The cold beer part was good, however a little bit too early.

There is a third filter near the engine. It look like a oil filter but smaller. If you change this filter, fill it first before you install it otherwise you will end up with a lot of air in your system.

Now open the air bubble screw as you did before.

Wait with the beer ! You are nearly there.

Turn you ignition key full around for about 3 minutes. Do not start during this process. You can hear the pump ticking. Close the air bubble screw. Cleanup any fuel and start the engine.

Now you can have a beer !

Probably a good idea to run the engine for some 15 minutes to be sure that all air has left the system.

I don't know about the third filter... I only have the primary and the secondary on the engine. What I found works is I change both filters and fill them with fuel before installing. I leave the secondary on the engine cracked just a bit.

Then I crank the engine. It turns over for a second without starting, then coughs a few times like it wants to start but can't.

At that point I tighten the secondary filter and start the engine.

Hasn't failed me yet in 5 years of doing it this way.

Did you know about the filter in your electrical fuel pump. It is in the bottom of it.
Randy

Randy...

On my U25 in my C30, when I turned the key on I heard a clicking from the pump and could bleed the filters by leaving the key on and turning on and off the battery switch.

On my U35, I do not get that clicking from the pump and I don't really even know where the pump is, much less the filter on it. Can you give me some pointers on where to look?

I also had a C30 with M25 so I know the different behavior your seeing.

On the C30, the fuel pump was turned on as soon as you turned the ignition key on; you'd immediately hear the clicking start. You could bleed the fuel system of air by opening the fuel bleeder valve and turning on the key for awhile. You could hear the pump 'load down' after a bit as all the air was purged.

On the C36/M35, the fuel pump does NOT turn on with the ignition key. I've read that it is turned on by the oil pressure sender detecting oil pressure after the engine starts. I've also read that it is wired to the glow plugs, so that it engages when you turn the key past 'ON' to engage the glow plugs. I don't know for certain which is the case or if it varies with different vintage engines. I'm sure someone on the forum knows the answer?

The low pressure fuel pump on my '97 Mk II is located on the bulkhead above the engine in the aft cabin, accessible by removing the engine cover in the aft cabin.

I need to change filters and will have to go through this process myself. I imagine that once the cover is removed, I should be able to hear the pump start from the cockpit.

I can't say for sure, but I am fairly sure different generations of the C36 used slightly different schematics for their fuel pump electrics. In the later Mk IIs, using my 2002 #2109 as an example, there are two fuel pumps...the 12V DC-driven fuel pump (the "lift pump") located behind the engine, and the high pressure engine-driven pump located on the engine block starboard side.

Because I ran out of fuel a few days ago, this is fresh in my mind - so let me capture it now for posterity...

After I sailed in to the dock at Kingston, WA and secured the boat, I wanted to validate my theory that I had run out of fuel. It's an easy check to make, easier than schlepping diesel to the boat and then discovering that there was another kind of problem. My fuel gauge still read Full, after all. When I turned the key, with a dry tank, I was NOT able to hear the fuel pump thumping. Might have been that the key at the helm was too far away for me to have heard it, or it just might not have been wired that way on my generation of C36. I think it was because it wasn't wired that way.

So I bared the 12V wire going to the fuel pump, and using a small 16-gauge wire with alligator clips on each end, I clipped on to the 12VDC lug on the nearby engine pre-heat solenoid (the innermost lug), and then 'jumped it' to the positive wire going to the lift pump. I immediately heard a rapid thumping from the lift pump - rapid because there was no fuel in the line. This validated my theory that I had likely run out of fuel, as opposed to having a failure of a fuel pump. I carried 5 gallons of diesel down the the boat and put it into the tank, and sure enough, as I jumped the 12VDC source once again, the rapid thumping began, and in just a couple seconds the thumping slowed - as the fuel line, now with fuel in it, pressurized - and stopped.

That was all the priming the boat needed. I went to the helm, cranked the engine, and after about 3 seconds it started. I ran it in gear at the dock for about 30 minutes to make sure the fuel lines were purged of all air.

Because I was dealing only with the low pressure part of the fuel system I did not have to bleed the line. If you're changing the fuel filter at the high pressure end, you will likely have to bleed the fuel line. It seems to me that bleeding is more easily done as a two-person job: one person to turn the key and push the Start button when asked to do so, and you, down below, to 'crack' the bleed nut ever so slightly for just a few seconds until fuel begins to drip out of the bleed nut. Not rocket science, but something best experienced once for future reference and as a confidence builder. When dry-cranking the engine, always keep in mind the 30 second time limitation for filling the aqua-lift muffler. Too much dry cranking can cause serious water damage to the engine. [See other threads on this topic for more information.]

CAUTION: When 'jumping' voltage from the hot lug of the pre-heat solenoid, I had to MAKE DARN SURE that my jumper wire did not contact a ground point anywhere, and that the wire that I was jumping to was ABSOLUTELY the positive wire going to the lift pump. Had I accidentally contacted a ground with that jumper wire, the wire would have instantly burned to cinders. NOTE TO SELF: Fabricate jumper wire with an inline fuse; check amperage/gauge tables to ensure correct fuse size is selected. DISCLAIMER: Others, don't do what I did - jumper a voltage - in the primitive manner I did it. Use a properly fused jumper wire.

Here's a long thread that addresses the differences between the older and newer engine electrical circuits, have patience in reading it all the way through, please. The later pages (3, 4, and 5)discuss the issue.

[url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3347.0.html[/url]