Saturday, May 18, 2013

DECISIONS, DECISIONS!

You may recall that BIANKA although being dragged a thousand feet across the harbor during superstorm Sandy there was very little damage to her. The same could not be said for my dinghies  Honda BP2 outboard. Which sat on the harbor bottom for several days after the dingy flipped over at the dock.  I was lucky enough to snag it with a grapple borrowed from the boatyard and bring it up on the dock:

A couple of fish and crabs fell out of it as I bought it up on the dock and I discovered more after I took off the cover and rinsed the motor down with fresh water.


I was hoping to be able to remove the carburetor ASAP but, found some long rusted nuts prevented that from happening. So after removing what I could and spraying the unit down with WD-40

and hitting the rusted nuts with PB Blaster , heat and whatever else I could think of. I had no success. So I  left it for a while. The winter was cold and the idea of spending it in the cold garage was not that inviting. So when it warmed up I again started to work on the engine. I found that over the winter the hard to remove corroded nuts were able to be removed and I was finally able to get at and remove the carburetor. Which by this time had started to corrode rather badly:


I could buy a new carburetor for about under a hundred and fifty bucks. That's just to start. So I started thing maybe it's time to just stop trying to revive the outboard and move on. Maybe sell the engine for parts and get a new outboard. I don't really use the outboard much in fact it's been about two years since I last had it on the dingy before Sandy dumped it onto Davy Jones locker. The outboard came with BIANKA when I bought her in 1995 so it's not like it's a new motor.  The corroded nuts attest to that! I thinking perhaps it's time to make BIANKA an all electric boat with a new electric outboard for the dingy too! Decisions, decisions.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since you left it sit all winter this motor is pretty much done:( I'd be surprised if it even turns over. At this point you would really need to tear it down and do a complete rebuild. If it were mine and I needed the motor I'd rebuild but then I've done many so it's not a big deal. If I didn't need the motor... craigslist here it comes:)
Good luck

Dan said...

Maybe time for an electric outboard? Or, since you don't use it much, maybe one of those propane ones that uses those small canisters.

Anonymous said...

Pick up an old OMC outboard! With basic mechanical knowledge those can be kept running for another 50 years and at a fraction of a new gas or electric.

Capt. Mike said...

Dan:
I'm leaning toward that solution. Seems like the right time to make the move.

Capt. Mike said...

Anonymous

I really have not used the outboard all that much over the years. I agree Craigslist might be the next stop for it. Then I'll start exploring electric options.

Anonymous said...

I suggest going electric, with oars as a backup. Perhaps match the dinghy's battery pack voltage to Bianka's 48V so that you can use the chargers already installed on Bianka...

You could surely set up some relays or manual switches to switch between Bianka and Dinghy banks.

/Jason