Maybe not a challenge in a traditonal sense but this happened to me about 15 years ago and I only found out the real cause accidentally some 2 years later.
See if you can guess (or
work out?) what really happened?
Thee
boat was a 28 ft carvel Wanderer built in NZ in the fifties. It was fitted a
single clyinder
raw water cooled
Bukh diesel.
The
motor wasn't running at the pre-purchase
inspection and trial sail but was sorted out by the PO before the
survey was completed. He stated the
battery had been flat and a new mixing
elbow was fitted.
It ran OK for me for a couple of weeks. Then the
boat was trucked across
Australia (about a week on the road) and moored in Perth without being used for 3 months over
winter.
Next time I went to start it, it appeared to be completely seized and I could not turn it over manually. Just wouldn't budge an inch.
Called the
diesel fitter at the mariner and he sorted it out during the week.
He reported that he really didn't know what was wrong
but had fixed the
engine by just rocking the flywheel back and forth until there was some slight movement. He continued in the same way until it was rotating 10 or so degrees in each direction until with a bit more force and a small bang, everything worked again. He then started the
engine without a problem and it ran OK. Charged me an for an hour and I was left a bit mystified. Still it ran OK that summer.
Next summer, it still ran OK but occasionally the
water pump would stop pumping intermittently without apparent reason but would
work again after pulling out the impellor, looking at it and then refitting it.
What had seized the
motor?