Boating Fuel Tip
Most of the things I try and write about are
things that have happened to me. This one is for your boat
and fuel system.
I was at the lake and was running my Bass Boat
with no problems when anyone that owns a boat knows if something can go wrong it
will. I started getting the motor to run and then shut down for no reason, just as I got up
on pad.
I would get
up from the driver's seat
and pump the bulb on the gas line then get back in and start the motor. It would run for a few minutes then shut back
down. I was in a pickle being about 37 miles from the ramp where I launched and I knew that the trolling
motor would not make it 37
miles.
I was getting air it seemed to me but the bulb
would not stay pumped up, at least that is what the symptoms were. I had my cell phone and called the repair shop.
They advised me to check the fuel
filter.
O.K. now all I have to do is find it, and I
started tracing the gas line down
and did not see a fuel filter in the line. My line comes off my tank and goes into the engine and splits to the
carburetors....No fuel filter that I could see.
Again I called the repair shop and told them I
did not see the fuel filter
anywhere. I was told to take the top off and look at the line going into the left carb, I would see a nut, back it off and sure enough I
found the filter. It was not
clogged.
Again I pumped up the bulb and held pressure on
it when I noticed that the
pressure slowly leaked down.
Bingo instead of a three or four hundred dollar
carburetor job, it turned out to be a bad bulb. It was not sucking the gas out of the tank and now I have
two of them so this does not
happen again.
Thought I would put this boating fuel tip in so
you will know one thing to look
for if this happens to you.
Another thing is any time you change out your
batteries make sure that you label all the wires and do not do like I did and forget to connect the pump
that supplies fresh air bubbles
to my livewell. I thought it was burned out and bought a replacement. When I was about to install the new one, I
traced the wires down and low and
behold I found a loose wire and now my pump works just like new.
All of these are good lessons that you need to
file so the little mistakes do
not catch you by surprise.
Keep
the Hooks Wet!
Steve
McGoldrick
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