Outboard… broken then fixing to get back sailing again!

13 August: Took friends children out for a night swim last night. It ended up as a night sail... the engine died! And I'm pretty sure I will not be able to get it serviced for at least a week as this is the time everyone takes summer holidays... possibly even more than two weeks.

14 August: No, it's an old Selva 6 HP 2 stroke so not a new motor, built in 2006. And I know Selva are not the best, but it came with the boat. It was serviced a couple of years ago when I was having problems with it. So I was going to take it back to the same place…

 

15 August: No, everywhere is closed so will try to fix it myself. 

Pretty sure it's the impeller. But, I have a spare one so time to find where it is and replace it. 

Separate the bottom of the skeg…

Remember to remove the gear lever linkage half way up the skeg (yes, I forgot and couldn't work out why it wouldn't separate).

And yes! That looks like the impeller housing! 

And that looks like an impeller… which rotates happily unattached to the brass spindle attached to the drive shaft!

Fault found!

One on the right the old impeller one on the left the replacement which I kept in stock.

But…

Taken from the other side you see that the new one is actually too large! There are apparently 2 different 6HP 2 stroke Selva engines with different impellers. 

So now I need to find the right one. Of course in normal times I would just order it and get it couriered to me. I found one at a chandlers in the UK and phoned them up. They were really helpful but said that they could not guarantee delivery as the couriers in the UK are 'in disarray' and they had had to refund £17,000 to customers that week because of non delivery of stock.

Another supplier quoted delivery between 24 October and 4 November!

Then I found MTO Nautica Store in Italy had one in stock. They're closer than the UK to Cyprus so maybe the courier would be better. What was great was they had a WhatsApp chat address so I could communicate with a real human being. 

17 August: MTO Nautica Store confirmed they had it it stock and could deliver to Cyprus.

18 August: I ordered and paid for two impellers from MTO Nautica Store so that I had a spare that was the correct impeller and made the expensive courier fees more reasonable!

19 August: Dispatched from Italy, tracking number sent from MTO Nautica Store the following day.

21 August: 09:08 door bell rings and it's the UPS delivery man with my two impellers! Yes, they are the right size. I highly recommend MTO Nautica Store - excellent service and good communication.

With Lukas help I fitted the impeller and hopeful I took the outboard back to Liza and tried it out. No water came out.

Eventually took the engine off the skeg and found that the 8mm inlet pipe was detached from the rubber grommet which was perished going into the cooling reservoir! Can I get that as a spare part? No chance at all!

22 August: So I bought new 8mm copper pipe and right angle joint and soldered together to make a new pipe that will lead all the way into the cooling reservoir. Bought high temperature (rated up to 300C) silicone to manufacture grommet to attach new copper pipe in place.

24 August: Bought what seemed to be the YouTube recommended liquid gasket for Outboards, followed the instructions and left it to cure overnight.

25 August: It WORKS! Yes, that's water coming out correctly and the outboard is running smoothly. So, take it back to Liza and put back in place.