Kenneth K

This was a project I decided to undertake after my first round of repetitive engine maintenance last year. The starting battery was mounted on a piece a wood sitting behind the engine, bridging the two elevated surfaces surrounding the prop shaft. The battery was difficult to remove or replace—it had to be turned sideways, tilted to port (I was always afraid of spilling battery acid) and yanked upward over the quarter berth, where there is no way to get your body in a good position to lift a heavy battery. Worse, not only the battery, but the mounting board itself blocked access to the frame-mounted fuel filter. The filter couldn’t be changed without removing both the battery and the board.

I could have lived with the starboard-of-center position of the lift muffler. My only complaint was that the drain screw was only accessible from the port side, meaning that to drain the muffler, I had to remove the quarter berth side-board, half crawl into the compartment and reach in with the longest screwdriver I had to twist (and hopefully not drop) the drain screw.

So, swapping the location of the two components solves several problems. Moving the battery out to starboard allows me to raise and lower it into position from the cockpit-seat-hatch that opens to the engine compartment—ten times easier than the old way.

Moving the lift-muffler to center, where the battery had been, gave me open access to the fuel filter, greatly simplifying filter changes. Also, before re-mounting the muffler, I tapped and fitted a brass drain valve to the starboard side of the canister. Now, I can access the valve and drain the muffler from the cockpit-seat-hatch without ever having to leave the cockpit. And, with the drain tube that runs straight to the bilge, there no drainage water to clean up afterward.

As to drawbacks (there are always some), I had to add an angled fitting and a short section of hose (about 7” total added length) to the 1 5/8” exhaust line aft of the muffler. The fitting was about $20 from Centek, but the hose section I had leftover from the exhaust riser replacement. The added 7” means that more water is back-draining into the muffler when I shut the engine down--which is a draw back--but I figure I can make up for that by draining the muffler earlier if I have several mis-starts. The existing battery cables were long enough to make the added stretch to starboard with little alteration other than adding a bolt-on battery-clamp type terminal to the positive lead.