As I was installing a fuel/water separator on my Gheenoe today, this question came to mind. My Dad is extremely mechanically inclined and luckily passed this on to me. I know that everyone is this lucky, so I thought I would see if there any other opinions out there!
We have a network of friends here in Sebastian and help each other out in case of problems. Some abuse the privilage by running worn out equipment, but the rest feel it is good experience and worthwhile to help any and everyone that has need. Best regards, Frank_S
It's one thing to be able to diagnose the engine problem, whether on the water or in the shop. But having the right parts and the right tools on the water rarely happens. If you can't walk back to the ramp in less than an hour, carry a kicker. There are places Sea Tow can't go. Been there, survived that... :-[
Oh I have a couple stories for this! ;D One time the shift linkage bolt vibrated out of my 10hp Honda four stroke. I was stuck in forward and it was an old engine with no neutral safety so I could have made it home even if I had to restart it, but for some reason I wanted to stay on the water so I found the beefiest live bait hook I could and stuck it through the hole. It worked okay, athough a little hard to get in reverse. Another time I was driving my skiff on the ICW all the way from Cocoa Beach to Sebastian for a camping trip (no car at this time). Right when we went under the Eau Gallie causeway and into the Indian River it got really nasty, really really nasty. After another maybe 30 minutes of torture I started hearing a clanging coming from my 1982 Johnson 35. I knew it was coming from the pullstart but I was afraid of stopping and getting swamped. :-/ When we finally arrived at the inlet I popped of my cowling and started looking for the problem. I found that the top nut on the pull start vibrated off (see a trend ;D) so the pull start wasn't engaging at all. We had some tools but no hardware. I looked around under the cowling but eventually figured the bolt must have worked it's way out. After some minutes of headbutting and trying to figure out how to get to a hardware store by water, my friend had an idea. He had a 14' aluminum v-hull with a beefed up transom full of stainless steel hardware. We didn't have to look long before we found the perfect stainless steel lock nut. Since then he's sold the jonboat but I still have the same lock nut on my pull start! ;D
With todays technology it makes it harder to work on things in the feild . ex. This year running a boat new to me , i have put 4 hrs on the motor in prefect conditions ,with no problems i felt comfortable to use it duck hunting on the pamlico the first day it got choppy ...really choppy the pounding of the boat stirred up the h20 on the bottom of the tank bypassed the h20 seperator and into the compression tank and fuel rail . We had to get a tow thank god someone was close. this was on a 2003 115 hp mercury...... If this was a older motor i could have drained the bowls on the carbs ,dryed off the plugs ,pumpud the bulb to get cleaner gas and possibly got under way . Some older outboards had shear pins that would break on a hard grounding . 10 mins later provided you had extra shear pins you were on the way. Today i know may people that don't carry an extra prop , but when they do spin a hub they wish they did. So i guess it all depends on what kind of problem you have underway Although todays motors are more reliable than years past. i think that its harder to fix todays motors than older models in the water or away from the dock.
