I have been doing some trouble shooting on some problems we had on the maiden voyage and thought I would post to in hopes that it enlightens someone along the way.
I fired it up in the driveway last night and noticed that unlike the maiden voyage, the water pump was not pumping water. After some inspection of the impeller and new gaskets etc I found a piece of rag that had lodged itself in the intake of the raw water pump. Luckily it was just plugging the inlet and never actually got into the pump.
I removed it, and Voila, pumping water like a champ again. I used Clear reinforced PVC hose on the intake line going to the water pump and boy am I glad I did, makes it very easy to diagnose water flow issues.
On to the stalling:
Took the top of the Carb off and checked the float height (for the third time...) floats height was good, but noticed the drop looked quite excessive from what I remember seeing in the manual.
Spec'd it out and retuned the carburetor and its running better than it was for sure. Unfortunately by the time this was all put to bed it was too late to get it on the water. And now the weather is not being my friend so hopefully get some updates on the weekend.
As far as construction goes its time to start building an engine cover. I'm thinking of doing a two piece cover (clamshell?), as im sure some of you with smaller boats know the struggle of trying to find a place to put the engine cover with people and gear on the boat WHEN something goes awry. Im also toying with the idea of a
"viewing hatch" where I could leave the top piece of the cover on and have a hatch that could be opened when you just want to have a look around.
Pics of the engine cover build to follow!
