Don't procrastinate fixing "small" problems

[harringtondav]

...a stitch in time saves nine. My boating pal has been putting off replacing a bad old style shift cut out switch in his 350 Mag Merc for years.
I've repeatedly reminded him that this will eventually bite him in the form of a damaged lower shift cable. He checked the price of the replacement new style plunger switch/shift plate assy, and blew it off, continuing to grind into gear, tugging into N.

Well, his newer helm controller started getting stiff, and gear engagement vs. throttle up has become unsafe. I told him to disconnect the lower shift cable from the plate and see if the controller loosened up. It did.

Now he has the new switch assy and lower cable. My bellyache is I'll be helping him replace the cable in the sun, in a gravel parking lot behind his marina boat storage, as I foresaw.

 

[GA_Boater]

Dave - Be smart. Be this guy and just supervise since he waited for the middle of summer.

 

[salty3rd]

I’ll admit, I was like that in my early twenties when I had my first boat. I didn’t have much $; always seemed to have enough for the beer though. It’s much more enjoyable now that I am proactive and keep up with the maintenance and take care of the small stuff. I agree coach him and let him do all the work, maybe he will learn that fixing boats is no fun, but it’s even worse in the middle of July when your supposed to be enjoying them..

 

[Scott Danforth]

Dave, you only need to supervise.

as a supervisor, you can have a beer and a shade umbrella

 

[harringtondav]

Thanks Scott. Your and GA's advice will be taken.
He really just needs my hinge pin tool and split lower cable retainer socket, and my know-how.

No doubt I'll end up helping him wrestle the drive off, and back on. ...last time I helped him at the hot marina gravel he had forgotten to tighten the clamp on the PS cooler water inlet. Smoking engine bay, cooked trim hoses and drive water pump. I finally used profanity telling him to remove his 12-15# SS prop as we were sweating like butchers trying to get the lower lined up to the upper. So that prop is coming off B4 we slide the drive home.

I told him to buy a new shift cable bellows since he'll be staring it in the face. If he farts off that "stitch in time" advice he can run off bilge pump until fall/winter and haul it to my garage where he can apply his summer learning.

 

[achris]

When I was being supervised, I had to provide the chair, the umbrella and the beer....

 

[tank1949]

Dave - Be smart. Be this guy and just supervise since he waited for the middle of summer.

While drinking his beer in the shade!

 

[tpenfield]

Dave- What are boating friends for ???

I have a friend who used to call me when ever his boat was having issues or needed the typical winterizing. He sold his boat a few years ago . . . haven't heard from him since

 

[gm280]

Actually I try to keep ahead of everything. But so many times trying to do that turns into the "Domino Effect". That is you have to fix this before you can fix that so you can work on the issue. But any problem the could leave you stranded, should be fixed asap. Nothing worst then being broken down on the road or worst yet, on the water in the middle of nowhere.

If you become the supervisor, you can play with him a little. When he gets some of it put back together, tell him he needs to remove something again to make sure it is correct. I mean you'll be basking in the shade and sipping your favorite drink...why not! Payback is fair isn't it?

 

[achris]

Dave- What are boating friends for ???

I have a friend who used to call me when ever his boat was having issues or needed the typical winterizing. He sold his boat a few years ago . . . haven't heard from him since

Yeah, I've had friends like that too.

 

[harringtondav]

Dave- What are boating friends for ???

Actually I need to lighten up on him. Our scorecards are pretty even after many years of helping each other. But we have opposite styles. I'm uber anal, analysis paralysis planning for every project. He's a hip shooter with speed to completion his priority.

So I'll help him. He'll have his turn to return the favor. But I keep him away from my precision, fussy work. He's great for the heavy lifting, 'get 'er done' jobs.

 

[achris]

As long as it's a 2 way street... :thumb:

 

[Lou C]

Then there’s a repair that might not have been 100% necessary, and in so doing you find a more serious problem previously unrevealed....
so I decided to replace my 30 year old mechanical fuel pump because in fitting a new tygon overflow safety hose after rebuilding the Quadrajet I noticed the port in the pump is plugged with crud. Obviously would not allow this safety function to work. Taking off the rubber fuel line noticed it was cracked nearly all the way through on the bottom where you could not see it!