Well it's that time of year to start thinking about using Bombardier again. I had visited the boat fairly regularly but if I'm honest the mild weather made me worry less about leaving it so much. Each time I have visited I've swapped one of the batteries for a freshly charged one and left the bilge pump switched to that fresh battery. With being away at Christmas it was around a month since last visiting and I found the selected battery was completely flat and the bilge was a little fuller than usual but not alarmingly so.
I connected a fresh battery and emptied the bilge then switched to the starter battery and attempted my first engine start of the year. No joy. It would appear the starter was sticking. After giving it a clonk with a hammer I did get some action from it. Typical solenoid symptom so removed the tatty looking starter to examine at home.
Although it looked tatty I bench tested and found the motor itself fine but the solenoid was defective. A new starter was available at £240 but I opted to just replace the solenoid at a cost of £25 and it arrived 2 days later. Whilst off the boat I have also given the start a general clean up and a fresh coat of paint and its looking much healthier now!
On refitting, the boat started first time but it is running lumpy as it was on the last outing. I am suspecting the distributor mechanical advance is sticking and hopefully will take a look later today when I've got home from work and had some sleep. Hopefully it will be serviceable as a new one is costly and may have to come from California.
I take it you don't have electric hook up on your home mooring then?
ReplyDeleteHow do you protect the raw water components from frost?
We keep Naughty-Cal's engine bay heated to protect from frost but we have an electric hook up.
Quite right no mains electric.
DeleteAlthough not set up permanently I've got a gas / 12v blown air heater with a thermostat rigged up to blow warm air into the engine bay but I think its probably not been cold enough to even cut in this winter. Certainly the gas cylinder feel as full as it was! The plan is to fit this in the cabin for heating when I get around to it. Been busy just trying to get the boat running a bit smoother when the weather has been not too bad.
We had a month with no battery charger last summer due to various reasons and found that hard enough ensuring that the batteries were reasonably charged before we left the boat and trying to remember to turn everything off. It's easy to take this for granted at times.
ReplyDelete