Boating and Sailing.pdf - Moja ladja

302
Part 6: Boating Maintenance
to happen in some motors. First try tilting the motor down, so that it’s upright in the running
position.
Squeeze the primer bulb, located near the motor in the fuel line, to pump fuel from the
tank into the fuel system. The bulb becomes firm when the system is ready to go.
Look Out!
Using jumper cables
causes sparks, so always make
sure there’s no gas leak in the
engine compartment before you
use them. And remember, black
goes to the negative post, red to
the positive posts—otherwise
you’ll get some real fireworks!
Look Out!
If a cold motor stumbles,
pops, or belches smoke,
even for a second, the fuel is
there—so stop choking it! If you
continue, it will flood—get too
much fuel for the amount of air—
and not start because the spark
plug won’t fire liquid fuel nearly
as well as vaporized fuel.
I Flooded the Engine—Now What?
Next, choke the engine, most commonly done by pushing
in on the ignition key as you crank the starter. On
manual-start motors, you pull a choke lever. The choke
puts an air restrictor across the carburetor, reducing the
amount of air that gets in, making the fuel/air mix
richer. Some motors have a “primer” that squirts a shot
of fuel into the intake manifold.
In either case, you’re enriching the mix, getting explosive
fuel into the air inside the cylinder, so that when
the spark plug fires, the motor starts.
The normal routine is: the motor stumbles, and then
you stop choking, turn the starter one more time, and it
starts. You may need to press in on the key, in short
blips, to keep it running after the first start-up, but
after 15 to 20 seconds, it should smooth out.
If the motor coughs and runs for a few seconds and
then quits with a lot of smoking, don’t choke it again
just yet. Open the throttle a little and crank the motor
once more. Often, it will pop right off.
If you crank 10 seconds more and don’t get another
cough and don’t smell gasoline, give the engine another
blip of choke until it coughs again, and then repeat the
procedure.
You can tell when your engine is flooded because you’ll smell gasoline and the motor will
sound “wet” when you crank it. To fix this problem, you have to add more air and cut off
the fuel.
Make sure the choke is “off.” Don’t squeeze the prime bulb, but do open the throttle. (On
outboards and stern drives, you do this by pushing a button on the bottom of the throttle
lever, which disengages the shifting rod and allows you to open the throttle without putting
the motor into gear.) Crank for 10-second bursts, with 30 seconds in between, until
the motor coughs or sputters. (If you’re hand-cranking, do it until you cough or sputter.)