Pat Ousborne

On Sport Cruisers and Express Cruisers we need a valve to shut off water intake when underway to avoid flooding the generator with sea water.A special valve was on my boat to protect the gen. but it broke so it was replaced. Then a year later gen. was not getting water so it needs replacement again. My Kohler repair guy took it out and left it so I can climb in the bilge to manually switch the valve by hand every time i start it up then shut it off to run the boat. Question is to replace this unreliable part or turn the inconveniently placed valve manually which if not done properly could fill the gen with water. Anyone else have this dilemma. I'm not sure if better to leave it or replace the intake valve?Anyone else dealing with this problem? What do you do?

eeasy

I have a 42 with the Gen and I always leave the valves open that feed the sea strainer for the Gen and AC. Not sure if I am suppose to but I never thought of flooding the Gen if left open. I have two thru hulls, one is on the transom for high speed pick up and the other is on the bottom of the starboard side. Not sure if this is the same as your setup but maybe it helps.

blownincome

close when under way to prevent this there should be a ball valve on the intake line, also like said above the 38 cruisers have a second intake you can switch to

Pat Ousborne

If no one else has probs with this automatic intake pressure cutoff then I'll probably replace it again and hope it was a case of bad luck having 2 probs in short time frame. My Kohler repair guy says these parts are not so reliable and I should probably climb in the hot bilge and shut off the valve every time anyway even with the automatic pressure cutoff.If you stay under 35 MPH you don't need to deal with this issue but that is not an option for anyone who owns a Fountain.