Operator Error, Diagnostic Procedure, Cascade of Failures.

[a64pilot]

Who remembers how to adjust belt tension? Wan't that pure genius?

[Tayana42]

The old air cooled VWs were simple. Now I have a Toyota Yaris, one of the simplest cars today. It has crank up windows and manual door locks but still it comes with a/c and much is computer controlled. Not easy for a backyard diy today.


S/V B'Shert

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Cascading failures in complex systems is a well known phenomena. They go *runaway* and can turn and often do into a total system collapse.

In boats with so little redundancy in sub systems it's mission critical to arrest a failure before it reverberates through the other systems.

This is a quote from Star trek right? I just can't remember which episode?

[DeepFrz]

Argh, 3 guys and the car already jacked up and the lower guy on a dolly. That's no contest.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Who remembers how to adjust belt tension? Wan't that pure genius?

Split pulley with shims

Air-cooled Porsches, including I believe even the monster Flat 12 917, worked exactly the same way. Yes, genius

[andyft]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Looking at the bright side, the second time, and especially third time, you do the same procedure all over again, is already much faster and easier because of the learning you've done screwing it up the first time

I consider it looking on the bright side, if I get it done by the third time I feel pretty good about myself.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Two ducts. No need to remove the axles if just the engine was coming out for overhaul or clutch job. Man, that was a long time ago.

I removed the transaxles and all. I did forget about the shifting linkage. You're right a long time ago. Now I recall, One duct port and one starboard, I think?

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

This is a tale of my incompetence as an operator and mechanic, which I am posting in the hopes that it might help some other poor cruiser.
It all started when I cleaned the seawater strainers for main engine and genset.

There was no seaweed. But I forgot to open the generator one. This happens to me, for one reason or another, once a year like clockwork. I don’t think I’ve ever done a routine replacement of the seawater pump impeller .

The results were drearily predictable, and changing the impeller wasted most of a lovely sunny Sunday morning.

A few weeks later, my generator just stopped. Maybe the second time in 2000 hours I’ve had an auto-shutdown (or what seemed like one). A feeling of dread filled me. I opened the sound enclosure to find a lot of seawater in the bottom. I spent a lot of time looking for the source, including taking off hoses, trimming them, replacing hose clamps, etc., etc. – another lovely day spent in the engine room rather than sipping cocktails in the cockpit. Boat repair in exotic .

Finally found the problem – O-ring in the seawater pump cover. So this is the result of my impeller change which was the result of leaving the seacock off

Washed it all out with fresh water. Then discovered a loose fuel hose. Repaired that, and the generator ran for a few more hours, then quit again.

Bleh! No fuel in the fuel filter. Obviously fuel is not getting pumped. Must be a bad fuel pump (someone with the same generator had just posted that his had gone out).

But what if it’s a bad connection, blown fuse, etc.? I was about to fly out on business, and didn’t really fancy spending a couple more hours screwing with that. Figured that having a new fuel pump would mean having a spare, if that was not actually the problem.

Two weeks later, back from my business trip – I replace the fuel pump. As usual it takes 3 hours instead of 30 minutes because of the usual sticky hoses, inaccessible connectors, etc.

And afterwards – nothing. I have to drain the waterlift muffler to be sure I don’t backflood the engine. So I decide to do what I should have done in the first place -- check that there is power to the pump. I start pulling the connectors off and immediately see the problem – corroded and broken wires The most common cause of electrical problems on board . Why didn’t I check that? So naturally, the pump has to come back off to properly get to the connectors. I get rid of the crappy push-on connectors and do a proper heat seal splice, and use the new connectors.

And now the generator is humming away. All this taking place during a glorious warm summer dead calm afternoon at anchor

Moral of the story? Be a better, more conscientious operator. If I hadn’t left that seacock closed, I would not have done any of this work. Be a better mechanic – double, triple check your o-rings; use proper diagnostic procedure. Check the easy and obvious things first, and work systematically through the list. Re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I’d also like to make a public apology to my generator. This beautiful beast has never broken down except as the direct result of operator error. 2000 hours of flawless performance. Kohler 6.5EFOZ. It deserves a better operator than me

It is nice to see someone admit fouling up. Of course I have never done that.

[sailorchic34]

I still miss my 71 VW BUS. They are pretty spendy and in high demand in California now.

On DH's issue. A possible future solution would be to add a limit switch to the raw water seacock that would interrupt the starter circuit if the valve was not fully open. A fairly easy mod to do and perhaps a valve manufacturer (Groco you out there) will add it as an option.

Honeywell Micro Switch GLLA01A2B Global Limit Switch Side Actuator SPDT | eBay

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

I still miss my 71 VW BUS. They are pretty spendy and in high demand in California now.

On DH's issue. A possible future solution would be to add a limit switch to the raw water seacock that would interrupt the starter circuit if the valve was not fully open. A fairly easy mod to do and perhaps a valve manufacturer (Groco you out there) will add it as an option.

Honeywell Micro Switch GLLA01A2B Global Limit Switch Side Actuator SPDT | eBay

Surfer girl? Racks on top for boards? The bus was a bitch the flat fan.

[Tayana42]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Surfer girl? Racks on top for boards? The bus was a bitch the flat fan.

I used to carry my sailboat on top of mine. A Dolphin Sr similar to a Sunfish.


S/V B'Shert

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Tayana42

I used to carry my sailboat on top of mine. A Dolphin Sr similar to a Sunfish.


S/V B'Shert

I installed a trailer hitch on mine, and pulled my 15' Chrysler Man 'O War behind it! Plenty of space for sails, lifejackets, cases of beer, and no count friends!

And enough room to spread a blanket out (the second row seats were always out) in case there was someone you wanted to have a quick afternoon nap with.

God, those were the days. I had more fun on that crappy little boat than probably all the different boats which came later put together.




(sister ship)

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Surfer girl? Racks on top for boards? The bus was a bitch the flat fan.

Hippy Sailor girl with a Force 5 back then. The 71 bus had the 1600cc bug engine, 72 on got complicated.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Hippy Sailor girl with a Force 5 back then. The 71 bus had the 1600cc bug engine, 72 on got complicated.

Exactly! From '72, the "pancake" engine derived from the VW 412. Share with the VW-Porsche 914 if I'm not mistaken. We actually had a '72 bus, and even a 412, in my family, but when I was still a non-driving child. My brother wrecked the 412, totaled it, thank God without injury to himself. The '72 bus was bought new and I never worked on it -- it was sold on within a couple of years for some reason. I remember very well that it had a strange whistling sound. Did it have fuel injection? I don't remember. I do remember that all of its parts were covered in some odd wax preservative. The look and feel of newness.

[Scaramanga F25]

You guys forgot about the heater box cables that were, in Canada, so corroded that they were near impossible to undo. If you cut the wires you needed to fish ( arg ) the new ones through the tunnel.
Re. and re. engine 30 minutes heater box cables...forever!