Mariner fettling...

....spot of time in the garage this morning, learning stuff...

I am not a mechanic...   repeat, I am not a mechanic...  I know little to nothing about engines, I never owned cars as a younger Steve the Wargamer, that I would strip and rebuild at weekends, I never owned a motorbike or a moped..  so I repeat, this is new and exciting stuff for me, and if you have done all the previous stuff you'll be bored rigid with the following and I would suggest moving on to the next blog..   

So as previously posted, the little Mariner was not behaving best at the end of last season, starting was poor, it would go and then gently die out... repeated starting until it got warm would 'resolve' the issue, and then it would run as usual... but clearly not optimal...

Add to this that it is now 3 months since the end of the last season and therefore the fuel in the tank is older, and I have a pathological fear of stale fuel feeding through the engine and causing more problems, so today was the first step in remedying the two "issues"..

Drain the fuel...   now I had envisioned just siphoning it out, but didn't have any suitable tube , so decided to be more adventurous...

Whip the cowl off and you have the following view..

Mariner 3.3HP - single cylinder - 2 stroke

Fuel tank is held in place by two bolts - one at the front (ringed) and one at the back (arrow'ed)  - simple bolt/washer/spring washer...  mild steel by the look so I cleaned these up as I had them out..

Before..

Once these are out the tank is free, and you can get more easily at the only other connector to the main body of the engine - the fuel feed...

Fuel feed...

Better picture of it following..  spigot, clamped to the cutoff valve, which in turn connects to the fuel feed pipe to the engine..  fuel feed pipe has a little spring clip to hold it in place... just slip the spring up and disconnect the fuel feed pipe to remove the tank completely..

I've just partially disconnected the pipe at this stage, hose spring clip slid up..

After that the tank was just up ended over a bucket with the last drops of fuel drained via the cutoff valve..   quick clean up of the bolts and washers and I reassembled...  job done..

After..

Change the spark plug...

I have had success in the past [clicky] from just changing the plug so as a first step this is as good as any..  and my thinking is starting is ok, and becomes OK after warming up - now that doesn't seem to me to be a carburettor problem....  "warming up" might be a spark issue, either way, going the path of least resistance, I changed the plug...  old one following...

.. really neat little access area for the plug on the Mariner...

Spark plug removed..

...it's at the back of the engine (opposite end to the pull cord) has a little drop down hatch ...  secured by two lugs (ringed) just lever it down gently giving access to the spark plug and lead - pull the lead  off to give access to the  plug which is in the hole arrow'ed (before you take it out, clearly.. )

New plug installed - lead reattached - and we're good for a trip down to the water tank at the club for a test run at some point..

Carburettor bowl drain hole/screw

Stupid I know but I was most gratified by that mornings work..  not only that I can see where the carb is, and I have also found the carburettor bowl drain hole/screw which is a cinch to get at should I need to...