Water separator installed

iggyw1

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
880
I put a water separator in my boat today. I hooked it up with one line coming into the filter from the gas tank beneath the floor, and two separate lines going to my 70 H.P. motor and the second line going to my 6 H.P. kicker. I put the primer ball in line before the filter. (Between the gas tank and the filter). Took forever to get the filter filled and get that primer ball hard. Now if I prime the motors (both at the same time I am assuming with the same primer ball) the ball gets hard. If I let things set there without trying to start any motors after priming and getting the ball hard, the ball will soften up again just from sitting with no starting a motor. This takes about 10 minutes to happen. If I pump it again, it gets hard pretty quick but will get soft again if I do nothing else. Is this normal? Or should the ball stay hard even for an hour or so?? Thanks.
 

iggyw1

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
880
No gas is dripping any where on the motors or any whaere on the gas lines either. I just added the water separator today, and it took a looooong time to get the ball to get hard in the first place. Could it be air in the lines going to the motors?
 

GA_Boater

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
49,038
The bulb only firms up when the hose from the bulb output to the float chamber is full. With the addition of a new filter, which is large capacity, filling all that up takes time.

Is the bulb new? The check valves may be leaking.
 

ondarvr

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
11,527
There will be a good amount of air in the lines, and it's common for the ball to get softer after a bit, sometimes the check valve leaks a little, this isn't really a problem, but this leak may be why it takes a while to build pressure.

​You need a primer bulb inline between the filter and each motor, this helps insure that the running motor doesn't suck fuel out of the motor not running at the time.
 

iggyw1

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
880
GA_ Boater & ondarvr, thanks to both of you for your input. Both balls were new this past spring and they are both in great condition. I resolved my issues I was having. I did exactly like you suggested ondarvr, and I actually did it today before I even read your reply to me. I took the ball off of the suction line going to the tank, spliced that line together, and I put a ball on the discharge lines from the separator going to each motor. I read elsewhere last night that the ball should be in between the filter and the motor, so that's why I did it.

The ball on the little kicker motor is staying hard for over a half hour now. On the big motor, the ball is getting SLIGHTLY softer after about 10 minutes, however, I noticed that when I pumped the ball while the connector for that motor was un-plugged (disconnected) from the motor, as I squeezed the ball, I was getting a drip (A small drip when I squeezed the ball). The drip was coming directly from the center of the connector, the part that has the pin inside that the motor pushes in when you connect it to the motor. I figured no gas should be coming out at all unless that pin is pushed in. The small kicker motor connector does not do that. I am going to pick up another connector for my main motor and it should help the ball to stay hard longer. Thanks to both of you for the help and ideas. I don't believe that I have any issues with this any longer. NOTE: The connector does not leak when it is connected to the motor, but the ball gets softer so it may be leaking somewhere that I cannot see it??
IGGY
 
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