Attempt #4 on the Turbocharger's Gasket

The turbocharger's gasket has a small coolant leak--again.  Over breakfast we discuss what to do about it.  However, with a thousand miles of uphill river infront of us, the answer is pretty clear: repair it now.

Read the Small Print: Turbo Side

It's always nice to find a smoking gun to make you confident in the diagnosis and repair.  Turns out there were two smoking guns.   First, the gasket was on backwards.  I now know it's important to read the small print in contracts and on gaskets.

Corroded Turbocharger Surface

Second, there's noticeable pit corrosion on the turbocharger's mating surface.  Fortunately the fixes are straight forward: reverse the gasket and put RTV sealant on it.

Tomorrow we'll take Nellie out for a sea trial to confirm the repair was successful.

Kill Switch Replacement

The New Kill Switch

The Yamaha's kill switch works by grounding a white wire.  The body of the old kill switch had broken under the plastic nut (visible in the picture above).  Because of this the engine would continue to run even with kill-lanyard removed. 

The new switch went in easy enough.  The only stumbling block was running the new wires through the narrow and winding path.  So I didn't.  The new kill switch wires were shortened, soldered to the old wires, and then sealed with shrink wrap.

I'd brag that the switch was purchased for the princely sum of $5 direct from China rather than $60 from Yamaha.  However, after the recent $12 Chinese starter-relay incident--where the new cheap relay fried Nellie's new $90 starter motor--I'll hold off.

The Yamaha now has some new parts: an impeller, spark plugs, and a kill switch.  It's running better because of them.  DBH

SmartPlug Repair

Nellie's Broken Cord Seal

A SmartPlug was installed on Nellie in October of 2012.  It has worked well and we're happy to have the extra safety it affords.  In June of 2016 there was a noticeable tear in its black cord-seal.  I contacted SmartPlug hoping to purchase a repair kit.  Terry Gilliland, tgilliland@smartplug.com, asked that I send him a picture of the problem area.  After seeing the picture (shown above) he said the replacement parts would be provided free under the warranty.  A week later the repair kit (pictured below) was received.  As the picture below shows, a new socket is included with the kit.

SmartPlug's Repair Kit Contents

Today I installed the new parts.  It took about an hour.  If I had to do it again 15 minutes would be sufficient. 

Repaired SmartPlug

The new socket is definitely better than the original: the three wires are held in place with setscrews and the cable is tightly clamped to the socket.  Another nice improvement is that a weather shield is provided to protect the connector when it's not attached to the boat.  DBH