Ongoing Progress

I found some more pictures from Moses Lake:  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaskarap/page4/

 

Today we started making our way forward.

 

I ran water through the water system to see if we had any issues. NONE were found.

 

I was able to get the shaft coupler off.

 

I was able to get the thrust bearing loose (it appears to NOT have seized). I will have to do some clean up on the allen screw marks, but I think the bearing will come off okay.

 

The shaft log seal seems to not leak, but it appears to be doing something strange, so I well replace that seal.

 

Then take the shaft out and EMORY cloth sand it smooth again.

 

I removed the aluminum trim from the sponson and I think I can straighten, sand and clean back up it (even though I have ordered a couple of new pieces).

 

I also changed the jets to be 78 square.

 

Tomorrow I will pull the spark plugs and check that area out, then do a compression test on all cylinders and figure out what to do next.

 

Onward and forward.

 

Here is a two picture montage from 1984 and 2009. Just for giggles.

 

To see pictures of Moses Lake, go to http://cdenslow.smugmug.com/. If you like any of them, you can order them from Chris (he can send you prints or a CD).

 

Go to Moses Lake day 1 and Moses Lake day 2. We are on many of the pages.

 

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Getting our first boat racing trophy in 24 yrs. Look at those spiffy shirts. In the picture is a long time friend, Russ Dodge, some guy (Bob), Mokie and Kathy..

Okay here is the rest of the story.

 

Issue #1: The engine was running too rich because the altitude was much lower then I thought from Idaho. I should have changed the jets down even MORE, but you won't burn it up running rich.

 

Issue #2: The thrust bearing seized and cause mutable opportunities - engine to hot, wiring to hot, etc, etc, etc. The bottom line is the master switch ached shut and Scottie could shut off the engine and he didn't pull the kill switch until the very last second - NOT SCOTTIES fault at all - the engineer for this project has been fired again..........).

 

Issue #3: We hit the concrete bulkhead and damaged the left pickle.

 

So now we have a few issues to get a grip on - oh and we need to work on the cover over the steering pulley's has to many points for the water to get in and we almost sank before our first heat. HMMM that may have moved up to ISSUE #1.....

 

This is the YouTube video of us being lifted off the trailer for our first heat in 24 yrs.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9xO80u7NE4

 

The second YouTube video is our actual heat. PLEASE understand we were excited and having to learn how to video all over again. Also the engine doesn't sound as good as we wanted because I didn't lean the fuel down as much as Scott Purcell told me to (when am I going to start listening to people - GEEZ). But you will actually see us pass another boat - and that boat was in the Gold Cup once, in fact two of the boats in our heat raced in a Gold Cup yrs ago.

 

The warm up period is 4:10, then actual heat starts. Four laps and we finished second. On Sunday we received our first hydro trophy in 24 yrs.

 

The other boat in our heat was the boat I used to be crew chief on (Mr Bud, Ole Blue, Madame Blue). Today is has the motor that has many parts from my first motor.

 

There motor sounded like ours last year, so it takes time to be successful and I'm REALLY, REALLY rusty.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOOdxolxG4Q

 

Today it was sunny and warm, so I took the boat down to our painter to show him the finished product (The photo that has Jason's sign in the background).

 

Then I went over to the winery to show the gang over there. We christened the boat with some Great Coeur d' Alene Cellars wine.

 

Almost everyone was there (Kimber, Sarah, Robin, Warren, Brian, Steve, Blake and me. Thank you guys for your WONDERFUL encouragement and support.