Week of Aug 5, 2013: alternator and battery charger

This past week I worked on a sailboat with a bad alternator and a boat with battery/ charger issues. The sailboat with the bad alternator wasn't putting out any charging voltage. Turns out that the stock hitachi alternator was internally regulated so I had to get a new one no matter if it was the alternator or the regulator that was bad. I learned how to match an alternator to the batteries that it will be charging. A good rule of thumb is get an alternator that is 25% the capacity in amp hours of you batteries. The customer I had had 400 amp hours of capacity so I matched it with a 100 amp alternator. I learned what exactly the Amp hour rating means. For my customers two 8d agm batteries the amp hour capacity was 400 @ 20 hrs. That means these two batteries can handle a 20 amp load every hour for 20 hours. Really cool to find this out. I also diagnosed a bank of two house batteries to be bad and also found that his shore power charger wasn't working which I believe killed his batteries. You can see I pulled the charger apart to find a small piece that was the size of a nickel wrapped in heat shrink with two leads broken off the circuit board. Great week! 

Hours 49

Hours to date  381

Week of July 29, 2013: heat exchangers and windlass's

This past week I have been doing a couple of diagnosing overheats and a couple windlass motor diagnosing. When I have the task of diagnosing a overheat I check the sea strainer, thru hole valve of course, impeller, heat exchanger and  water flow out the exhaust. This boat however had a compromised heat exchanger and was leaking antifreeze out the exhaust so it was necessary to pressure test the heat exchanger. I learned how to test them installed in the boat. I have had a couple windlass motor issues this week too. The first was a slipping motor. The issue was when the customer was pulling up his anchor when he got to the rode the windlass would slip. I determined that the customer was running to small of rode and wore out the two halves of the windlass.

Hours 50

Hours to date 332

Week of July 22, 2013: bow thruster and a serious fuel polish

This past week I removed a prop for a bow thruster. I had been told that the customer was moving his boat and sucked up a line in his bow thruster. He had to take the boat out for other reasons, but while it was out I removed the prop and found the splines to be worn out and found that the gearbox didn't seem right. I had my manager verify the gearbox and found that it needed to be replaced too. I also performed I huge tank clean out job. The customer came to the harbor barely due to clogged filters and lots of water. To make a long story short. I had to pump out both his 120 gallon tanks and get the approximate 4 gallons of water out of both tanks and the at least 5-8 pounds of dirt and rust out. I performed a fuel filter change and am waiting to prime the system and get everything started back up again. Another good, solid week!

Hours 56
Hours to date 282

Week of July 15, 2013: yanmars, starters and fuel filler hose

This past week I learned more about doing an engine service on a yanmar. This boat came in off of a tow for a plugged up fuel filter and possible air intrusion. I performed a fuel polish and filter change and while I was doing the filter change I noticed that the filter housings manual prime pump had a fuel leak at the seal for keeping fuel in. I changed the housing out and the boat was on its way. I also learned more about yanmar starting systems when another sailboat came in with a burned up starter. I was told the ignition got jammed and stayed in the start position for roughly 4 minutes. As you can see in my photo it got quite hot. I proceeded to order a new starter and I also checked his entire starting electrical system and found only the starter to be bad. Lastly, I learned about being very observant while doing any work on a boat. While I was installing a battery for a gentleman I found a very worn out fuel filler hose. I proceeded to tell the customer and got the ok to replace it.

Hours: 48
Hours to date: 226

Week of July 8, 2013: injector work, batteries an electric boats

This past week I got more experience with injector work when I was doing an injector overhaul on a 2 cylinder yanmar on a sailboat. This sailboat is a rental and was having issues starting and would have excessive black smoke through operation. I took the injectors out and went to test them on the pop tester and found the tester to be inoperable. I had no other option but to put them back in for a rent. I learned about automatic watering system for 6 volt battery banks. It works like a separate valve on each cell and you basically pump water to a common inlet and each cell fills up and automatically closes. I also learned about how our electric boats work. Our large 21 foot boat has a basic golf cart motor that runs a belt that turns a drive shaft for the prop. Very simple and easy to work on.

Hours: 40
Hours to date: 178

Week of July 1, 2013: starter rebuild and raw water components

This past week I completed a starter rebuild for a 4.7 liter mercruiser engine. The boat had been put back in the water without one of its drain plugs and the engine room got half flooded. The starter would work sometimes and needed to be rebuild due to salt water in the starter. I cleaned and put it back together and it worked great. I also learned and did some work on a sailboat that ending up having a broken raw water impeller as you can see in my photo. Learning so much about the marine industry and enjoying it all.

Hours: 42
Hours to date: 138

Week of June 23, 2013: belts and batteries

This past week I learned more about how exhaust systems on inboard marine engines worked when I was changing out exhaust boots. I learned that when an engine doesn't start you want to close the thru hole so as the "water muffler" doesn't fill up completely and pour into the engine. I also found a battery with too many connections so I had to install a power post to keep it away from the battery. I also have replaced a lot of belts and learned that it is one of the first things to check on an engine because they are so often bad. I found one with cracks and one that was the wrong width and length.

Hours: 56
Hours to date: 96