I mentioned the issue of our starboard diesel being inoperative on Sunday, so I called our maintenance man on Monday. Good ol' Nick promised to stop by the boat to see if he could remedy the situation, especially since I need the boat ready to go for Friday.
About 8:30 PM, I get a call in which Nick asks if I have a lot of money, this is gonna be painful...
I replied to the sorta negative, I have a little bit of cash, but need the boat fixed. What's the malfunction?
Nick ignored me and went on about how he checked the batteries, connections and the connections on the ignition switch.
(Good thing I did not jump to conclusions and prematurely removed and replaced ignition!)
Nick switched ignition to "On" where an alarm will normally sound. Then he wiggled every wire connection in the circuit on the way to starting solenoid. It was at the transmission neutral lever that he found the loose connection. Nick reconnected wire and started motor. Job complete!
Now I know what to do next time. I did wiggle the transmission control levers, but did not go look for the wire. The transmissions on modern diesels have a safety disable switch that does not allow the engine to be started in gear. This is to keep from slamming into an obstacle when starting motor. On 200 horse diesels, it can be very bad if boat launches forward or back when operator is unaware.
Back in the old sailing days, there were no safety disabling devices and I started the motor in gear a couple times. But a fifty horse motor does not have the same thrust, so I caught it quickly.
So this will only cost about 20 bucks and a good boat handling drill using single engine operation.
What's on the schedule for the nest trip? Well, there happens to be some Spousal Unit relatives approaching on Friday, a Mom, Sister and two newly adopted youngsters from Siberia. I will have much on the plate in preparation of the homestead and Barco for esteemed visitors. (Lock up sharp objects, secure toys in safe that were manufactured by Smith, Wesson, Mossberg and Ruger.) Then I must design cat escape lockers where all Siamese Cats can ditch wandering Human/Larvae.
This sounds like a time to get back to the dragging saga of the Wildebeest III's journey from Fajardo to the Bahama's. I will get photographs scanned in support of the terrifying tale of seagoing derring-do.
4 comments:
I'm glad your trouble was just a loose connection. Apropos of nuthin'... all mo'sickles now have interlocks that make starting the bike in gear impossible. T'wasn't always so and the results of doing that Stupid Human Trick could be funny at times; painful, too! (Not that I would have first-hand knowledge, or anything. Just friends, yanno?)
Buck be sayin';
"all mo'sickles now have interlocks that make starting the bike in gear impossible."
Now, how the heck am I going to get my bike started? I remember 30 years ago, I would usually have to push start my bike...! That was always exciting, too.
Good point, Darryl. I haven't bump-started a bike in years, but I know it can be done on bikes with starter interlocks. I had to do that trick on my old XT225 a couple o' times when the battery went dead.
I had the same thing happen on my not-nearly-so-cool boat. PANIC gives way to logic as you try to track down the problem. But I never found the problem. I had to have "my guy" find it too.
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