More Boat Problems

After the last outing I wanted to get the boat out again and see if it still had the idling problems like before. We got out to Lake Anna on Sunday and the problems were still there. Furthermore, We got the boat launched and then I realized that I put all the life jackets in the shed to dry after the last trip. I went into the marina store and immediatly my butt started to anticipate what lay in store for me. Sure enought, price gouging. $10.75 each for one of those hideously fugly orange life vests for the kids. Anyway, the problems with the fuel system were still there. The idle was erratic so I got out a screwdriver and bumped the idle up a bit and that seemed to help. I was sitting there in the boat while the kids were swimming thinking about what the problem might be and then I got the bright idea to take the distributor cap off and see if there was any moisture inside causing arcing. I removed the engine cover and took the distributer cap off. Boy was I in for a big suprise. There, laying completely detached from the rotor button was the piece that carried the arc from the center post outward to the distributor cap. Remember that part earlier about my butt puckering...Well, it did it again. But I have my VHF and towing insurance, and there were plenty of other people around to tow me so I did not get too upset. I yelled over to the owner of the boat next to me to see (I know, it was a long shot) if he might have some RTV that I could use to reattach the connector, but no luck. I had some locktite in the tool box but no RTV. I did have...man's #1 fix it solution... Duct Tape!! I did not have much hope but I tried it anyway. To my utter astonishment the engine fired right up! I towed the kids around on the float and stopped to swim a few times and my duct tape fix never let me down. When I got back to the house later in the day I took the dist. cap off and found that the duct tape actually had let me down. The connector piece was found in the bottom of the distributor, but this did not seem to stop that little 3.0 Chevy engine! Here are the pictures of the rotor button with the duct tape fix. That last picture evidently shows that the arc was wandering all over the place and was melting away the end of the rotor button, but it was still running.... Here is a picture inside the cap with lots of powdery stuff all over the inside of the cap. Is that vaporized plastic or vaporized rotor button metal?

I guess its off to the auto parts store. I think I will pick up a carburetor kit while I'm at it. You know that saying about boats being a hole in the water....