Today we left St. Petersburg to make the forty mile run down to Sarasota at around 9:30 AM. Before we were even a mile out, I noticed the temperature gauge for the starboard engine had quickly risen to over 220 degrees. It normally operates at about 185. The port engine had not even come up above 120 degrees. Concerned, I idled back and went below to check the obvious…had someone (me) left the seacock for that engine closed? For the engine to overheat so quickly, it almost had to be getting little or no water. If the seacock was open, the next most likely culprit was the water pump impeller. Discovering that the seacock was in the proper position, I decided to return to the marina and get professional help.
Meanwhile, the gauge now had risen to 250 degrees, so I shut down the starboard engine and limped back to our slip on the port engine alone. My First Mate had already had the good sense to check the gauge at the lower helm to confirm the reading we were getting on the fly bridge gauge, and wouldn’t you know it, the lower gauge had picked this particular time to quit working altogether. I began to dwell on my version of Murphy’s law, wherein more and more small things keep going wrong and add up to big headaches…it was shaping up to be one of those days.
While waiting in our slip for the mechanic to arrive, I went below again and checked the sea strainer, just to be certain I hadn’t sucked something into it. Nope, clear. There was no unwanted water anywhere around the engine compartment…it must be a damaged impeller.
Long ago, my buddy and (mentor) John on Poseidon had drilled into me the need to carry spares, for darn near everything. Thanks to him I have spare hoses, filters, water pump, bilge pumps, float switches, generator parts, electrical parts, plumbing parts, anchor chain parts, and parts for parts…you get the picture. (I once had the brilliant thought a spare first mate might be a really cool idea, but the Admiral damn near killed me when I brought it up). Anyway, I was pretty sure I had a spare impeller, and I was right. (John, you’ll be proud to hear I actually had three spare impellers!)
When the mechanic arrived, I told him all that I had done up to this point and mentioned the coincidence of Murphy choosing this time to break the lower temperature gauge. I even told him we had just had new chart plotters installed at each helm. The mechanic nodded, and then agreed, the water pump impeller was the next logical step, along with inspecting all the intake hoses for debris. This took a couple of hours of his time and a return trip to the shop. When he returned with one of my spare impellers installed in the pump, he went below to reinstall the pump and reconnect all the hoses. In passing he said, “If this doesn’t do it, we’ll check coolant level now that it has cooled off a bit, and then I guess the thermostat.” He didn’t exactly instill much confidence. Then, as an afterthought, he said, “You know, both those temperature gauges work from one sending unit, and the units have different resistance depending upon whether one or two gauges is being driven. If one gets disconnected the other will get twice the signal…”
Duh!
Before the mechanic was done below, my First Mate and I had removed the dash on the lower helm. When we tilted it forward to inspect the wiring behind it, we quickly found a dangling pink wire that appeared to be pulled loose from…imagine this…the temperature gauge! It must have come loose undetected when the electronics guy, I mean Santa, put in the new chart plotter. Once reconnected…voila…both gauges work fine. So it turns out, the days delay was due to a faulty high temperature reading in the first place. Remember, boating is fun.
The not so faulty impeller
Cost of spare water pump impeller to replace perfectly good impeller: $85.00
Labor to replace perfectly good impeller: $211.00
Knowing which pink wire to connect to actually fix the problem: Priceless
Barring any more loose connections, we should be in Sarasota tomorrow.
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