[C320-list] Fuel Gauges

[Jeffrey Hare]

Hi Jim,

   It's really no big deal to change the sender.  Took me less than 15
minutes.   It does help to have a socket wrench with a phillips head bit to
make things go faster.  I didn't replace my sender, but had to rotate the
sender because it was installed wrong at the factory by SeaWard.  Gerry
Douglas had me rotate it 90 degrees so that the sender wasn't hitting the
side of the tank, and said that several boats had that installation problem
at SeaWard.  The symptom I had is that it would never read past 1/3 of a
tank or something like that.

You won't get any fuel smell, and the rubber gasket around the sender
re-seals easily.  Once done, just wipe down any spills wd40 or a soapy
cloth.
It's an easy project.

-JeffH

-----Original Message-----
From: James Harkness [mailto:james.harkness at which.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 4:03 AM
To: C320-List
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Fuel Gauges

Our fuel gauge hasn't worked for years. But that's because the sender unit
is u/s. We've repeatedly fought shy of fixing this problem because of the
fear that breaking the seal would leave us with a smell of diesel fuel in
the aft cabin (Clear lack of confidence in yard 's abilities here?). No
problems with monitoring fuel level on engine hours and common sense.

Ours is the Westerbeke 30B engine which uses a bit more than 1.5 litres per
hour running at 2200-2300 rpm, which seems to be our "sweet spot",
equivalent to a shade over 5kts. I imagine other engines are different both
from the point of view of consumption and vibration. Our engine suffered
badly from  vibration at tickover speed until we adjusted it upwards a shade
- and now that we've insulated it properly we can hardly hear it at all!

Jim
#303

mike hunter wrote:
> How many of you have operational fuel gauges?  I have owned 2 Catalina's
and neither of them have had gauges that work.  I have heard this is common
for all boats.  The manual states fuel consumption at ½ gallon per hour at
2800 RPMs, I'm rarely up this high, so I figure it is safe to go 40 hours on
the 20-gallon tank.  I guess what I'm really asking is -- is it worth
replacing the sending unit, gauge, etc., if it's going to only last a short
while; or should I just continue too guestimate?  
>    
>   While I'm sort of on the subject of RPMs, my boat has a "sweet spot" at
around 2000 RPMs, which pushes it along at around 4.5 knots.  When it gets
above that, I feel a small vibration at my feet.  How much vibration is
normal? 
>    
>   I also have to share my joy with the results of McLube Sailkote.  Before
Sailkote it would take everything I had to get the main sail ¾ up the mast
and the last ¼ was tough even with the winch.  Now I can pull it all the way
to the top without straining.  I also applied it to the shift lever and
throttle lever shafts at the pedestal and talk about smooth.  Awesome
product!!!  
>    
>   Thanks!
>    
>   Mike
>   #637
>
>        
> ---------------------------------
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>
>