Bad day on black rock

[Lootas1]

Nope, not the old western movie but another say McRorie boating tail. Beautiful day today and I managed to get the squeeze bulb pumping fuel. So, we invited some friends, new to boating, to teach them everything they need to know about old boats. Started out pretty good. Ran over to Barnes Island (between Clark and Orcas). Our church was given use of the private island by the owner. All went well and I showed the friends how to secure their Boston Whaler to some driftwood. (Naturally, they already knew all about the rabbit, the stump and the hole but they humored me.) That is pretty much all I know about boating. I would have shown them how to tie a knot that is better than the clove hitch but I wasn't sure I remembered it myself.
So, having taught them everything I know about boating, we headed home via different routes. I made it to our dock (not our's personally, but the one our community owns.) Got the trailer backed into the water and fired up the outboard and headed for it. Engine died. I was drifting at a rapid couple of miles an hour toward a rocky point. I got the engine restarted and shoved it in gear and it died again. Now close to the rocks. A third start and in gear and dead. Now I am bumping over the rocks. I try to tip the motor up but the releases wouldn't release. I grabbed the boat hook and expanded it and pushed Rosario off the rocks and noticed her transom flexing quite scarily. Also noticed the squeeze bulb was flat as a pancake. Went to my spare gas tank and line and hooked it to the motor. Motor started and ran. Now I was some quarter of a mile around the point and Becky had no idea what had become of me. Then she saw me coming toward the trailer and ran back to winch me up.
So we are back home alive but the transom was flexing like it was made of rubber as I drifter over the rocks and crashed up and down in foot-high waves.
Now that summer could be here, am I going to be without a boat again? Been there with Finally! Hoping not to be there with Rosario. Wonder home much use I can give her before going down with my ship. It's hell being the captain!:Shocked:

[GregJ]

Vent your gas tanks.

[Lootas1]

Believe me, the vent was unscrewed all the way. There's something else bad going on there.

[Brian]

Maybe a tank to pump line check is in order? Sometimes these lines collapse internally and give no outward indication. Thank goodness you got her resting on the trailer, those rocks are merciless.

As for the flexible transom, yikes! Structural failures can be a bugger. :Underconstruction1:

Good luck with that, at least you're home safe and will live to boat again!

[bham-rick]

I made it to our dock (not our's personally, but the one our community owns.) Got the trailer backed into the water and fired up the outboard and headed for it. Engine died. I was drifting at a rapid couple of miles an hour toward a rocky point. I got the engine restarted and shoved it in gear and it died again. Now close to the rocks. A third start and in gear and dead. Now I am bumping over the rocks. I try to tip the motor up but the releases wouldn't release. I grabbed the boat hook and expanded it and pushed Rosario off the rocks and noticed her transom flexing quite scarily. Also noticed the squeeze bulb was flat as a pancake. Went to my spare gas tank and line and hooked it to the motor. Motor started and ran. Now I was some quarter of a mile around the point and Becky had no idea what had become of me. Then she saw me coming toward the trailer and ran back to winch me up.

You made it to the dock - got the trailer backed into the water - Then fired up the motor and headed toward the trailer at a couple miles per hour ? When the motor died you were on the rocks and drifted around the point ?? Even my imagination can't figure out what you were trying to do :Scared1:

[Seanfromseattle]

I'm with Rick on that, how did that happen if you were at the dock? Sounds scary...

[Tim_Mattson]

Oh Jerry,
Now we better solve this one before you get any more stories for us.
I`ve been trying to find the fuel specs from the maker.....
The OMC install guides all say to have the primer as close to the fuel source as possible.
Is the plumbing meeting at the back (where the primer bulb is too)so you`re basically trying to pull fuel rather than pushing it?
You can have more than one primer with one near each tank.
Sharing the same Valve with dual tanks sorta ,makes them no longer two seperate sources since they both share the same hose before the motor.
The 3 way valves may be nice like a Truck with saddle tanks but seem to always cause more issues than they are ever worth.
The OMC guides do show a 12 volt Electric Primer system for the bigger V-4 + V-6 motors but it seems like your 50hp fuel pump may not be up to snuff at least for drawing from the forward tanks.
Smaller 5/16`` lines are enough too ,3/8`` are only needed above 200 hp.
Are there shut-off valves for each tank at the 3 way valve?
I`d run a test hose from each tank by-passing the whole mess and see what gives with the fancy plumbing.If you still have trouble it maybe the check valves at each tank outlet(square elbow or straight fitting right on tank,NOT just simple barb fitting).These are needed to keep fuel from free-flowing in fires but some weaker fuel pumps need these tweaked.Usually this was on tiny kicker motors ,btw,not a 50 hp.
To test the valve ,you remove and hook it to clear hose and see how many inches of water it can hold back,or just blow softly from one way.

I can hear Chuck`s Teeth grinding from here...or is that you Jerry?

TM

[Lootas1]

Thanks for the suggestions and concern. I'll get to working on things again today. Wish I could draw pics here but the way things work here is a boat ramp with a dock maybe 50 yards away. It is far from an ideal situation. To launch, you back the trailer into the water, climb in boat and drive it off the trailer and over to the dock. Then walk the shore to your truck and pull the trailer out and park it. So, to get the boat back out of the water, it is just the reverse. Tie boat to dock. Get truck and back trailer into water. Walk from truck to dock and run boat around to trailer.
Tim I think you might be hearing my teeth as well as Chuck C.'s gritting. Thing that drives me nuts is motor runs well after it gets its initial shot of fuel. This time it sucked the squeeze bulb flat. The squeeze bulb is just inches from the motor so it pulls fuel from the tanks by the bulkheads. Worked for Chuck. Used to work for me. Fuel directing switch has four positions. Up = off. Right pointer = starboard tank. Down = off. Left = port tank. It clicks into position and I can blow through it to tank from each tank position but no air goes through when I switch it to each of the off positions. Thanks for reading up directions. Maybe it is time to put squeeze bulbs on each line near the fuel tank. The valves at the tank are the 90 degree elbow type. When I put a hose on them and blow back toward the tank, the air goes through and bubbles in the fuel tank.

[Skagitguy]

Ok, Here's what Jerry has. Two 12 gal gas tanks up by the bulkhead at the cabin door with two gas lines coming back inside PVC pipe to a 3 way valve that goes thru to the splashwell. At that point the gas line goes to the primer blub and on to the engine. Real simple. That system has been on at least 12 or more of my boats without have any troubles. Boat shops use it all of the time. GregJ boat has it, The Farallon has it, Right now it's on Bainbridge .Yes a fitting CAN go bad. Was the primer bulb replace with a cheap ( non brand ? even a new one can have problem) one ? All hoses and conectors are OMC...no cutting corners back in 2003. I do know more than i let on sometimes , but maybe Jerry can bring it down to my place so we ( meaning GregJ and ChuckB and I can go thru things with the trail and error system in the shelter. Or take it to a Evinrude dealer in Lynnwood before this becomes a bigger problem. What do you think. Call me when you have a chance Or e-mail. Chuck

[Tim McCrain]

Process of elimination ...

Jerry,

If the primer bulb is flattening, then you have a restriction between the bulb and the tank, the fuel pump is sucking the bulb flat trying to get fuel which tells you the pump is working well.

If you can blow air back into the tank, then you have a one-way restriction. In one post you said "I managed to get the fuel bulb pumping fuel", did you at any time have any trouble getting the bulb to prime the engine? If so, then replace the bulb before you do anything else. Then, pull the fuel lines beteen the bulb and the tanks and check them thoroughly. Swab the inside of the lines with a small screwdriver, if you see any black residue on the screwdriver then your lines are deteriorating and you need to replace all of them and thoroughly clean out the valve, fittings and the engine's fuel system. Are there any fuel filters between the bulb and the tanks? If so, these may be an issue. Outboard fuel pumps aren't crazy about pulling fuel through fine filters. If you don't see any issues there then pull the tank pickups and check for crud there.

I've found that the best way to approach any kind of fuel delivery issue is to simply pull everything off, clean everything out and replace anything that looks questionable. When checking flow don't use compressed air, use a small funnel and pour fuel through the system, you should have free flow. I've seen plenty of fuel issues that didn't show up at pressure. In fact, I've seen fuel lines that seemed fine even when blowing air through them by mouth, but wouldn't allow fuel flow at the low pressure your engine operates at. The fact that it runs fine when on a portable tank but not when hooked to the boat's system tells you where the problem is, no mystery here.

Tim

P.S. "Bad Day at Black Rock" was a great movie, glad to see someone else remembers it!

[Ingvar]

fuel problems

I had a simular problem
One situation it was a bad squeeze blub can u beleive , so i always carry an extra. 2 size bulbs small hose & larger hose

Also on my high speed cat with with the big LOOPER omc motor,
lots of problems with the factory fuel pump on the motor .
Solution was to remove the pump and oil injection system from the motor. Now I pre mix the fuel . Installed a in-line automotive fuel pump from O-Reilys only $ 40 . System works great. Now aproaching
70 mph and also at slow speed works better than ever.
Ingvar Swedster Carlson

[GregJ]

Jerry, When your primer bulb sucked down flat did you take the covers off your gas tanks to see if they were contorted. I vent my tanks by leaving the filler tops loosened a little bit. I use depend on those little vent screws but one day I was having the same problem you are and the gas tank was sucked inward from all the suction so I unscrewed the whole cap to release it. Next time your bulb goes flat unscew the filler cap on the tank being used. If it is not venting you will hear a hiss. If no his then you probably have an obstruction some where in the fuel line starting at the pick up tube to the engine. I used to have one of those tank selecter valves but I took it off because it caused some flow issues.

[Skagitguy]

Glad you have it running.

[Lootas1]

Yes, that seems to have been the problem this time. Although the vent screw was open, when I went out a half hour ago, I saw the top of the tank was sucked down. I removed the filler cap but, apparently, the tank had managed to suck air in through the vent overnight. I put the cap back on and squeezed the bulb and it got hard and the tank continued to deliver fuel to the motor. I ran it for about 15 minutes, sometimes as fast as it will go in neutral, and it kept runnig fine. So, I shut the motor off and went back to the squeeze bulb which was reasonably hard. Gave it a few squeezes and could hear fuel pumping and the bulb got a bit harder. Started the motor again and let it run for about 5 more minutes and it continued to get fuel until I shut it off. Looks like that one was a case of tank not venting. Now, need to look some more at the second tank. Maybe time to buy all new hose, connectors at both the motor and tank ends and put a squeeze bulb near each tank and forget the switch between the tanks. That should do it unless there is a problem with the pickup in the tanks.
Then on to the squishy transom and the burred prop ends. Wish I were more like Joe J and was as happy working on boats as running them here and there.

[GregJ]

Jerry, All Evinrude engines from 1982 on do have primer solenoids not electric chokes so when you are starting that engine initially you have to push the key in while you turn it to the start position. That opens up the primer solenoid allowing the gas pump to squirt a little gas into the intake. The idle lever has to be in the full up possition also.