Nov 21 - a half solution ?

Ralph, of Ralph's Mobile Marine showed up early at 8:45. He was here until 11:15 rebuilding the carburetor and "playing" with the Merc 25. It ran like a champ while he was here ... that was the good news.

He quickly diagnosed the problem, putting his hand partly over the carburetor intake as I advanced the throttle and it didn't stall. Sure enough, when he tore the carburetor apart there were parts about to fail and others clogged with crud. In his estimation it was all original parts, i.e. had never been stripped down and cleaned before.

The carburetor rebuild kit is basically a bunch of gaskets, membranes and a couple of small parts. It's hard to believe that it's worth very much but since they are all specialty parts, they soak you. His price for the kit was basically MSRP -- more than I'd pay ordering online (about double) but that and his hourly rate is where he makes money. He charged a fair price and knew what he was doing so I was satisfied. It cost about the same as I paid Doug at the marina a couple of years ago to do the same thing with the 40 Merc on the Whaler up north.

It was still hesitating a little so after we did a test ride and got back to my dock, Ralph played with the mixture a little more. I think that's where I've run into problems. Late in the day I took Abby out for a spin and we drove up and down out front at high speed and it ran well. On the way back home, however, once at lower speed, it wouldn't keep running without being partly choked. I'll have to adjust the mixture to make it "richer" -- he showed me how -- and try again. I think that once the engine is thoroughly hot it probably needed that richer mixture ? Hard to say. If that fails I'll call him back in. We're almost there but not quite ...

When Ralph left the tide was very low. We were just able to get back to the dock. Any lower and I'd have been out of the boat pushing it along :). I vacillated a little and then decided to go for a bike ride, being noon before I got out. Showers were predicted later in the afternoon but I couldn't see anything on the radar other than quite south and west of me so I figured that I was safe.

I was, never got a drop. Sandy, however, in Orlando clothes shopping, went through downpours. During the first such one, the M5 windshield wiper rubber came partly detached and the outer edge of the wiper has scratched the windshield on the passenger side. She stopped and tried to fix it but to no avail in the pouring rain. She found a gas station and the guy there got it back into place. The scratch isn't really noticeable from the driver's side but I might check and see if it can be buffed out.

She didn't have much success shopping either, picking up one sweater. She ended up at the wrong outlet mall, trying to find it on the NAV. I had the same trouble last year as they both show up. I ended up calling the Pearl Azumi store directly to find out their address so that I could distinguish between the malls. Actually I think that I was headed for the Polo Ralph Lauren store at the time.

Sandy got home about an hour after me having stopped at Publix on the way to pick up a pork loin. I erred a little on the undercooked side this time but that was readily fixed by the nuker.

Another day mostly finished, I watched episode two of Stargate Universe and then after dinner, another episode of Warehouse 13. I can't say that I'm hooked on either. Sandy busied herself with some online Christmas shopping, a first for her !

Onward !