[Paddlewise] Yet Another Muthah-Ship Update

Hi All,

The short story is that I solved the fuel feed issue by taking out the
original fuel feed tube assembly and discovering that it was corroded beyond
usefulness. No one has anything like it, of course, not even the copper
screen they used as a filter on the bottom. So many things are no longer for
sale anywhere any more. I not only had to fabricate a new assembly but I had
to get the tools to do it and then do it using the bed of my pickup truck as
a workshop.

Working without even a rudimentary workshop - without even a windbreak -
creates some unusual technical difficulties. Because the assembly had to be
soldered together it was important that I park the truck in an area
protected from the wind as much as possible because wind can cool down an
assembly so that solder doesn't work very well. I also had to make sure that
there were no flammable materials scattered about that could surprise me by
bursting into flame (I have vivid memories of welding a sprinkler system
drive carriage on a farm and discovering that the farm under my feet had
caught on fire). The only way I could mount a vise was on the end of a 2x4
so I had to be extra careful not to aim the torch I was soldering with at
it. Or the truck bed. Or me.

It actually took me two tries... the first assembly had solder slathered
about on it to the point where it was unusable. On the second assembly I had
to go buy an NPT (National Pipe Thread) die in 3/8-inch from Ace Hardware in
Oak Harbor and use that to chase the threads that solder had managed to get
onto. Ace Hardware, despite Home Depot's marketing department, often is the
best place to find real parts.

To replace the screen that no one carried any more I simply soldered the end
of the copper pickup tube shut and then drilled a bunch of tiny holes with a
3/16" drill bit. The bit itself was too small to fit into my drill (a
1/2-inch drill) so I had to wrap it with electrician's tape in order to get
it to stay in place in the chuck.

It all worked pretty well. You can see photos of the tools I used, the old
fuel pickup assembly (which crumbled into pieces when I picked it up by the
tube end once) and the end result of the work effort.

It took, believe it or not, two days to do all this. Including taking the
boat out and making sure that it would now go at a reasonable speed if we
needed it to. Photos of everything are on www.nwkayaking.net under "odds and
ends".

I left the F-1 secured to the flybridge (there are photos of that, too) and
headed home to get some sleep before the workweek started up. Thursday Sue
and I will be taking the boat into the San Juan Islands to actually kayak
and fish. I'm hoping no more 37-year-old issues rear their ugly little
heads.

But it still beats working in an office!!!


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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