Tag: Yamaha

We’re back

Yep, back at our temporary home, Rebak Island, Malaysia. It feels good and yet rather… ok. Oh… we do have some projects. However; for us, it feels like much of the world has stopped. Fuel prices up, more conflicts in the seat of civilization, disease outbreaks. So here we wait. Here it is calm. Yes, we are effected by what is happening in the outside world but the effects in Malaysia and Thailand seem minimal.

Petrol from Tank Bottom

The dinghy engine. Wow! I’ve rebuilt the carburetor several times and finally I have it working. Well, close; it is about 90% correct. I’ve replaced all the old fuel with fresh, I’ve cleaned out the fuel tank, I cleaned everything with Carburetor Cleaner and boiled the jets. Not in that order but the heart of the engine is looking damn good. After we arrived here I went to connect the fuel line to the fuel tank; damn! The round brass fitting on the tank was bent. How that happened? I’ve no idea. So off to town we went. There are two Yamaha outboard dealers and we knew of one. I went and asked for a new fill connection. Nope. No one in town has them. I checked another place and nope, none, nada, zip. Ok, buy a new tank. Which we did and now I have a new fitting. While getting a new tank I asked about cleaning the carburetor. 15 RM. About 4 USD. The following day I brought the carburetor into the shop. After lunch it would be ready. I hate to say it; we had comfort food for lunch. Pizza Hut. Yes, in most countries we’ve visited there have been Pizza Huts. No need to ever worry about US culture being usurped. After lunch we returned and they located an issue; the fuel pump. It needs new gaskets and they only had one. The other would be in next week.

As for us, we need to get the dinghy engine working properly so we can sell it, we have an wind speed indicator to install at the top of the mast, and I need to replace a galley water pump.

Well… I thought I had the correct one on the boat. Yep. Another trip to town and I handed them the needed gasket. Waiting I headed off to the market for some needed food supplies. Peanut M&M’s count as food don’t they? 🙂 After the load of food I picked up the completed carburetor and headed back to the boat. With new fuel, a new tank and a rebuilt carburetor the engine started right up. Oh… it did take a couple of pulls to get the petrol up to the cylinders. But; she now purred like a kitten. Off I went for a test run. I putted out of the marina to the entrance channel and throttled up. Whew ! Instantaneously I was up on plane and flying. Just like it ought to be. I motored back to the boat and picked up W/ with a camera. A video or two and it will listed for sale. Hopefully we can sell it and pick up our newly ordered one.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

I Hate my Yamaha!

Now don’t get me wrong. My Yamaha 15 hp 2 cycle is a dream. My Yamaha 2hp 2 cycle is a nightmare. I don’t understand how Yamaha could even put their name on the engine it is so bad. And it is the exact same engine as the Tahatsu and I think one other manufacture.  The 2hp’s are all crap, In My NOT SO HUMBLE Opinion.

I purchased the engine new in St. Martin 4 years ago. I followed the break in period to the letter. I’ve maintained it as well as any cruiser could and it always, always gives me problems.

When I had stored it last I had removed all fuel and cleaned all lines.  Over the course of a year water had entered the fuel tank from either condensation or from the vent design on the engine. The engine was stored on the push pit of the boat.  It is after all a marine engine.  NOT!  I’ve detailed the non marine parts Yamaha has used on it in the past.

Fortunately, when Dirk and Silvie were down helping us through the canal and then prepping the boat for anther sailing season Dirk was able to get the thing running with minimal fuss. But Dirk has skills and a touch with engines that I don’t.   The 2hp ran well but things were not perfect. Water flow seems marginal. No way to check the impeller easily. This engine requires a work bench to do much of anything with it. That alone makes it a poor choice for a cruising engine IMHO.

And back to now;  after 5 weeks of none use I needed to put the engine back in service. I cleaned the plug, checked the fuel tank to make sure there is no water in the fuel. And pulled the crank. Ironically, it started sometime after the 10th or 15th pull. Ok, I can live with that for a first startup. I ran it till it warmed up and tooled around the harbor. Then I put it to sleep and turned off the fuel.

I found in Panama  if I don’t turn off the fuel to the engine the engine floods,, the plug fouls and there is no way to start it other than to pull the plug and clean it. While in Panama for the most part if I stopped the engine and turned the fuel off, when I returned I could start it on the first pull and turn the fuel on. She ran right perdy then.  But not now!

No such luck. Damn Yamaha.  Tomorrow I’ll work some more on it. Pull the bowl and all the fuel, clean the plug  and put  it all back together. After all; it is Sunday, a day for rest; right? If I continue to be frustrated with it the damn thing may well end up  a gift to Noah; but, I’m so Scotch I make the Scotch tape look like teflon.  I will be hard pressed to drop that engine in 5,000 feet of water.  But as cruisers love to say; the future is written in water.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Around the Corner

We’re hoping.  We’ve moved around the corner to Linton. About 8 nm farther along. There we hope to isolate which of the 2 Lifeline D8 house batteries is bad and put a dinghy in the water and get ready for our move back to Kuna Yala.

John on Millenium is here and I’ve an opportunity to play chess with a real person. Most of my chess playing is on line at FICS when we have a good internet connection. After some chatting we chose tomorrow afternoon for a round of strategic moves.

John and I discuss the battery situation and he suggests isolating each one and testing it. Sounds good to me so that evening W/ and I  isolate a battery, then run the generator to pull down the refrigeration temp as well as charge.  After our 50 minute run time of the generator we shut it down and the only power draw is a couple of 1 amp lights and a 3 amp computer draw. Less than 15 minutes later our battery voltage is 10.5 volts and viola!  We found our bad battery.  I switch connections and we watch the now good battery stay up on volts.  If the battery is really good we have 215 amp hours ideally but practically we have about 100 since IMHO not really a GOOD battery.  I’m guessing maybe 50 amp hours to play with. So what.  We pick up about 30 amps  / day with solar and with the generator running we should be able to limp along.

Things look good that evening and throughout the following day.

The next day we put fuel in the 2 hp Yamaha only to discover it is dripping rapidly out of the carburetor.  I take off the engine cover and discover that 4 of the doo dads that the bolts go into to keep the cover

Yamaha Nut all Rusted Out
Yamaha Nut all Rusted Out

on are rusting so bad the bolts are now just cosmetic. This Yamaha  engine is a little over 2 years old, is a marine engine and these doo dads are made of steel!  Shame on Yamaha!  I open up the carburator to clean the jet and reset it. If memory serves me correct it’s to be 1 1/2 turns back. I put it back together and there is  still drips.  Oh-Oh. I reopen it up and close the jet all the way.

We open up the fuel and no leakage. That’s a good sign –  we’ll see if she starts. Put the engine on the dingy and after several pulls (we remembered to attach the dead man switch) she starts up. Unfortunately she needs some choke to run so I need to sometime back out the jet a 1/4 turn at time to see if I can get it ….just right.

Ok, we’re rather pleased with ourselves and all set to move to Kuna Yala. Now we set up to enjoy the day. Mother Nature has other designs on us. From roughly noon till midnight it rains. People living in the temperate zones don’t have a clue what a rainy day really is.  In the US when it rains it’s mostly from a front moving through. My mom use to say “Rain before 7 quit by 11”.  Four hours of rain and that was a relatively accurate. Here it rains, and rains, and rains. and…. you get the idea.

Somewhere in the middle of the night I rouse myself out of my berth to open the hatches and ports; the rain has stopped,  to check the surroundings and make sure all is ok.  I look at the battery (not batteries anymore) and discover an issue. Last night we charged it; and the  battery settled at 12.58 volts after charging. Now it’s reading 12.03 volts. Effectively a flat battery after drawing out say about 15 amp hours!  If we continue on we’ll have no real reserve power in our house bank – no real power at all. It means instead of heading on to Kuna Yala we’ll head back to Shelter Bay. Life could be worse. We could be driving on Hwy 19 or sitting on the Beltway. We could be in a meeting with someone spouting off the new politically correct way education is to work.  We could be farther away from a solution. Luckily we’re  only a 1/2 days travel to a place we can solve the situation, provided the main engine will start.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long