Child's Play

[rlb2252]

Kids have been playing on a boat I want to buy. Can they do any damage by turning the wheel back and forth w/o the engine running?

What about operating the throttle back and forth? Can that do any damage to the throttle? Flood the engine?

This is an '86 Sea Ray with one of those Commander throttles, which has the trim, trailer plus push button neutral switch all combined.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Child's Play

Turning the steering wheel won't hurt anything. Working the throttles probably won't either, depends on how long it sits. They'll be pumping the gas out of the carburetor fuel bowls through the accelerator pump till the bowls are empty (probably 15-20 cycles of the handle) then the carb will be sitting there with empty bowls. I've seen lots of corroded, plugged up carb passages from sitting up dry once the air can get to them.

If it cranks, idles and runs OK, the carbs are fine. Any problems cranking or not running smoothly could point to carb problems.

 

[lowkee]

Re: Child's Play

Heck, they may have kept the cables from getting bound up by playing with them, so long as they didn't break any release buttons on the shifter. Check and make sure the imaginary horn still works

 

[rlb2252]

Re: Child's Play

The engine flooding seems likely since I smelled gas when I opened the engine compartment. (this boat hasn't been run in five months.)

The shifter release button I also worry about. The owner is unfamiliar with this boat--never actually took it on the water. Trying to start it, he had a difficult time priming it in the throttle only position.

I'm not sure if that was from his lack of familiarity with this controller or because it is damaged in some way.

If I were a kid playing on a boat, unsupervised, I'd yank and pull and twist and force everything that wasn't nailed down.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Child's Play

...If I were a kid playing on a boat, unsupervised, I'd yank and pull and twist and force everything that wasn't nailed down.

You sir are a good judge of kiddie character...

I am embarrassed to admit when I was a wee tyke of about ten, my buddy and I found an abandoned float plane pulled up on the sand in a little bay near my parent's place up north. We climbed all over that thing, cranking on every knob, button, and lever we could find.

Turns out it wasn't so abandoned after all and the owner was none too pleased to discover us in there on the third straight day of goofing around...

As for the boat, I've heard shifting into reverse without the engine running isn't good for it, but I don't know that a couple of times would actually do too much damage.

 

[rbh]

Re: Child's Play

Question is "did you get it to run"
rob

 

[rlb2252]

Re: Child's Play

Did we get it to run? Not yet. A short attempt at charging the battery failed. (The battery is new.)

Took it to a mechanic. I'll find out tomorrow what the deal is. Plan on having the throttle control looked over. Maybe a few other things before the river trial.

I've been reading about a few issues with that all-in-one Commander throttle control. Just wondered if maybe the kids had forced it to do something it wasn't supposed to do.