On Saturday (4-October-2014) I went to the boat to get the engine running. Last week on Saturday, after we sailed all day, the engine died on us as we were coming back into the dock. Luckily it died as we were making the final turn into our dock area and our momentum allowed us to glide into our slip without any issues. We quickly had a look at things and saw a minor leak at the fuel prime bulb. We thought that the leak was allowing air to get into the fuel line. Diesel engines do not run with air in the fuel line.
On Sunday, we bought a new prime bulb and went the boat hoping for a quick fix and an afternoon sail. We had a closer look at the fuel system on Sunday and found that the fuel hose between the fuel filter and the high pressure fuel injection pump had a crack in it. We tried the parts store at Larsen Marina to see if they had a hose in stock…they didn’t. So we called it quits for the day.
Fuel hose with a crack in it
The following week I tried to find a replacement hose and was unsuccessful. Our engine is a vintage 1975 Yanmar SB12 and it is hard to find parts for it anymore.
I ended up cutting the fittings off the original hose to reuse them and bought a foot of fuel injector hose from the local auto parts store to make a replacement hose.
Cutting fittings off the old hose
So, on Saturday I installed the prime bulb, new fuel hose and after several attempts at bleeding the air out of the system got the engine running again.
New prime bulb and hose installed
Yanmar SB12 running again.