Rod,
Many thanks for that cool website. And yes, I’ve
known Bill Miller since '83 when I installed my 1978
Sabb 10 hp. G model. Unfortunately for our friendship
the Sabb rarely needed any tending to except for one
or two things I caused…blew a head gasket and the
mounting bolts for the raw water pump rusted. Miller
must have a real job somewhere because he can’t be
making a living selling Sabb parts despite being the
only dealer in North America.
Here are two more sites you might want to keep on
file.
I also ran into a Sabb owner in the Caribbean who was
just finishing up a 7 year circumnavigation. He was
pushing a very heavy wooden 38 footer with it and used
it everyday for charging batteries/motoring. I think
he liked it as it sat rather prominently in the main
saloon with a lot of polished bronze/brass.
What's the problem with the Sabb G engine. We have a Sabb G engine and love the simplicity of it. You can do your own work. Do you have an owner's manual?? Bill Miller of Sabb America is the distributors. I do not have the 800 at home but I can furnish it for you. If you need a few suggestions please E-mail me direct.
I agree with Rod about working on these sweethearts yourself. But if your situation doesn't make that practical, I would make some phone calls to any local diesel shops or yacht clubs for the name of a trusted machanic. These engines are so easy to work on you need to be the most concerned about honesty of charges rather than someone who is familiar with the small Sabb engines.
Why don't you let us know what the problem with yours is and maybe we can help.
Back int he mid '80's I thought I needed the advise of a Sabb machanic specialist and after a lot of searcing finally found one...yes, one supposed Sabb-Man. He was located in Seattle and after more phone calls finally reached the shop where he was supposed to work. But I was told he had returned to Canada to go into commercial fishing 'cause those damn Sabbs never need fixin'...
If that seems far fetched, consider that there used to be two parts distributors for the entire U.S.; one for everything West of the Mississippi River and one for everything East of it. But the guy with the Western portion of the country went out of business back in the early '80's. Apparently there is only Bill Miller left to serve the entire country now. Just not a lot of call for parts for these engines.
We love ours. We still hand crank (no starter motor). It's the G with the variable pitch prop. The only problems I've had is a broken water intake line let it get too hot and I had to replace the headgasket (bout an hour and half work); and I caught a line it it while I was backing down and 'tweeked' something in the prop hub and it was hard going into and out of pitch from forward to reverse. Had to haul out to fix it. Followed the repair book instructions and took the torque block (a chunk of solid bronze in the hob), brushed a file across the edges one time and put it back together...worked beautifully.
As Rod said, they're very simple engines and easy to fix.