pokey engine/transmission?

[anaisdog]

thanks.  the fluid was clear and looked over filled.  would that cause the issue?

[anaisdog]

why is leaving it in gear, while sailing, bad?  just curious.  just because the prop is spinning and wearing the shaft?

[Noah]

The manual says leave it in neutral or reverse, just NOT forward.

[anaisdog]

okay, i can remember to do that but why, do you think, that is?

[Noah]

http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Right_Transmission_Gear_for_Sailing
Sometimes it is best not to reason why but to do or die...

[KWKloeber]

Pop quiz. You moor on the Niagara River. 
How do you leave the tranny?

What if you're in a slip?

[Noah]

How about sailing backwards?

[KWKloeber]

okay, i can remember to do that but why, do you think, that is?

Good question becki.  More owners should want to know EVERYTHING about their boats, sail or power or whatever, and why everything happens (and  doesn't happen when it's supposed to.)   Knowing so sometimes helps set off the alarm bell, whether something is critical, or REALLY  critical.

See this thread
https://www.catalina36.org/comment/54808#comment-54808

Do you have a fixed or folding prop?

There's also seen A lot of "dock facts" (i.e., opinions)  whether a spinning prop or not caused more drag under sail. I don't know that I've ever seen a fact based comparison

kk

[anaisdog]

Ken, 3 blade fixed, as i've said. 

thanks about the info

[Ron Hill]

Guys : You'll find that most racers will leave their transmissions in neutral!!

A thought

[Noah]

And then there are the crazy guys I raced with: after they powered out to the starting area they would jump over the side and put rubber bands around their 2-blade folding props to prevent them from unfolding while sailing!

[KWKloeber]

I do same as Ken with a few exceptions.

Jim

Jim,

This is the type Pony Pump I use to change engine oil and tranny fluid.  It works great. It's about the cheapest fluid change pump for the quality -- I had a "marine" oil change pump from WM, and it lasted 2 seasons.  This is going strong after 20 seasons.





I have it set up with a 12v lighter plug (and also carry  a long extension cable) and have a rocker "snap switch" mounted to the base (added after the 1st time the discharge hose fell out of the waste oil container.) 

The ports are threaded for both garden hose and npt (3/8?.)  To get full flow, on the ports I use garden hose barb fittings with shorty stubs of 1/4" silicone tubing on them for connectors, to receive clear 1/4" vinyl tubing.  Into the sucker hose I slip a 1/4" OD stiff poly tubing "wand" to reach the bottom of the tranny and oil pan.  I can reach to the low spots and that I need to replace more oil tha owners who use the oil change hose, speaks to the fact I get more crap oil oil.

I carry it set up in a shoe box sized plastic box w/ precut pieces of vinyl and poly tubing in there ready to go.  With an oil diaper cut to fit the bottom.

To get this off the boat someone would have to pry it from my dead hand. It doubles as my emergency bilge pump, emergency fuel lift pump and emergency fuel transfer pump.  And it's my wash down pump and dewatering pump and pink stuff pump.  It's the MOST multi-purpose piece of equipment on the boat.
Besides the ice box.

This is the type filler bottle - a Nalgene lab dropper-bottle.



Or one can use a wash-down bottle and squeeze it standing upright. 



kk

[J_Sail]

Ken,

Sounds like a great item to own.
Your photo looks like a Little Giant 365. If that's the brand you have, any idea if yours is the chrome-plated brass version, or the 365S stainless steel one (and what the trade-offs might be other than a few dollars extra)?

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-365-Submersible-Utility/dp/B001973AVO
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-365S-Submersible-Utility/dp/B000VWZ1AQ

[anaisdog]

Ken, that's great!  thanks for the info

[KWKloeber]

Jeremy

You busted me.  The pic is a Little Giant Pony Pump, but mine is a Teel (Grainger brand) before they stopped house branding the Little Giant pumps.  The pic is also the 120v version (I couldn't find a pic of the 12v w/ the extra impellers.)  So, that's why I covered my butt that it's "the type" that I have (like the Teel below). 



Mine is a chrome pump -- actually left over from a half-dozen Teel pumps that I bought for a work project -- pumping some nasty groundwater wells at a waste treatment/disposal facility.   So although not continuously, the body was subject to some nasty stuff (the color of Coke [not the white type] and effervesced like a nice cold can poured over ice.  (The feds subsequently offered the company owner and plant manager free room and board for 20 some odd years.)

I did buy stainless bodies to set up pumping acid from 55 gal drums at a dialysis facility, but for our use I wouldn't see an issue intermittently using the chrome pump since 90% of it is probably going to be engine fluids.   A fresh water flush after salt seawater use would be in line.

Harbor Freight also has a $40 marine utility pump, but I haven't tried it.  Some owners said they had good luck with a previous model, but I bought one for work and the impeller died after a couple days hard use.   Like most HF stuff, forget trying to get parts.  The "impeller" was a funky set up, not a rubber impeller, but a hard disk with impeller "fingers" that sweep the case.  I haven't even tried to find parts for it.  A very strange set up.

The current HF pump manual looks like it has a real rubber impeller and it also already comes with a snap switch on the cord.  Nice.  I may buy one to try it. it looks very close the the LG pump.





ken