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

Monday 6 April 2020

Servicing a four stroke 3.5 hp Tohatsu outboard engine

Well I have successfully changed a spark plug and the engine oil for the first time ever. Put that alongside sorting out a water circulation blockage, learning how to attach a flushing unit and flushing the engine using a hose pipe, taking off the prop to change the shear pin and grease the propeller shaft and, of course, building a new outboard engine maintenance stand.

I'm in the process of editing a video about doing the spark plug and engine oil change - that should be ready by the end of the week - a part one. Part two will cover replacing the impeller, cleaning the carb and general cleaning of the engine area under the cowling. Previous posts to this one detail the prop work, flushing the engine and building the stand.


Old plug out - slightly wet and oily with some carbon deposits and some faint burning at the base of the white ceramic part



Found the oil filler cap and the oil in the sight glass below looks thick and deep dark brown - which I think it shouldn't!

Assembling the various bits and pieces needed to do a servicing on the outboard.

I will embed the video in the next post.

2 comments:

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Bravo! Well done... seriously... I am a mechanical numpty so following this with interest...

steve said...

Now don't go holding your breath on this one sunshine - there is plenty of scope for serious disaster stuff :)

Hope you are well and staying safe Steve :)