Did you make it to Page to test run the new boat? There is another storm coming in Wednesday through Friday.
Sadly no, we've had storms lining up like you say. It's kinda been a Miracle March as far as snow goes, finally getting some. Yesterday and today would have been beautiful to be in Page weather wise but I had work to do in my business so I decided to be responsible and make that my priority.
I'm also waiting on the hand hold inspection caps, someone had removed them and thay are missing. On the American Turbine AT-309 jet drives the covers are about six inches in diameter and are right on top of the water intake right under the boat. I can't dunk it and run it until I get those in place, it would flood the engine hold pretty quickly. I've had a bit of a hard time finding them in stock anywhere. I finally got them ordered yesterday, a marine place is having them drop shipped to me directly from American Turbine. That and a grate that protects the intake under the boat from debris on the lake.
Somene must have pulled the one grate and both inspection caps either to inspect the impeller or to get junk out of them or both. I was told by the guy I bought the boat from that he was told one of the jets was seized up. I greased both drives through their Zerk fittings and put some oil down the cylinders before I turned them over with the starter. Neither engines had ran in a few years so it seemed like a good thing to do. Then I replaced the spark plugs and got them to fire, neither jet was seized or made concerning sounds there in the Yacht Club Yard.
So far so good
Part of the reason I went up last week was to look for those inspection covers and the grate in every nook and cranny of the boat, between them and shipping it was $600 for the parts. During past projects I've found a lot of missing parts or needed supplies inside boats, I thought it was worth a try. Although I did not find those I found other stuff and learned more about its systems. Turns out I have what looks like a dry sump oil system with water fed oil coolers and twin spin on remote filters on each engine. (pretty industrial) I also found two blowers for the engine hold and two missing bilge pumps so it was a good trip and it helped me get my parts list refined.
I still need to replace the bad fuel pump on the starboard engine and get that running on the injectors, so far it's only ran on a spray can, I also still need to wire up the 4 huge Johnson bilge pumps and blowers to a new switch panel at the helm. After that and when the jets inpection caps are in place I'll be ready to dunk it.
With large jets like these you can't run them out of the water for more than a few seconds at a time. The jets are the water pick up pumps that feed the engines and I image the jets themselves are water cooled as well. On my jets ski there is a spot for a garden hose connection, these jets are much to large to be supplied by a garden hose,
So I'm not sure if I'll need another trip to get the pumps and wiring done and then another for a dunk and drive test or if I can do that in one trip. I guess it depends on if I have a helper with me and the weather and my work load here in Flagstaff. Plus the new snow at the ski resort makes me want to put some time in there, our family already has the annual passes so I'd like to see us use those. I'm hoping these storms in the region improve our runoff.
It's much warmer between the storms now, spring is definitely here! I hope to get up to Page the beginning of next week possibly, we'll see.
