We had issues with our starter on our 1978 Gulfstar Sloop. She has a Perkins 4-108 diesel engine and I was getting no response when turning the key. If I kep...

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kill her with sailing vessel dreamchaser

and yesterday we took last affair out

the 43-foot gulf star we anchored up

with some friends it was a nice there

was a nice day out on the water but

unfortunately I've been having some

problems with the starter solenoid from

the time we had the trip back from FEMA

to New Orleans and it acted up on me

again yesterday I think what's happening

is you know the way that way starter

works you have a giant flywheel in the

back of the motor and it's got teeth on

it right and there's a there's a small

gear that shoots out of the starter and

engages with that and my starter is just

making this noise it's a whizzing sound

I think what's happening is this is

spinning it's just not firing when

actually spins this way it's just not

firing in and engaging into those teeth

on the flywheel so because I've had that

problem man I've had the problem with

the starter solenoid sometimes the key

doesn't work I've had to jumper it from

the from the start place down below

actually jump for the back of the

solenoid I'm gonna go ahead and pull the

entire starter off and see if we can go

ahead and get it replaced

so I'm sitting down here in the the edge

of the engine room and my trusty little

light on because in a few moments it is

going to be dark in here

I've turned that light back on in the

engine room but once I disconnect the

batteries which I will do before I start

pulling that heavy gauge wire right off

the back of the starter it's gonna be

dark in here so I've got my little

headlight to hopefully be able to see

what the heck I'm doing and I'm really

hoping I can get most of the bolts out

of the starter before I actually have to

disconnect the electricity in here so I

can get the lights

people lights on as long as possible so

away we go here's my hands now I suspect

at some point later it'll be bloody

because I know I'm gonna beat them into

something and down here there's there's

no good room to get to this and it's

better than a lot of other ones I mean

frankly the fact that I'm kind of

sitting in the engine room tells me

there's room in here but between the air

conditioner pump of the engine row

strainer the heat exchanger

sorry the heat exhaust manifold going

out to the water muffler it's all kind

of right in the way and I got to reach

around it in a couple of different

directions so I will probably be doing

some gymnastics over the top of all this

and where we go the upper one and the

one right below it are the two that I

was jumper to go ahead and start this

I've now disconnected the batteries with

the main cutoff and I'm going to do the

same test and see if I don't have

voltage I want to make sure it's running

through this you never know an old boat

so before I caused the problem all right

so the good news is I've got the power

off in the boat I'm down in the engine

room I did test the voltage on the top

side of the on the top of the starter

solenoid to make sure that when my main

battery switch selector is set to OFF

that it truly is off right

it's an old bow you just don't know what

somebody wired before so I verify that's

the case and now what I'm going to do is

I'm going to disconnect the main power

source that the big double-0 cable from

the top of the starter solenoid and

remove all the connections to it so that

when I disconnect all of the bolts I'll

be able to pull the starter right out of

there the reason I'm doing this now is

I'm hoping that by taking those wires

off and taping them and protecting them

from shorting I'll be able to turn the

battery selector switch back on in the

boat and I'll be able to have lights in

here where I can actually see what I'm

doing which will be a lot easier and it

would also be easier once I get the

bolts out to already have the wires

disconnected because it's probably going

to be a bit of a it's going to be a bit

of an interesting task of removing the

starter from where it is I have two

choices I can try and work it sort of up

sideways between the engine

and this sort of wall we've built in

here for the holding tanks or I can try

and drop it into the bilge below the

engine and reach below and grab it I do

have a little bit of water and whatnot

in the building so I'd like not to do

that but that's that's kind of the place

I'm faced with right now so where we go

I'm gonna go ahead and remove this one

right here

this is the main

so right now I am actually taking the

large nut off for the the large double

lock line that carries the 12 bolts to

the starter itself it's really tough to

get the camera in and see exactly where

we're getting there but but I'm

loosening that up now and taking that

that wire off and you can see now I'm

actually pulling the second ring

terminal off and notice that this is

very loose this nut I could certainly be

part of the problem there's a little bit

tough to to show this I have a small

handheld socket and I'm trying to figure

out how to work my hands into the right

place here - to loosen up the ignition

terminal essentially the yellow and red

striped is what it typically is on most

starters in this case it was yellow it

goes to the smaller of the leads on the

backside of the starter solenoid but I

did finally find an angle where I could

get my hand in here to loosen it up a

little bit so we are moving

this other wire here the yellow wire

on this side

we built up or not on so I'm now going

to remove this yellow wire I've been

putting tape around me so for some

reason they get current they don't short

against them this is the kind of

gymnastics I was sort of referring to

I've got one arm over the top of the

head the other one reaching around the

heat exhaust mixing elbow so we're

working on getting the bolts off all

right so here's the other starter bolt

this is the second one at the top one

off already this is the inner one I

believe there's either two with there

one or two more below so I've got the

9/16 wrench on the backside and a 5/8

socket on the front

and now it's just a matter of continuing

to remove the bolts the bottom is

actually the toughest one there's only

three bolts that hold the starter on all

in all it really wasn't bad to get these

off I could have done better on the

order here we shall hear about it in

just a second all right I've got the

fourth or the third one out and ledge

hid was I took the top ones out which is

mistake I just put one of the top ones

back in finger tight so that I could at

least get to this one a little easier

not have to hold the starter up keep it

from falling at the same time so see if

this is the last one or if there's

another one after this not sure

it was like that's the last one

the stoners kind of laid down on this

beam for a minute I have this piece here

I'm not sure what this is I don't want

it to fall out of it yourself

I'm going to very carefully lift this up

I'm gonna try and lift this side up

first to keep any parts from falling off

and leave this side look I mean it works

on a boat these little cheek boards or

whatever they're calling our phenomenon

so the back of the engine is pretty

rough and a lot of different spots I

mean the latest thing back on kind of

the top of the transmission and over to

the water muffler and by bracing my

knees tightly up against this it doesn't

you know I can push myself up against

the my knee against the engine and

against the side of the the bulkhead of

the wall to hold myself in an awkward

position without this there's no way you

could do that kind of right on the rough

part of the engine so these things are

great so forgive me this is a little bit

hard to see but you'll see here I was

able to angle the starter up and you see

me positioning it in a way that's gonna

allow me to to lift it up it was

actually a lot heavier than I thought it

was so I was looking for the right place

to grab hold of it and that was by

putting my fingers in this pinion gear

and slowly lifting it out between the

open

there's the starter in suckers heavy

luckily the placement I had of the the

water circulation pump for the air

conditioners I built a shelf there we

enclosed holding tanks around in this

engine and we kind of rebuilt everything

on the other side of the engine and for

the camera sitting on the opposite

direction to me

we actually have 32 gallon of holding

tank 2 16 gallons connected on the side

of that I've mounted a the water

circulation pump for the air conditioner

the sea water strainer for the engine

the sea water strainer for the air

conditioning system a flushing system

for the air conditioner I have my 8 D

batteries on top of this floor right

next to the camera I've got the bilge

pumps in the shower stumps behind that

is the hot water heater water heater I

guess it's not really a hot water

heaters no reason to heat hot water but

water heater spare bilge pumps behind it

and then on the shelf up above it I

actually have the compressor units for

the for the coal blue technology for

duration so things are packed into this

very small engine room and you can see

here's the back of the electrical panel

but surprisingly enough this thing came

out of there with about an inch to spare

on either side a little tough to work

its way out and I wasn't sure what this

piece is the spacer I was really worried

about dropping that down below so the

good news is I have it there we've got

the starter set up here and there she is

oh it's hot in there

my mom got me this mug everyone is born

left-handed you turn right-handed when

you commit your first sin she got me

this the first time I had an office so

25 years ago or something like that

ironically enough when you hold it with

your left hand it's all for me my dick

job wasn't as bad as I thought it was

gonna be I really expected this to sort

of be an impossible to reach task and

and honestly it wasn't that bad

certainly awkward positions but listen

working on an engine on a boat is all

about awkward positions nothing's

convenient so you sort of expect the

worst and you're pleasantly surprised

it's better and that's really what this

was you know this took me probably about

an hour and 15 minutes hour and 20

minutes and that was to stop and film

each section as I went it was really

kind of there's not a lot of space in

there and there's nowhere to set a

camera so I was kind of holding a little

GoPro at one point and trying to aim my

headlight in the right spot cause I had

the power off for a bit so it wasn't

really a good way to do this what I

would do is kind of loosen up a nut and

then I would hold the camera and with my

hands try and show where I was loosening

it so I could illustrate it for

anybody's trying to do the same thing

but it really wasn't that bad and this

is a Perkins 4 - 108 engine which is a

4-cylinder Perkins diesel engine they're

in a bunch of sailboats you know the old

adage is if they're not leaking oil

they're not running but they are great

industrial machines they use them in

pumps and generators and all kinds of

industrial applications the thing runs

like a champ even with the starter

problems we've had you know we'd fire

the thing up at 6:00 in the morning and

we would run it for 16 18 hours non-stop

without issue so they're good motors

anyway I'm now gonna clean up the I'm

gonna clean up the starter a little bits

got a lot of grease and oil on it as you

can

I have a couple of the of the nuts that

I had taken off of the electrical

connections I'm gonna put those back on

so I don't lose where they go and I want

to take a closer look and just kind of

inspect it so I'll show it in a little

bit more detail here let's say now that

we finished part one of this video the

second part is going to be some

close-ups of the actual starter off the

boats you can really kind of see what we

were faced with and then the replacement

of it and I'm gonna do that in a second

part of the video just so that the video

is not too very long so in the next

video you'll actually see me put that on

because frankly I don't have the

replacement starter right now so I hope

you enjoyed this episode please do liked

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starter on a Perkins full 108 or any

sailboat for that matter

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from the sailing vessel dreamchaser but

today working on the sailing doesn't

last affair I do wish you safe and happy

Sam bye now

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