www.iFourWinns.com

When my boat breaks (past boat and present boat) there are always two possiblities as to what is wrong. Option A is a quick and cheap fix, option B is the opposite. For some reason Murphy hates me and it almost always comes down to option B.

A few weeks back my genset quit while we were on the hook one day. When I got back to the marina I fired it back up and discovered no water through the discharge. Obvious first check is the impeller and when I pulled the cover off....busted impeller. Finally found the time to get to the dealer and pick up a new one yesteday for the low asking price of $32. Now that's a cheap fix, right? Yeah...maybe not. Put the impeller in, opened the seacock back up, fired it up and waited for the water to appear. And waited. Nothing. Crap. Next step was to pull the hose off from the pump housing immediately after the pump to see if it's at least pumping water through...did that and fired it up...no water coming out. Ok. Checked the intake and we have water there so it's making it as far as the pump. The final step was to pull the cover off of the impeller and crank the genset to see if the impeller is at least spinning. Guess what? It's not spinning....I have an internal break somewhere in there. Why can't anything be easy on a boat?

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'01 Vista 298

Oh man....thats not good news!

B.O.A.T. - we all know what it stands for. Let us know what the outcome is.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I've done a little more research and it appears to be one of two things...either a bad sleeve ($5) or a bad pump ($150). Or both. Not sure yet if I can perform either task myself but I hope so. It would really suck if it comes down to a $5 part and I have pay $90 an hour in labor to get it fixed.

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'01 Vista 298

Was finally able to get back to the boat this weekend and made some progress on the genset issue. After much body contorting and swearing and on-line searching I was able to get the water pump off of the genset. If I had searched better and paid better attention to a couple of pictures that people in other forums had posted on this topic I could have cut my swearing in half. Anyway, it's a bad sleeve/coupler. It's a $5 part.....assuming I can find or order one locally through one of the boat dealers. Otherwise it's a $5 part plus probably $10 for shipping and handling. Either way, a pretty cheap fix in the world of boating. Then again, knock on wood as I won't know 100% that this was the problem until I have the new sleeve in and the pump put back together and on the genset. Wish me luck.

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'01 Vista 298

Had the exact same thing happen to my genset last year! Turned out to be the impeller coupler/sleeve (forget which term is used). Quick and easy fix, but was a WTF?? moment for sure. Apparently its a common "issue" among Kohler generators. I'm betting you get your new sleeve in there and she starts spitting like a camel.

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2002 Vista 298
Video of boating from The Florida Keys, to Miami, to Bimini/Bahamas

Well.....turns out the sleeve/couple broke because the pump froze. Good thing Kohler was smart enough to put a $5 weakest link between the $150 pump and the big, expensive parts. This is the year of the water pump for me...so far it's been the fresh water pump, port engine water pump, and the genset pump. Ony ones left are the A/C and the starboard engine. Let's hope they don't feel negelected and start acting up too.

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'01 Vista 298

LMAO!!! You are too funny but you tempted fate with the other parts getting jealous. I am in the same boat had some salt water get in the engine compartment and I am not sure if I screwed up the starter or not will know on saturday when I get the batteries squared away. Hopefully it's the batteries and not the starter. Joe in Miami

Joe just buy a spare Sierra starter for like 170 and stash it in your garage. You're in Fla, salt water, trust me you will need it sooner or later. And take a peek under the starboard rear side of the engine, and see if your arms are long enough to reach the 2 bolts that thread up into the bottom of the engine that hold it on. Also, when you are poking around in there, make sure that both the engine drain, and manifold drain, seal perfectly and do not let salt water drip right on the solenoid.
When I drain the engine after flushing with freshwater, I put a freezer bag over the starter and wiring to keep water out of it, the manifold drains right on it....

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Great I didn't know that and I probably have been soaking the whole starter since I purchased the boat. LOL oh well thanks for the advice I am sure I will need it in the near future. I am going to purchase a starter and leave it in the garage that way I don't have to rush out and get one when the need arises. A plastic bag to cover starter, jeez I haven't even seen the starter to be honest with you so I am pretty sure I have soaked it with water and that anti corrosion spray I spray the engine with after each use.

Ok if you run the engine on muffs why would you need to drain the manifolds and engine of water. I was reading the volvo-penta book and I believe that is only done when winterizing the engine I can be wrong this will be something I will be interested in getting to the bottom of.

Boat is not starting been charging the batteries to make sure it's not them. All it makes is this click and noise like its running up to start but not moving the engine . What a bummer I really wanted to go on a twilight cruise today in the ICW.

Finally!!! New pump installed, new sleeve installed, new impeller installed and I now have a working genset again. Nothing like taking nearly 4 months to complete a 1/2 hour job. Oh well....feels good though since I did it all myself and didn't pay crazy labor rates for a simple job.

FYI - if you want to make your boat blow bubbles, mount the water pump base upside down and turn on the genset.

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'01 Vista 298

LOL love it I know the feeling of sticking it to the repair guy for trying to just hold you up without having a gun. Congrats windedown good job getting her done.