Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Ha! I was right....

And that is, let's face it, a very rare thing.

The transom bracket for the outboard has sunk slightly although exactly how I have no idea. Bolts are tight. Transom is uncracked, not sagging. So I have no idea what has happened. It's not loose in any way. A complete mystery.

Anyway, I have added a block to it which raises it height several centimetres thus making the outboard now at the correct height as per the manual.

As for the engine cutting out, well a quick test in the water bin revealed a stream of water coming out of the coolant outflow as normal and then it stopped. Our conclusion, some dirt up the intake pipe and possibly I was using old fuel.....which is somewhat stupid. So tomorrow all containers of fuel onboard get put in the car and fresh fuel is put in the boat containers. The outboard is being serviced. I did spend ages trying to Internet search DIY servicing your outboard to no avail. If anyone knows a good website which I can use in future so I can teach myself how to service my own outboard do please let me know. Or a book.....I'm a bigger fan of good guide books!

And serves me right for being so dumb!

3 comments:

Mark The Skint Sailor said...

Usually its down to a blocked or restricted jet in the carb causing the problem. The jets are only tiny holes and easily get gummed up with old fuel.

There's a jet that meters fuel when the engine is idling and one or more jet(s) for fuelling when the throttle is opened. If one of those jets is blocked the engine will idle all day, but as soon as you touch the throttle the engine dies, starved of fuel due to the blocked jet.

It depends on how severe the blockage is. If the jet is partially blocked, some Redex in the petrol will eventually clean it out. If it's totally blocked then the carb needs to come off, the float bowl needs to come off the carb and some carb cleaner needs squirting into the jets, which will dissolve the blockage.


Anonymous said...

This any help?

http://www.drascombe-association.org.uk/articles/hopwoodd07_1.html

steve said...

Thanks for the tips guys.....appreciated
Steve