I have an Atomic-4 on a 1972 Pearson 36 that has always been reliable. It has spent all its life in lake Erie so it is only in the water 5 months out of the year and always in fresh water.
Today I was bringing it into the dock at idle after a good sail and the engine just died. If I remember correctly it was idling along and then stopped. I don't remember it sputtering but I was too busy trying to get it restarted to concentrate. I couldn't restart the engine. Luckily I had enough headway on (but not too much) that I could glide into the dock and stop before hitting the pier.
I tried to restart the engine after it was at the dock but it wouldn't start. I checked the spark with a screwdriver stuck in the spark wire and there was a good spark. I had also replaced the ignition with a solid state ignition (Ignitor by Pertronix from Moyer Marine) 3 or 4 years ago so I think the ignition is OK. I checked the gas tank for gas and it had 10 gallons at least. Also, if there had been a problem with a vapor lock this should have fixed it. However, I still couldn't start it.
I had a spare main
fuel filter so I removed the old one (it was 2 or 3 years old) and put in the new one. There didn't appear to be any water in the
fuel. It still didn't start for a while. After doing some more checking and then trying to start it again, it finally started and seemed to run OK.
My problem is that I don't want to be out in the lake when the engine dies again. How can I troubleshoot the problem to determine if it is the fuel system? I had the carburetor replaced on it a couple of years ago and have not had any problems up until now. What would be the symptoms of a bad fuel
pump?
Also I have a replacement fuel
pump (from when the engine was new) that has a glass sediment bowl. The current fuel pump on the engine has a metal sediment bowl. Wouldn't you normally want a glass bowl so you could see if there was water in the gas?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan
Arriba