Polk Family Blog

Monday, June 30, 2008

Twitter is silly.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It starts! It runs! It runs GREAT! Turned out to be the ignition. Either the coil or the points, I don't care which, I replaced them both with Pertronix electronic ignition and their Flamethrower coil. WOOOHOOO! Man does it run nice. Can't wait to get it on the water for a test run!

Oil pressure seemed good, but all over the place. The gauge seemed very flaky. It was above 40psi all the time but jumped around. I'll wait 'till I have it out for a while to determine whether it needs help.

The trim gauge seems busted, too. Dunno if it's the sender or the gauge, I'll figure that out later, too.

Next is hook up the radio, change the oil and take it out with someone in a tow-boat on hand in case things don't go as well as planned.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Twittering

I'm trying out twittering (http://www.twitter.com/danond). It's a micro-blogging service. It's blogging for people with ADHD, I think. Not sure. Seems interesting, one of those services that will spawn other, more useful services.

Somewhere along the way, someone will figure out how to make money at it, that's for sure!

Monday, June 16, 2008

It starts!

The risk paid off tonight. The boat started; albeit for only long enough to verify that it's firing on all cylinders and doesn't make any horrible sounds when running. It's not getting any fuel, so that's the next issue.

I spent the night working on it with Dad, and remembered how crazy the three boys get when I don't pay enough attention to them. I'll spend more time with them tomorrow night. Now that I know it runs, I'm not feeling so frantic about working on it.

I'm thrilled it runs! Very excited to go through all the maintenance stuff and get it back on the water.

Friday, June 13, 2008

I did it again.

I bought another boat. Sold the Invader to a friend of mine who'll use it judiciously for all it has left, which if he treats it right, will be many years to come.

Here's what I picked up today:



It's a 1990 Starcraft 171S Select. It has a 220 HP 4.3 V6 in it (Inboard/Outboard). It doesn't start, which is my risk (I got it cheap). I think it's the battery or the starter (I did a compression check which came out OK). All it seems to need is a throttle cable and a battery, and some TLC. Otherwise it's ready to hit the water!

We're in Minneapolis tonight (the whole family). Came out here to buy it and spend the weekend having fun. We'll be visiting the MN zoo tomorrow along with the Mall of America, which the boys call "Lego Land".

It was a VERY long day. We went from 6AM to 11:30 PM. The kids watched Star Wars IV and V and were VERY good. Tempers got short when the navigation system locked up, but we made it OK.

I'm going to finish my vanilla vodka on the rocks and hit the sack.