WHAT a day on Shakedown cruise.

[tonyiiiafl]

Sorry about this but have you ever heard of this what is in the photo? I got it today. Left dock and fueled up. No start at fuel dock. Dead starting battery however fired right up at slip. Switched to the house bank and off we went. So much for less than a foot and slight gusts to 20 mph. More like a full fledged gale. Made it 2/3 way to Cleveland Light and turned around after taking water over the bridge. Pulled into Kingman’s and took a mooring for the night. Put a meter on the battery and yep was at 10.35 volts. All others weee good. However it took a lot of water while others were fine. SO I started the genset and ran the charger for a bit and shut off. Checked battery and it was dropping back to 10v land pretty wuick. So I went to fire up the genset again and it spun but no start. Spark? Yes good spark. Wiring all good and finally checked the air filter and it was a tad dirty but plenty of flow. Added some combustible liquid to the intake and sane. Changed gas filter no change. Spun and no fire. Whacked the gas on/solenoid and same. Nothing. Finally pulled a plug wire and great spark and it seemed to want to fire. Plugged in other wire and she started! I put air filter in and no start. So removed filter and put housing back and fired away. Gotta love those old Koehler 6.5’s. Oh. The picture. Kinda sesnsituve and age appropriate but oh so true in this case. Feel free to edit and remove but we have all been there. Today was my turn.

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[Viper]

And of course if you called a technician over, everything would work just fine when he first tries it. Oh you just gotta love boats sometimes

The saying is so true. Everything starts off seemingly well though we know there's likely a hidden gremlin lurking around just waiting to rear it's ugly head, then suddenly out of nowhere without warning, it's the perfect storm. All we can do to minimize these occurrences (notice I said minimize and not eliminate) is to stay on top of maintaining our hardware in hopes of preventing our heads from exploding.

At the end of the day, if you can make it back to safe harbour, put your feet up and have a cold one, life is good

[RGrew176]

I am planning my shakedown cruise for next weekend. Just a short trip up the Detroit River to William G. Millikin State Park in Detroit. Will give me a chance to make sure all is well. I haven't spent much time with the boat as I have been playing with my jetski.

I hope my shakedown goes a bit better than yours did. Hope you solve the problems.

[mjk1040]

Yep! Had the shake down cruise for 2-3 hours on the lake since all the locks are still closed here in NY, all seemed fine. Last Sunday morning fired her up to pump off, leaving the pump off noticed steam on the starboard exhaust, back at the dock smelled something hot and temp up 40 degrees from normal. Monday pulled the starboard raw water pump and bingo, all 12 impeller fins gone! New impeller installed and back flushed system till all 12 fins found. Went home and thought, Hmm! when did I change them impellers? Tuesday went back to the boat pulled the records book and low and behold changed them impellers 3 years ago to the month.
Pulled the port raw water pump, which seemed fine at the exhaust port and low and behold 7 of the fins on this impeller were missing! Repeated the process again till all pieces found all is good now.
The morrow of this story for me is check my records more often and replace these impellers sooner in the future, back flushing not a lot of fun. Also changed out the cooler anodes with magnesium ones since they were worn out two!

[Steve2020]

Thank for the info new owner here I was getting different opinion on how long the impellers were good for. After your story I will be changing every spring. A lot easier when done as maintenance compared to repair.