Boating Fuel Tip 

      

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Most of the things I try and write about are things that have happened to me. This one is for your boat and fuel system.

I was at the lake and was running my Bass Boat with no problems when anyone that owns a boat knows if something can go wrong it will. I started getting the motor to run and then shut down for no reason, just as I got up on pad.

I would get up from the driver's seat and pump the bulb on the gas line then get back in and start the motor. It would run for a few minutes then shut back down. I was in a pickle being about 37 miles from the ramp where I launched and I knew that the trolling motor would not make it 37 miles.

I was getting air it seemed to me but the bulb would not stay pumped up, at least that is what the symptoms were. I had my cell phone and called the repair shop. They advised me to check the fuel filter.

O.K. now all I have to do is find it, and I started tracing the gas line down and did not see a fuel filter in the line. My line comes off my tank and goes into the engine and splits to the carburetors....No fuel filter that I could see.

Again I called the repair shop and told them I did not see the fuel filter anywhere. I was told to take the top off and look at the line going into the left carb, I would see a nut, back it off and sure enough I found the filter. It was not clogged.

Again I pumped up the bulb and held pressure on it when I noticed that the pressure slowly leaked down.

Bingo instead of a three or four hundred dollar carburetor job, it turned out to be a bad bulb. It was not sucking the gas out of the tank and now I have two of them so this does not happen again.

Thought I would put this boating fuel tip in so you will know one thing to look for if this happens to you.

Another thing is any time you change out your batteries make sure that you label all the wires and do not do like I did and forget to connect the pump that supplies fresh air bubbles to my livewell. I thought it was burned out and bought a replacement. When I was about to install the new one, I traced the wires down and low and behold I found a loose wire and now my pump works just like new.

All of these are good lessons that you need to file so the little mistakes do not catch you by surprise.

Keep the Hooks Wet!

Steve McGoldrick