Yar.
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2008
- Messages
- 93
I bought a 17' Vangaurd bowrider with a 115HP merc for a great deal. I knew going into it that the floor was rotten and that I would have to do a lot of work. Thank the powers that be, that there are so many helpful people on this site! I would not have been able to complete my project without them. I will make a thread with pics of the project when I can.
Anyway, I digress. Back to the self humility. I worked on my boat for a full month doing the stringer/sole job. I had not had the motor running so I put the battery in, put the muffs on and turned on the water. I saw water coming out around the muffs and figured I was good. Hit the key and she fired right up! Yay! Watching the pee hole from the side of the boat and nothing coming out for about 15 seconds...Shut off engine and begin to grumble to myself that I may have more work to do before the first trip. I went around the back of the boat and looked at where I put the muffs over the exhaust?!! What the (expletive) was I doing? I used to run a little rude 7.5 and I had an old Johnny 20 and never did that one before! This is my first big outboard and maybe all that leg real estate messed me up or something! Anyway, I moved the muffs, started her up again and had water coming out the pee hole in about 5 seconds.....duh.
One more semi brainwave while I am confessing.....I finally had the new stringers, sole, carpet and re-upholstered interior in, and I had test run the motor. It was time to go to the lake to try the baby out!
I only had the one day to do this as I had to go back out of town to work for a month
. I got out to the lake, launched and fired up the motor. Out we went and everything was awesome! We cruised a bit while I got the feel of the new boat and then made mental notes as to what else I would need to do to my new toy. We stopped for a while and had some lunch. When I started the motor again and we were about half way back, the motor started to misfire . It ocurred to me that after all the work that I had done, and in my haste to get out on the lake before I had to go back to work, I had neglected to change the spark plugs on the motor! Again, what the (expletive) was I thinking! I limped us back to the courtesy dock and made a mad dash to the store for plugs. Nice surprise when I found out they had the plugs in stock, not so nice surprise when I found out they were $13.50 each! (Damn BUZHW plugs.....) Went back to the boat and installed the plugs and no difference.
As I had to leave town, I brought the boat into a shop to have the motor fixed. (I am told it is the switchbox.) I know now that not changing the plugs was not the source of the problem, but it very well could have been and not doing such basic maintenance items, especially on a new to me boat was just plain dumb and I was lucky that I still had a couple of cylinders firing to get me back in.
One of the people on here has a saying that goes something like: "Why is there never time to do it right the first time, but always time fix it again?" Ringing a little bit true in my ears! I got too hasty in my excitement of trying out the boat and it could have really bit me.
BTW, Thanks again to all the people on here for helping and keeping this forum great!!!!!!!
Anyway, I digress. Back to the self humility. I worked on my boat for a full month doing the stringer/sole job. I had not had the motor running so I put the battery in, put the muffs on and turned on the water. I saw water coming out around the muffs and figured I was good. Hit the key and she fired right up! Yay! Watching the pee hole from the side of the boat and nothing coming out for about 15 seconds...Shut off engine and begin to grumble to myself that I may have more work to do before the first trip. I went around the back of the boat and looked at where I put the muffs over the exhaust?!! What the (expletive) was I doing? I used to run a little rude 7.5 and I had an old Johnny 20 and never did that one before! This is my first big outboard and maybe all that leg real estate messed me up or something! Anyway, I moved the muffs, started her up again and had water coming out the pee hole in about 5 seconds.....duh.
One more semi brainwave while I am confessing.....I finally had the new stringers, sole, carpet and re-upholstered interior in, and I had test run the motor. It was time to go to the lake to try the baby out!
I only had the one day to do this as I had to go back out of town to work for a month
. I got out to the lake, launched and fired up the motor. Out we went and everything was awesome! We cruised a bit while I got the feel of the new boat and then made mental notes as to what else I would need to do to my new toy. We stopped for a while and had some lunch. When I started the motor again and we were about half way back, the motor started to misfire . It ocurred to me that after all the work that I had done, and in my haste to get out on the lake before I had to go back to work, I had neglected to change the spark plugs on the motor! Again, what the (expletive) was I thinking! I limped us back to the courtesy dock and made a mad dash to the store for plugs. Nice surprise when I found out they had the plugs in stock, not so nice surprise when I found out they were $13.50 each! (Damn BUZHW plugs.....) Went back to the boat and installed the plugs and no difference.As I had to leave town, I brought the boat into a shop to have the motor fixed. (I am told it is the switchbox.) I know now that not changing the plugs was not the source of the problem, but it very well could have been and not doing such basic maintenance items, especially on a new to me boat was just plain dumb and I was lucky that I still had a couple of cylinders firing to get me back in.
One of the people on here has a saying that goes something like: "Why is there never time to do it right the first time, but always time fix it again?" Ringing a little bit true in my ears! I got too hasty in my excitement of trying out the boat and it could have really bit me.
BTW, Thanks again to all the people on here for helping and keeping this forum great!!!!!!!
