Diagnosing engine death, upgrading wiring

 For several years, we have had intermittent engine death at some better and worse times. About annually. And it has defied easy answers, with the pressure gauge on the Racor 500 not showing an increase in vacuum, and no other obvious causes. This latest time caused me to need a tow about 100 meters back to my slip in FH. How embarrassing for this careful boat maintenance sailor. 

I posted my problem on the cruisers forum and have had some helpful replies. I went to the boat this President's Day weekend and learned useful things. 

Here you go: 

• I learned there is an internal filter screen in the Walbro 13-2 that is accessed by removing the bolt from the bottom and removing the lower housing. Straightforward. This screen on mine was clean, minus a few bits of something. Nothing close to being clogged. Be careful putting back together as the Oring does not stay put and is easily misaligned. 
• I ran the output from my Walbro lift pump back into the air vent hose that on Aeolus has a junction near this area. I ran the pump and watched as fuel ran through the Racor 500. For one thing, the fuel was clean, showing no signs whatsoever of any gunk even after gallons had gone through. 
• HOWEVER, and this is a big HOWEVER, I noticed that there were air bubbles coming out of the turbine. Light bubbles at all times, as the pump was pulling about 4inHg which is about 2psi. When I turned the fuel flow off at the three way valve I have installed, the pump would stop, and when I turned it back on the there were big and numerous bubbles from the turbine area. Didn't matter whether I turned the fuel flow off at the three way valve, or at the tank. When I turned it back on, bigger and more bubbles. 

SO, I thin, my problem all along has been air in the system accumulating. I've purchased some clear tubing, and this is a great way to install temporarily to see if the bubbles are coming from the tank, from the three way valve, or out of the Racor 500, or all the above! 

This is the current style that is reported to be often faulty and leaking air. 

I strongly suspect the culprit is the brass three way valve as a comment on Cruisers Forum said he has had several of these leak air. If so, shame on them for building a fuel valve that leaks air! I've already purchased a different style three way valve that is a ball valve style said to be rated to 350psi! 

Another trick is that you can leave the manual fuel bleed valve open fully or partially and that will bleed air out of the system continuously. Best to fix any air leaks, but no harm in having the Walbro work continuously at full tilt as they are rated for 18,000 hours! 

While in there, I also went ahead and finally tackled the old RV style wire junctions that are so famously bad. Rather ashamed I had not already done this, but I'm not perfect! The hardest part is physically working in the tight space while bruising your ribs and such. I put padding down on the floorboard supports but it's still pressure on your chest. 

You can track which wire goes to which pretty well by their colors, but it's not exact. For some reason due to fading or whatever, they do not match perfectly. But the process is simple but laborious. You cut each wire and do all the butt connecting and ring terminal installation and attach them to the terminal block. I use Blue Sea connectors and a 30amp rated 8 position terminal block. While doing this you also replace the crappy inline glass fuse that is on the starter activation wire. I had my engine fail to start this last episode of engine death, which added insult to injury. It turned out to be a oil fuse in that crappy car style in line fuse holder. I replaced that with a proper waterproof ATC fuse holder and used a 30amp fuse. I need to get some more shink wrap to finish up a few spots, as you will see in the photo below. I used cable protectors to neaten things up and prevent oily exposure to the wires themselves. 

This photo shows the current state in need of some more shrink wrap and adjustments. There is another one of these on the Gulf 32 behind the electrical panel. That will be easier to access and will be the next one I tackle. 

Mostly done. Convenient support board for mounting terminal block. 

Good stuff

Rip these out!