It’s hard being an amateur

I am of the opinion that it has to be much easier being a pro than an amateur. And by pro, I mean someone who essentially does the same job each day. Compare this to the typical cruiser who is trying to reinvent the wheel each and every time he/she has to repair something on the boat. Yesterday’s engine-maintenance jobs are a perfect example of this. As I wrote a few days ago the two big tasks that we wanted to complete while dockside were replacing our shifter and throttle cables and also pulling the engines to change the lower unit oil, etc. I am convinced that 80% of the time that it took to do these jobs was taken up just trying to figure out how certain engine pieces came apart!

After a quick trip to Budget Marine on Thursday, we found ourselves in possession of the engine cables we required for the job. Although we hadn’t planned on doing the swap until after carnival, we had a free day and with no big storms looming on the horizon (which may require us to bug-out), we decided to just go for it. “Go for it” initially meant swapping only the cables on the port engine although that was quickly to change.

Step one was figuring out how to get the throttle and shifter cables disconnected from the engine. I payed a visit to our PDQ friends hoping that they could shed some light on the procedure. As it turns out, they have much newer Yamaha engines that use a completely different method for attaching the cables. So, back to our boat for some more random trial and error. Ultimately the secret to the little clips holding the cables was revealed to me and they came free. Total time invested: too much. A pro would have just snapped them off in 30 seconds. The next step was undoing the bolt (and clip) holding the cables secure to the engine. You know, the upside down, partially rusted bolt! Even though I carefully covered the hole directly under this bolt, I still ended up sacrificing our one and only 10 mm wrench to Poseidon (messing around in engines makes your hands quite slippery). Oh well, we found a socket that would fit and used it to remove the difficult-to-see bolt (I had placed a mirror underneath the bolt so that I could kind of see what was going on). Time invested: again, too much.

The next step, running the new cables, actually went relatively easy. I didn’t even remove the old cables before I ran the new ones as I was still just testing the waters, trying to see if I would even be able to complete the job myself. When it came time to connect the cables to the throttle control, we again spent a lot of time, first in figuring out how to dissect the controller and then in learning the method by which everything was put together. It was at this time that we realized that switching only the port side cables was not going to work, unless of course we wanted to do the whole throttle-control-dissection all over again another day, which we did not. So, out came the starboard cables, infinitely faster I might add, supporting my pro-vs. amateur argument.

With all old cables removed, all new cables run and reconnected to the throttle control, we were left only with the task of reconnecting them to the engines. Problem: If we reconnect them, we’ll only have to take them all off again to pull the engines out because there will not be enough slack. Groan. This is how our little job of running only one set of cables turned into doing all of our engine maintenance in one day. Oh well…

Using essentially the method that is detailed on Drew’s blog, we quickly rigged up the block and tackle that our friends on Ultra lent us. Unfortunately, it didn’t go quite as smooth as we had hoped.

Problem 1: When raising the engine with the line on the winch, we quickly got an override (this is when the line jams on the winch). We missed the crucial detail that Drew mentions about running the line from the block and tackle through the genoa blocks so that we have a good lead to the winch. No worries, because the block and tackle that we were using had a nice built-in jam cleat, we quickly sorted it out.

Problem 2: The block and tackle wouldn’t allow us to lift the engine quite high enough to get it out of the well. This was due to the length of the bridle I made, the height of the lifting point and the overall size of the block and tackle. No problem… we’ll just lift it out. We’re strong enough, right?

Problem 3: We didn’t disconnect all of the wires to the engine. Yes, I was being a bit lazy (efficient?) and I thought the wires would be long enough (a Pro would have known that they would be too short). I was wrong. The problem at this point was that Rebecca and I were both holding up the heavy engine, sans lifting device and now one of us was going to have to find a wrench to undo the wires. Yes, some abrupt words were shared at this moment but as always happens, we got the job done and fortunately, no backs were injured in the process.

Once the engine was out and stable, we set to work to clean it up, change the lower unit oil (we brought this oil with us from the US as our friends told us that it was sometimes difficult to come by down here) and change the spark plugs (not part of my initial plan but since they were staring at me, I figured why not). The only unknown part of the job was trying to deal with removing the bolt that I sheared off which holds the zinc in place. Following someone’s advice, I broke the zinc off with a screw driver and as I hoped, there was a piece of the old bolt remaining that I could get some pliers on. Of course it wouldn’t come out that easily though so a few generous applications of PB Blaster and a bit of patience was required. Luck was ultimately on our side though and the bolt finally gave up its hold on the engine, allowing us to replace both it and the zinc with some new ones.

All that was left at this point was to put the engine back in the well and reconnect everything. Fortunately this was just about the time that our friends Keith and Jamie on s/v Kookabura were walking by. Having those additional hands made the job go super easy and we were quickly back in business.

Does the engine once again run? Yes. Do the new cables shift better than the old ones? They sure do! By this time, it was too late in the day and we were both too tired to tackle pulling the second engine. We left that one until today. Now that we’ve made all the mistakes though, we should hopefully have a bit easier time with this one (knock on wood).

Note the little mirror under the engine so that I can see the bolt head.

What the throttle control is supposed to look like.

Removed from the wall but still not really accessible.

The guts of the throttle control, post dissection.

The starboard engine safely out of the well.