M O R E.... Things I needed to know about Outboards, but didn't know I needed to know!!

Many years ago, I took the family to Cornwall and we hired 'Old Stan's Cottage' on the quay of the Cothele Estate, on the River Tamar. We had a little dinghy that came with the cottage and it had a tiny outboard motor which had a little petrol tank on top of it. I assumed all outboards were the same, and I was wrong.

It was hard not to notice that a big red petrol tank came with the motor... it was portable!

The problem was compounded when I couldn't find any sort of inlet for petrol to get into the engine. I read the manual and found only one reference, under the start-up sequence: 'Ensure fuel pipe snaps onto engine fuel inlet'. After looking at every photograph in the book I found one from which I could vaguely see the approximate area the fuel pipe met the engine.

 I looked at the end of the fuel pipe and the valve for connecting it to the engine. It made no sense for at the end of the pipe valve was a brass plate and a 'snap hook' thingy. 

Looking at the engine in the area I thought might be the right place I found a rubber bung sort of thing, which I pulled off to expose what looked an electrical connection!

I pushed my petrol pipe onto the 'electrical' connection and......'Snap' .... it was in place. 

Happy smiling moment, I had learnt something. However, the next thing that had bothered me was how we would get electricity to the engine. This was self-resolving as coming out of the motor were two heavy duty battery wires. Battery wires black and fuel light grey (below)

My next job was to connect the new starter battery to the engine via the battery cables. I began by drilling a large hole in the upper aft deck and feeding both the battery cables and petrol pump through them.

    Next I drilled holes through the aft bulkhead of  the port locker and feeding the battery wires through the hole

I then unboxed the new battery and placed it in the port. aft, locker.

It seems that the motor will charge the battery much in the same way that car charges its battery. Which solved another problem for me. 

 It only remained to put two stainless steel bolts through the engine fixing bracket and the transom.