| After making small changes and updates
to fix problems encountered during first run it was time for second test
run.
Weather was again windy, but we still went ahead to make a run. Everything went OK at the beginning. Improved steering functioned much better than before and i'm satisfied for the moment anyway. We had a head wind from boat ramp down the river about 2kilometers to bay where we were to make turn to head for side/head wind. River section went smoothly. As we got to bay i throttled a little bit more and we started to gain more speed and boat escorting us started to leave behind us. According to GPS i topped ~34km/h with 3/5-3/4 throttle and partial head wind. We cruised ~2kilometers in quite a rough seas when engine started to loose rpm and gradually our speed slowed down until engine shut off totally. We towed Explorer for 1-1,5kms to more protected waters and started to examine what was wrong. I even filled the fuel tank with another 25liters of gasoline and tried to start, but no luck. "Check the fuel pump fuse !" It was OK and pump worked when ignition was turned on. "Maybe there is a vacuum inside of gas tank and therefore fuel pump doesn't have enough power to feed the engine ?" We removed air filter lid and checked the carburettor. Acceleration pump was working as it should be - we had a nice even spray of gasoline when throttle was opened so we had gasoline. "Do we have spark ?". We removed thick lead connecting ignition coil and distributor from distributor end and placed it close to engine block and tried to start - there wasn't spark between lead and block. We didn't have a spark ! Finally we found out that breaker switch inside distributor didn't open at all. After adjusting it engine started easily and we drove to place where my Explorer will be stationed. But this problem reoccured time to time and ignition timing had to be adjusted as well as breaker switch position numerous times. |
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| Unfortunately we all were so busy with rough weather and problems with engine that no-one had time to use cam-recorder or camera. So no pics or video this time. | ||||