On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 17:47:34 -0800, Peter Bennett
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 17:14:56 -0500, Marley wrote:


If you inboard is hand crank equipped like mine was on a previous boat,
you REALLY don't need to hand crank it when the battery runs down.

I killed my battery at anchor a few times (thank you Espar!).

No problem. As long as you have two people aboard:

1 person lifts the decompression lever, which makes the engine turn over
fairly easily.

The second person pushes the start switch and once the engine is moving
and the flywheel is doing it's job, just drop the decompression lever
and she'll start like a charm.

Since I normally single-hand, on a previous boat I installed a starter
button in the engine compartment specifically for this reason - if the
battery was too low to crank against the engine compression, I could
open the engine room, lift the decompression lever, then press the
handy start button - with luck, the weak battery would then be able to
crank the engine, and once it was turning fast, I would drop the
decompression lever, and the engine would (hopefully) start.

For the same reason, I found (with a voltmeter) where the starter
button wires come to the relay that engages the starter. I have been
able to start with near-dead battery by crossing th econnection with a
screwdriver.

A button would be better if I were doing that all the time.

Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a

"Hawg Polo?" . . . "Hawg Polo"