I brought Touche' back from Pensacola to its home slip on Lake Pontchartrain this week. Overall a nice sail with fair winds and weather.
Had one glitch. Here's an excerpt from the trip report I sent some of my sailing buddies. Thursday we were motor sailing past Petit Bois Island, Mississippi. We'd just crossed the Pascagoula Ship Channel. Touche's engine quit. Just quit. No slowing down or whatever. Just died. WTF? The engine is a Universal 25XPB with about 2000 hours on it. First thing I did was open the cockpit locker and look at the vacuum gauge on the Racor 500MA fuel filter. It was still in the yellow where it normally runs. I pulled the top and checked the filter element anyway. I looked fairly clean. Next I investigated if the filter might have an air leak and the level had dropped below the discharge. The filter was only about half full. I keep a small jug of diesel for topping off the filter if need be. I topped it off and put the filter element back in. I inspected the filter lid o-ring and gasket. The gasket is square and can get twisted. Both looked normal. Buttoned up the filter and tried to start the engine. It would barely idle and died. The engine has an electric fuel pump. Okay, next we checked the pump. I put my finger on the pump. My buddy turned on the ignition and pressed the preheat button. Normally an electric fuel pump goes "click, click, click....". Only one click. Aha! Dead fuel pump. The wind was good and we were still carrying 5 knots or so. Fortunately, I had a spare fuel pump on board. I spent about 1.5-2 hours changing it. Before I installed it, I checked it for operation by powering it up. Yep. It went "click, click, click....". Got the new pump installed and we're ready to fire it up. My buddy turns on the ignition and hits the preheat button. Nothing, zip, nada. Even the audible alarm was silent. Big WTF?? He notices that even the engine gauges aren't moving. Hmmm. No power to the panel?? He says his Yanmar has a fuse on the engine and he thinks Westerbeke/Universals may have a circuit breaker. I grab the engine manual, pull up the wiring diagram. It shows a 20 amp breaker. Who knew? But...where the heck is it? After a bit of searching, I found it on the bracket where the fuel pump and some miscellaneous engine electrical components are. I reach behind the panel, find the reset button and hear a click when I press it. Okay. We try the engine again and it fires right up. Yay! Good to go. That lasts about a minute. It immediately dies again. Crap! I start the investigation again. Open the cockpit locker to look at the vacuum gauge. Oh, what a dumbass! I'd shut off the fuel valve to change the pump. I opened the valve. The engine fired up and away we went. All told, we only lost about an hour on our arrival time and avoided a large tow bill. A bit of internet research later revealed that the $256 Westerbeke 39275 fuel pump is really a Facet 40185N. I found one on eBay for $76. Same pump. This mimics the tachometer/hourmeter replacement from a couple weeks ago. The Westerbeke part was $350. I found the identical part made by Datcon from a hot rod shop for $150. When I looked at the old one, it had the Datcon name and part number on it. -- Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA
Please show your appreciation for this list and the Photo Album site and help me pay the associated bills. Make a contribution at: https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks for your help. Stu
