TOPIC: I NEED A LITTLE HELP

Hi all I recently purchased a 1959 american marc catamaran , and have a couple issues,the first thing is the tachometer for one of the motors is not working. I switched the wires at the tach from one motor to the other and no dice , so I am thinking maybe the rectifier??? is that a good place to start???
Also from what I can can tell the boat was last on the water in 1988 so are the fuel lines going to be an issue? i heard that ethanol will eat up older fuel lines, and as good as she is running right now , i don't want to chance it... And mt last issue is the fuel tank situation.... There are four 6 gallon tanks 2 on each side in the rear behind the seats.So when one is empty you have to move the seat and hook up the other one.. plus you have to take them out to fill them. ....I have two options , option # 1 is to mount a permanent tank up front under the bow, to get it mounted flat i would have to use some sort of a wedge . then run a line to the back with a y connector to split it to go to each motor.. The other option is to mount 2 12 gallon tanks one on each side.

After sitting that long I would change all the hose's plus the impeller in each motors. And impeller is a lot cheeper the a burn motor. Tanks is up to you on what works best for you.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

JC, I saw the pics of your AM Cat you posted on another thread, rare and beautiful boat!

I'm not that familiar with the motors you're running, so I'm not sure how your tachs read. The ones that read alternator pulses do sometimes get a signal from the rectifier, so checking it would be a good place to start I would think. (Probably a good idea anyway, make sure both motors are charging? Although I believe I have read of some dual motor setups where only one has an alternator, so this may be totally irrelevant). If the tachs are reading off the coil on a standard ignition setup, you may want to check the connections on the coils, and trace the wires running back up to the tachs to make sure they haven't been cut or broken. Sorry, guess I really wasn't much help with that.

I would definitely change out the fuel hoses, marine grade hose is highly recommended for safety reasons. As Mike suggested put fresh water pump impellers in those motors to make sure everything stays well cooled. The rubber deteriorates and hardens with time, most experts recommend changing them out every couple of years!

Permanent onboard fuel tanks certainly would have their advantages, but also bring on a whole new set of issues to deal with. Proper mounting, plumbing (fill, vent, and supply to motors), and monitoring (fuel gauge) would be the first, with changing the balance of the boat and getting the correct gas/oil ratio and thorough mixing following close behind. If it were me, I believe I'd run two 12's and let it go with that. Just my two cents worth..........

Well thank god for ebay , I have 2 impellers on the way along with a rectifier for the one motor , i tested it the other day and it was only sending about 12 volts while running so , i am thinking it is bad.. Each motor has it's own battery..