Engineering Report
11/11/2014
Christiane Heinicke
The toilet did not need plunging today. However, it was discovered that there was water leaking from the toilet into the room during flushing. Has this been noted before? Judging from the corrosion on the floor this was certainly not the first time that happened.
---
Summary on the ATV issues - we haven't gotten to re-test the ATVs with National Geographic around:
The red ATV is in good shape.
ATV1 is a bit low on oil, but runs fine.
ATV2 is in good shape.
ATV3 ran ok last time we tried, but had to be towed back during the last EVA. It had started ok, was running for several miles and could be restarted various times. After about 2 hours of intermittent operation the motor of ATV3 died and could not be restarted.
ATV4 is ok on oil and fuel as far as we can tell, but has troubles to start. Once started, the ATV does not react to the throttle as it should. More specifically, it often turns off when the throttle is released, or it only putters forward when full throttle is applied. When the ATV is slowed down, the motor dies.
ATV 3 and 4 will only start with full choke on, even in warm temperatures and after lots of use (as of our last ATV EVA). The main problem with the throttle not working is that you cannot shift into gear from neutral without the throttle on, at which point, you are doing damage to the transmission.