Spring maintenance and other travails

[DBank]

Have you ever noticed that the tasks that should be simple and unassuming often turn into one of life's experiences? I had one this past weekend while performing maintenance on my boat. Everything went fine; plugs, fuel filter, greasing the zerk fittings, prop check... then it came time to change the gear oil in the lower unit. I happened to be in VA Bch earlier that week and decided to stop at West Marine to purchase the items necessary for the aforementioned undertaking. I purchased a qt of hypoid 90 wt and a basic little hand pump to inject the gear oil into the lower unit. Now fast forward back to Saturday, the unit is drained and I commence to attempt to thread the fitting attached to the fill tube into the fill hole. No joy. Ah ha! The fitting is SAE threads and Yamaha requires metric threads (8mm). Well, I was going back to VA Bch that evening to have dinner with a friend, so I returned to West Marine and inquired about the special adapter (mentioned in the tiny little print on the back of the package) required for Yamahas and other such metric engines. Did they have it? Of course not - but they could order it. I decided to exchange the items for three 10 oz tubes of gear oil figuring that would be the fastest way to complete the task at hand. Now it's Sunday. Did I mention that 90 wt gear oil is as slick as owl snot? It is virtually impossible to squeeze the tubes and then change the tubes without spilling a small amount, so now I have it on my hands, the tiny screw that goes in the fill hole, and the screw driver that I need to tighten the screw in the hole. I finally managed to get the screw in the hole and tighten it before I lost all of the oil out of the lower unit. The whole while I looked something akin to a drunken blind man trying to thread a needle. I'm just glad that my grandson is too young to repeat what this old retired sailor had to say during this little operation! Like the song that Wet Willie did years ago says; "You gotta keep on smilin'"!