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Comments
if you're in tune with your boat it'll tell you everything- scream it at times, other times it's subtle- a little jerk in the wheel at a certain attack that passes, and you either react to it or you don't... being very curious about such things, when something like that happens i start thinking 'what would cause that', sticking with the same example. i likely wouldn't stop doing what i was doing, but you can bet i'd be looking to see if there was a tangle on the foot, or the level of steering fluid, or the condition of the seals on the ram/stancion... ect...
in the case of the gimbal failing on my rig and stopping it cold- that roar accompanied the boat when i purchased it. having nothing to compare it to i didn't think much about it. it progressively got worse, but- so gradually i didn't peg it still... when it failed, and stopped the engine cold, it would do so at a certain range of trim- all the way on top and just shy of porpoising. that made the diagnosis easy, and made me question "why didn't i see it coming- what would it have done to indicate?"... and that indication was there all along, i just didn't recognize it for what it was... it was confirmed after swapping them when it was whisper quiet.
note to anyone who cares to read this far: the very beginning of it is a 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' in neutral and idling, when the engine isn't producing enough noise to cover it. i attribute that to a little bit of play developing making the intermediate shaft travel in an elongated/oval pattern more than a perfect circle or within its own radius.
except for electrical issues, there is little that can happen on your boat you can't anticipate if you just pay attention, and, walk through the process. electrical has a nasty habit of not peaking out from behind it's tree in warning before it fails, or, it happens once, and then not again until it goes- sometimes peeking out from behind that tree with increasing frequency, but sometimes not. even with fuel delivery issues you can sense them coming when its exhaust smells a little rich, the throttle response changes, it runs a few degrees hotter, there was something that happened just shy of a backfire when you killed the engine, ect... spark issues: a miss in the rhythm that sounds akin to a song heard live rather than recorded in a studio where the drummer or guitarist missed or added a single note, or bent one strange/different- subtle, but there. try to recreate it by repeating what you just did- if it can be isolated to a certain timing or range, you can actually decide before you even leave the helm whether to look at the dizzy, the coil, or the plug wires or plugs.
YOU can troubleshoot your issues better than anyone, and i'm not even talking about the crutch of computers and scanning- i'm talking about (but not approximating) the skill old rodders way back when had when they could time an engine by ear- even hedging their bets with things like playing cards over the tailpipe as a matter of confirmation... you don't even have to be that good with mechanics- just simply know the chain of events that has to take place for your boat to operate as expected- and know it's rhythm... and, perhaps the biggest thing quite frankly, is to stay away from the O.S. button when something bad actually does happen- stop the freak out and just think it through, and you'll know exactly where to look and what to look for starting with most likely and moving to the next most likely...
i hear a lot of dudes say "i don't want to- i just want to start and go"... yeah, well, you're kinda cheating yourself by my reckoning by not knowing the whole story- which is a shame because it's a good story.
ISSUE RESOLVED!!!
The piece of plastic stuck in the anti-siphon valve was the culprit. Not sure where this came from or how long it's been there, but it caused enough of a restriction to cause a low pressure in the flex hose after the valve. This flex hose had deteriorated over the past 18 years (by ethanol maybe?) and collapsed very easily under the low pressure. This caused a low pressure signal and the computer shut things down. Not sure if the deteriorating rubber caused the fuel pump failure too or if it was simply time.I'm so excited to say that after 5 years of chasing this issue, we had a fantastic day on the water Saturday! We tried for hours to get it to fail - low speed, high speed (the old girl can still scoot hitting 50mph according to my GPS), bumps, and letting the hot engine sit while we had some lunch. Confident to say it is fixed.
We noticed the power steering pump had run nearly dry, and the low side hose clamp was leaking. So, after decades of restoring cars, it dawned on me - the rubber is nearing its end of life! Next project is to go through the engine bay and replace all of the rubber. Cheap preventative maintenance!
I ended up spending about $3k on this issue. I hope this thread helps others and hopefully save you hand fulls of $$$.
PC BYC, Holland, MI