuel in to see what that does before going after the HT leads and dizzy.


the new SS prop and Heavy Duty winch should be here today or Monday and I should have the new dash back within a week or so... with any luck there'll be a weather window in 2 to 3 weeks time and I can go out to play in the winter sun