Carver Owners Forum

Good day everyone, I'm new in the boating world and have an issue with my generator. I have a Carver 38 year 1990 and inside original generator Kohler model 9C63. the generator was working well and two days ago while on a voyage we went through 45 locks and the last lock was a rail lock where they take the boat out of the water and rail it to the next lake. Since then I've been having issues with the generator, it start really well runs between 5 min to 45 min and then stops. then it starts again and stops after about 1 minute. It looks like it is over heating. Is the I can see there is a pipe with a valve at the bottom of the hull looks like it is cooled by the water? if so how do I Bleed the line to get the water going in to cool it?

Since the day they took to boat out of the water I'm also having issues with the air conditioning. I turn it on and I get message STAND BY a few seconds after the air conditioning starts and a few second after I get the message FLT DLY HIGH PS.

I'm assuming again it has something to do with the boat being taken out of the water, how do I resolve this. It was working before the lock system.

I did go down under where the motors are and found 6 valves connected at the bottom of the hull. I tried to close them and open them but the problem is out of the 6 I was only able to open or close three, the other are all seized up and I mean can even bring the handle down, I thought I was going to break one so I stopped.

hopefully someone will be able to help.

thanks in advance.
RS

Sounds like the generator and A/C raw water pumps have lost suction and need reprimed. I have a freshwater flush adapter on the strainer for both my generator and A/C system and have used that to prime my systems when they have lost suction. If you don't have that I'm not sure the best way to reprime the system.

However, going forward, one thing you can do before getting "hauled out" (for a lock, going on the hard, bottom job, etc.) is to close all your seacocks before getting lifted out so you keep the pump suctions full of water. Just don't forget to reopen them before starting the various systems after launch. But, that assumes all your seacocks can be closed, which is another issue you've got to deal with.

Remember, the ability to close each seacock is critical to keeping your family/boat safe if one of those seawater lines fail/rot/rupture/etc. Do some searching on here and you'll find several good ideas to hopefully unstick and free up those valves. Don't do like me and force a valve too much and snap off the handle! That ended up costing me a haulout and seacock replacement. Luckily it was a DIY job but still a major inconvenience!!

Good luck!

One thing you can do to prime the HVAC (air conditioning) is to use a wet/dry shop vac where the water normally EXITS the boat. Put the hose on there and turn the vac on until you can suck water through. That should get it primed.

That won't work for the genset though. However, the genset should prime itself. You might have an issue with the raw water pump impeller on the genset. If you haven't changed it yet, you probable need to track one down and change it. You might be able to get by with priming it but you'll likely have to take a hose off on the genset (probably after the water pump and could even do it after the heat exchanger) and pour water into it until it's full. That would likely bleed backwards down to the raw water pump and prime it. But you should still plan on doing an impeller replacement.

If it's a new-to-you boat, you should also plan on doing the main engine impellers too, so you KNOW for a FACT when they were last changed. They are one of the most common causes of a ruined weekend when old ones fail unexpectedly.

Oh, and another option for the HVAC priming... you can use a shore water hose to squirt water INTO the water EXIT for the HVAC. You just need to squirt about a gallon in there and that should be enough to prime the system.

And as said earlier, you definitely want all those seacocks to be working correctly.

Welcome to the forum.

What you have experienced is a common issue when you transit the big chute ..... really the seacocks for the air should be closed before the carriage moves. generally the engine and generator are ok, or at least in my experience.

The others are correct you have lost the prime and the gen sounds like maybe the impeller has been damaged or just worn out, those seacocks should all be working.

This works for me…
Just slightly open up your strainer until the hose between the seacock and the strainer fills with water and starts coming out of the strainer. The air bubble that causes your problem is usually in that section of hose. Opening the strainer allows the air in the hose to escape.

I had good luck with my AC water pump loosening the 4 screws that hold the housing for the impeller. Opening the strainer alone wasn't enough to purge the air out of the system but allowing the air to leak out of the housing until water came out (just loosened the screws a tiny bit) allowed the pump to start working correctly.

if you had the generator running while you were out of the water, it's a pretty sure bet you burnt the pump impeller and need to change it.