Fortuitous Mis Fortune

[Bob La Londe]

Robert and I were planning to make an early morning outing today. When I
woke up it was very windy, and the rain was coming down. Making a fatherly
decision I decided to hold off until daylight and see if the weather broke.
Well, its still cloudy, but the rain has stopped, and the wind has let off.

We were headed out for a later start to try and find some fish, when I
noticed a lot of oil around the water inlet on my outboard. Yes the same
outboard I had this with before. Uh, Oh. Better check the lower unit.
Water and sludge was all that came out. Darn! Drat! Phooey! (The content
at this point has been edited to protect those with tender ears.)

I had a local marine mechanic pull the lower unit last time and replace the
drive shaft seal as he was convinced that was the only place my previous
leak could have come from. I ran the motor a couple times, and checked the
lower unit for water. It seemed to be ok.

A week ago I put in a new waterpump, and I noticed that new seal seamed to
look a little rough. Hmmmm.... Well it hadn't been leaking so I left it
alone.

It took me about five minutes to drop the lower unit and pull the water pump
to take a look at that seal this morning. There was a puddle of oil around
the seal. (You have heard the term, "used words that would make a sailor
blush.") Well, I just happen to have a complete lower unit seal kit so my
friendly neighborhood marine mechanic and I will be replacing that seal
together this morning.

While I am ****ed that I have to fix the same problem again, I am thankful I
didn't lose a lower unit tweny miles up river.

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[John Kerr]

Bob, even with the "curse" words, you found a bright spot in an
otherwise bad time.....like your outlook! <g>
JK
=3D=3D=3D=3D
Fortuitous Mis Fortune

Group: rec.outdoors.fishing.bass Date: Fri, Apr 2, 2004, 10:12am (CST-1)
From: (Bob=A0La=A0Londe)
Robert and I were planning to make an early morning outing today. When I
woke up it was very windy, and the rain was coming down. Making a
fatherly decision I decided to hold off until daylight and see if the
weather broke. Well, its still cloudy, but the rain has stopped, and the
wind has let off.
We were headed out for a later start to try and find some fish, when I
noticed a lot of oil around the water inlet on my outboard. Yes the same
outboard I had this with before. Uh, Oh. Better check the lower unit.
Water and sludge was all that came out. Darn! Drat! Phooey! (The content
at this point has been edited to protect those with tender ears.)
I had a local marine mechanic pull the lower unit last time and replace
the drive shaft seal as he was convinced that was the only place my
previous leak could have come from. I ran the motor a couple times, and
checked the lower unit for water. It seemed to be ok.
A week ago I put in a new waterpump, and I noticed that new seal seamed
to look a little rough. Hmmmm.... Well it hadn't been leaking so I left
it alone.
It took me about five minutes to drop the lower unit and pull the water
pump to take a look at that seal this morning. There was a puddle of oil
around the seal. (You have heard the term, "used words that would make a
sailor blush.") Well, I just happen to have a complete lower unit seal
kit so my friendly neighborhood marine mechanic and I will be replacing
that seal together this morning.
While I am ****ed that I have to fix the same problem again, I am
thankful I didn't lose a lower unit tweny miles up river.
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[Bob La Londe]

Yeah but sometimes its hard to stay positive.

We made it out today, and the little motor ran great. (I Can't wait to get
my big boat back) While that little Force 50 managed to run me up and down
the river quite adequately it wouldn't start. I hit the key after my second
stop several miles up river, and nothing happened. Uh, Oh. Being the
consumate "ain't nobody coming to help you" country boy that I am of course
I had a set of jumper cables stashed in with my batteries. No help jumping
it off my trolling motor batteries. I checked the voltage display on my
depthsounder. 12.9 volts and no drop whne I hit the key. At that point I
figured I had a bad starter switch or a bad starter solenoid. When I had
the cowling off the motor I did notice a module that seemed to by odly loose
on one side of the motor, but since all the wires connected to it looked
good and it wasn't really in danger of getting hung up in anyhting I figured
I'ld look at it again back on dryland/

I wasn't looking forward to trying to rope start that motor, expecially as I
didn't have any cord the right size. Thats when I thought of trying
something else. I used one of the jumper cables to go directly from the
battery to the positive post on the starter motor. I had to whack one hippo
clip off the cable and stript he end to reach down between the carb and rest
of the junk to hit the post. AS I was messing with all this stuff a fellow
angler came motoring over from across the little backwater I was fishing and
offered to help. With more confidence in my voice than I felt I whacked the
last couple dabe of insulation off the end of the cable and said, "Nah I'll
have it running in a second." I reach over and turned ont he key as then I
stapped my bare cable down into the darknes to hit the post on the starter.
It whirred immediately and the motor started almost instantly.

I quickly fited the motor cowling back in place and yelled over my shoulder
to fellow who had offered to help, "You've just seen one of the benefits of
a mispent youth," as I chuckled to myself about the image I must have
presented stabbing a big black cable down into the depth of my motor.

I spent the rest of the day starting the big motor the same way.

When I finally got the boat back ont he trailer I decided to take a look at
the starter situation just to determine if it was the solenoid, the switch,
or some bad wire in between. I hit the terminal on the solenod with some
juice, and it clicked in spinning the starter just fine. Hmmmm... Ok. No
big deal. I just have to trace the wire back and see where I stop getting
juice.

Remember that module hanging off the side of the motor I mentioned? It was
the neutral safety switch. Both screws that hold it to the block ahd
vibrated out, and it was no longer depressed byt he shift linkage when it
neutral. I was just wondering about the screws when I noticed both of them
laying in the bottom half of the motor cowling. I grabebd a screwdriver out
of my emergency repai box and had it back in place post haste. Problem
solved, although I ams ure my fishing qould have been better if I had found
and fixed the problem when I first noticed the loose "module." DOH!
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"John Kerr" > wrote in message
...
Bob, even with the "curse" words, you found a bright spot in an
otherwise bad time.....like your outlook! <g>
JK
====
Fortuitous Mis Fortune

Group: rec.outdoors.fishing.bass Date: Fri, Apr 2, 2004, 10:12am (CST-1)
From: (Bob La Londe)
Robert and I were planning to make an early morning outing today. When I
woke up it was very windy, and the rain was coming down. Making a
fatherly decision I decided to hold off until daylight and see if the
weather broke. Well, its still cloudy, but the rain has stopped, and the
wind has let off.
We were headed out for a later start to try and find some fish, when I
noticed a lot of oil around the water inlet on my outboard. Yes the same
outboard I had this with before. Uh, Oh. Better check the lower unit.
Water and sludge was all that came out. Darn! Drat! Phooey! (The content
at this point has been edited to protect those with tender ears.)
I had a local marine mechanic pull the lower unit last time and replace
the drive shaft seal as he was convinced that was the only place my
previous leak could have come from. I ran the motor a couple times, and
checked the lower unit for water. It seemed to be ok.
A week ago I put in a new waterpump, and I noticed that new seal seamed
to look a little rough. Hmmmm.... Well it hadn't been leaking so I left
it alone.
It took me about five minutes to drop the lower unit and pull the water
pump to take a look at that seal this morning. There was a puddle of oil
around the seal. (You have heard the term, "used words that would make a
sailor blush.") Well, I just happen to have a complete lower unit seal
kit so my friendly neighborhood marine mechanic and I will be replacing
that seal together this morning.
While I am ****ed that I have to fix the same problem again, I am
thankful I didn't lose a lower unit tweny miles up river.
--
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Fishing Link Index
www.YumaBassMan.com
webmaster
at
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