11 October Fuel injector nozzles

David has been replacing all the nozzles in the fuel injectors as part of preventive regular maintenance. The tips wear out before the rest does and I was able to buy them in the UK and bring them back. I ordered them from Parts4Engines.com when I was home and they were delivered in less than 24 hours. It's taken David all week to strip and service both the generator's three injectors and the engine's four injectors because of the need to remove the various pipes to give a clear view of the injectors, to replace them and then to bleed the fuel through so it was a real bummer when neither generator nor engine would show any sign of bursting into life when pressing the starter buttons.

engine injectors removed

David suspected he had disturbed some of the wiring harness connections that he had had to move to one side to reach the injectors on the engine. He started investigating ground earths and various relays and, peculiar to Amels, the negative ground system. By now the sun had set and he decided to sleep on it and begin afresh next morning. This worked with a 3am light bulb moment when he realised that one of the few components common to both systems is the shared starter battery.

Could it be as simple as a flat starter battery? It was working fine a month ago when we changed berth.

dead starter battery

A quick check with the multimeter revealed the culprit as a flat starter battery. A call to Budget Marine, a flash of the credit card and a new battery charged and delivered next day solved the problem.

Yet another upgrade David was able to do with parts I'd brought week was to replace the old digital engine hour counter incorporated in the Volvo rev counter which had faded to grey many years ago. We haven't been without an engine hour counter – there's an inexpensive mechanical one which he uses to know when the oil, etc needs to be changed. The beauty of the new digital display in the Volvo rev counter is that it shows the true lifetime hours of the engine. At 6,000 hours it appears we still have plenty of life left. Just like David :)