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As promised, the results of last night's work on my genset: Success!!
However, as is usually the case with boats, it was a good news/bad news
situation. One has to realize that this genset is well forward in the hull,
under the salon/saloon floor, with about four inches of clearance between
the flame arrestor and the floor above. This requires the fix-it person to
crawl forward, drape over the genset, and make all repairs primarily by
feel.
Good news - as pointed out by a number of Listees who responded, the problem
was indeed the impeller.
Bad news - What should have been a simple case of removing three screws, the
end plate of the pump, the mangled impeller and all the broken pieces, then
replacing same, became a physically demanding and mental exasperating
process. This was caused by a poor design on Onan's part that put the carb,
choke assembly and fuel line all about 1/4" in front of the end plate.
Removing the end plate first involved an attempt to move the carb out of the
way - no gold stars for us there, since the fuel line was quite
inaccessible.
The next (and ultimately successful) approach was for my mechanic (who is
6'3" and about 275 lb.) to crawl on his side around the battery boxes, the
water heater, the bilge pumps, the rectifier, and the AquaMuffler to gain
access to the genset from the side and behind. Eventually, he removed the
entire pump and then had "easy" access to the end plate. At that point,
replacing the impeller took no more than 5 minutes. The mechanic spent the
rest of the second hour replacing all of the various parts and extricating
himself from behind all the "stuff".
The problem? An impeller that was down to one blade. Hard to get proper
cooling water flow with that!!
So, after a two hour process to accomplish what should have taken 10-15
minutes, all is well in my genset world. The exhaust/cooling water flow is
better than it has ever been since I bought the boat last year. I'm now
excited about being able to be out on the hook all of the long weekend, with
a first mate who is happy because she has all the electrical comforts of
home at her fingertips. Isn't life grand?
For the future? I will be cutting an access hatch in the salon/saloon floor
right above the genset so that future repairs/impeller replacements can be
done from above.
Again, thanks to all the Listees who helped.
Cheers,
John Garrison
