Yesterday I ran the engine which I do once a week when moored for prolonged periods, to ensure it runs on both cylinders. We have found in the past that if we do not run the engine for a length of time it has a tendency to run on only one cylinder for about 10 minutes before the 2nd cylinders comes to life. by running the engine once a week this stops this from happening. Unfortunately yesterday after running for about 20 minutes there was no sign of life from the 2nd cylinder.
This morning we stripped the engine down, well, took the rocker covers off! My first port of call was to discover which cylinder was not firing, which is easy to do, by running the engine and using one of our large screwdrivers, stuffing it in place of the decompressor, but only decompressing one cylinder at a time, if the engine carries on running then the selected cylinder is the faulty one. In this case it was the sternward cylinder which was not firing.
Next step was to bleed the injector pumps to ensure that fuel was feeding through to them. I started with the sternward pump, and having loosened it some air bubbled out along with some fuel, so here was the problem. I checked the other pump and that bled perfectly. I restarted the engine and hey presto, both cylinders were firing, success.
Now recently I had tried starting the engine and forgot to open the fuel stopcock, which resulted in my having the bleed the pumps, and I think when I did this I must have not tightened the bleed screw properly. Especially as clear access to this bleed screw is restricted by one of the posts which accepts the rocker cover retaining bolts. So this time I removed this post and then tightened down the bleed screw properly this time. With everything refitted I restarted the engine to ensure all was well, which it was, Phewwww, I had been expecting the worse overnight.
Ever since we moved onto Hadar I have not been able to use my CB radio, which I installed. Today I finally discovered the problem in the form of a faulty antenna mount, which was giving a resistance reading between the antenna and ground, not good, and no wonder I could never adjust the antenna to the set. I had thought it was the cable, which was installed during the boat’s construction, and is behind the timber walls and ceiling, and I was not looking forward to having to fit a new cable but having it run around the inside of the cabin, very unsightly. I have placed an order for a replacement mount from Thunderpole, who are based not far from us, they are in Northampton, and hopefully upon it’s arrival and installation I should be able to finally get my CB radio working, after 5 years!
All I have to do i decide which of my 2 CB’s to use, either the Maycom EM-27.
or the Midland Alan 78 Plus Multi.
Decisions, decisions! But I have always liked Midland sets ever since my very first AM set back in the early 1980’s.
Keith.
2 comments:
Our beautiful "Steadfast" is all pulled apart right now too, the whole salon deconstructed, lifting the floor to remove the top of both engines. 12 new injectors was the prescription. $$$$$ At least we will have confidence of well-running engines when we head over to the islands this winter. Sounds like you are doing the repairs yourself. We have asked for professional help.
Rosemary
Hello Rosemary, unfortunately there are very few engineers who can work on our engine as it so very rare, which makes for greater expense, but fortunately I used to rebuild car engines in my younger days, so can do most of the maintenance myself.
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