Update...
I had my R25's 150 HP Yanmar two engine coolant hoses replaced yesterday by Gallery Marine services instead of MER. Mer could not schedule this warranty work until Aug 1st. Since we will be attending the Desolation Sound Cruise July 29-Aug 6 I was able to secure services from Gallery Marine with help from Jeff Messmer. I'm not sure how Jeff pulled it off but suspect he contacted the Cascade distributor and pulled a few strings. 😉 Thanks Jeff. 🙂
The Gallery Marine service technician Greg turned up at my R25 at around 10:20 AM and had just performed the same Yanmar hose recall warranty work on another Ranger Tug (an R27) moored in my Edmonds marina -- and at first told me mine would would be an easy task... however, not so as I mention below. This was mainly due to the fact that the engine in the R25 spans the cockpit and the rear cabin. The R27's engine is far more assessable and is completely contained and assess through the cockpit engine hatch area.
The work took almost 2-1/2 hrs and the technician Greg did a fantastic job and explained things about the engine as he went about doing his work. He had no choice but to loosen and pull aside the engine ECU box and to do so had to disconnect the large multi-pin connectors. Also needed to remove the Yanmar marked 'beauty' panels to get at things easily. I was getting quite alarmed as one by one of the engine components were being loosen and push aside... I simply had to have faith in this Gallery Marine service technician. The rear hose was kind of difficult to get at and its access was made through the cabin step hatch and the round floor port hole opening immediately forward of the step hatch. This rear hose was routed by Ranger differently from a normal Yanmar engine installation and so the Yanmar replacement hose had to be cut/shortened to accommodate Ranger's hose routing of the hose to the onboard cabin heater. The rear hose ended up being just an elbow with some 8" long arms.
Looking at the original hoses and the new ones from Yanmar it was obvious the new hoses were very much sturdier and had thicker walls.
Greg was very careful about not losing coolant and had a technique whereby he used a special tool to clamp the hose just upstream from where the hose was joined with connector barbs. He used a tool he called a Dentist pick (and it looked just like one) to pry the hoses of the connector barbs. In all, I would say no more than a cup of coolant was lost in the whole process. Greg left me with a gallon of new coolant and told me to check coolant level on next cruise as there could be some air pockets in the line.
Greg found a few areas where the hose was rubbing on metal 'knife edges', as he called them. He used the old hose and made pieces that surrounded the new hose at the 'rub spots' and secured them with two plastic zip ties. Nice job indeed -- and gives 'peace of mind'.
After all was put back together the engine was run for some 20 minutes just to make sure there were no leaks and that the engine ran without issues. All check out AOK. 🙂
Greg did excellent work and took great care not dripping oil or any other crud onto the boat in cockpit and cabin areas. He was well prepared with oil absorbent paper which he meticulously laid about where he stood and worked at all times.
An interesting issue did arise during the warranty work.
As greg moved about in the engine bay he found each time he jogged or slightly moved the wire conduit that ran to the bilge pump/float under the prop shaft that the bilge pump would run. The first few times it freaked him out as the bilge makes a distinctive noise and could be alarming for a technician taking care not to disturb things in the tight spaces in the engine bay. It was determined that the bilge pump breaker on the 12v panel was set ON. However, this did not make sense as by wiggling the wire conduit running to the bilge pump #1 would make the pump run sporadically. We suspected a loose connection. But this could not be figured out as the root cause. We turned off the 12v breaker and no amount of wiggling the wire conduit caused the pump to activate. It was a mystery that Greg left for me to resolve.
I contacted Andrew and we went through what had transpired. Andrew immediately told me that the 12v breaker should never be on as it was simply a manual backup in the event the float switch failed to activate the pump. The 12v breaker ON position simply bypassed the float and caused power to flow directly from the battery to the pump. I was unaware of this. Andrew thought that with me leaving the 12v breaker ON that the pump possibly was burned out or was going into failure mode and needing replacement.
One other test was performed. This was for me to dump water into the bilge #1 area to fill up to be above the float module. I did this with the 12v breaker OFF. If the float and pump were working as designed the float should be activating the pump. I knew the pump would run per the 'wiggle test'. However, with water about 1/2" above the float the pump was not being activated -- even with me wiggling the wire conduit. This test kind of indicated the float was faulty. The wiggle test with 12v breaker ON also indicated a loose wire connector or a failing pump.
The upshot will be for me to replace the bilge pump cartrige and the float. Andrew said Ranger stocks these and could be sent out in a few days. The replacement work should not take more than an hour but that the 2 feet of wires attached to the new pump cartridge must be heat shrunk at the point where they attach to the main wire bundle on starboard side of the engine bay. Hmmm, that requires a special tool presumably. As we plan to cruise up too Roche harbor July 28th there really was little time to resolve this. Andrew, knowing I would be in Roche harbor for 3 days indicated that since he would be there also he would take care of this issue for me. He will bring the new parts and install them in Roche harbor for me. Well, I will certainly help him as best I can and pay for the parts without question, unless of course Ranger says they are under warranty. 😀 GREAT service from Ranger Tugs (and especially Andrew for discussing and advising me) on this issue.
