No sailing this weekend.... SWMBO has to work again (her busy spell at work will soon be finished thankfully), and we also needed to get her car through an MOT (successfully!)
So, I have taken the opportunity to get to grips with the troublesome outboard, a Honda 2.3.... it hasn't been running well, and last trip simply refused to start at all... so I brought it home to check it out...
It's not the easiest engine to take apart, with a tight fitting plastic guard cover over the working bits, that requires the fuel tank, throttle and choke cables, and various electrical bits to be removed, and then the starter recoil mechanism as well.... and then it is a very tight fit, so needs a little 'assistance' to remove.... once it was off, then I could get at the exhasut and carb.... the drain bolt is locked solid, so no chance there, so I had to remove the two bolts that hold the carb/exhaust on, and very carefully remove the assembly to avoid damaging the gaskets (as i didn't have replacements)... once the carn was off, then I removed the top and cleaned it out... quite a bit of gunk in there, and then the float chamber/bowl came off.... ahh.... thus looked like it might be the problem.... there was a significant amount of solid matter in there, and the needle area was well gunked up, with two small air holes completely blocked.... a good few mins of cleaning, and it looked better...
Reassembling and reinstalling the carb was straightforward... but the remaining plastic less so!.... it took me a good while to get the cover back on....
But eventually it was in place.... I pulled the starter and there was a funny graunching noise..... I immediatly looked and the plastci cover that had taken 30 mins to remove and 30 mins to refit was on wrong!!!!!... inside is a small metal heatshield and i'd got it in the wrong place and it was catching on the air fins on the cylinder head that provide the colling air flow.... ******!
So it was removed again, and reinstalled... this time a bit quicker with the benefit of practice, and then the outer cover was put back.... two quick pulls with the kill switch off to fill the carb.... pop the kill cord on, pull... and off she went!... running beautifully..... hoorah!
I've also painted another coat on the gunwhales of the dinghy... she's looking fabulous.... i'll start painting the centreboard and rudder later, and then this evening... i'll start the sail.... promise! | 
