Sooooo, here is our tail of the trials of boating. We
get up at six excited for the first day of the Great Loop. Port engine starts,
Starboard doesn’t. It turns one quarter of a turn and the starter chatters.
First thing I suspect is the batteries, even though they are at 12.8 vdc. I
pull all connections to the Stb engine to ensure clean and good connections.
Test start ‘NO JOY’. I put jumpers to the other engine NO JOY. I pull all cables
and swap batteries for each engine. Port starts right up, Stb didn’t. Took
hydrometer readings. All cells >1.825. IT’S NOT THE BATTERIES.
Phase two: I start
snooping around the starter (its outboard and a bear to see). I find the lead
from the starter positive to the alternator positive output melted. The cause
will come later. I replace the positive lead from the alt to the starter and…NO
JOY and its get hot quick. Looks like a starter problem.
Well we are starting the
loop today and have no car. In come Robby, Joann and Donny to help out. Robbie
and Donny provide all kinds of great advice from their previous experience with
farm equipment and previous jobs. They
talk me into pulling the starter so I did. Robbie suggest we taking it over to
the Wenger Amish motor shop and check it out, best idea of the day (you why see
later). Mean while I want my truck because I figure we are going to be here for
a few days. Joann takes me home and on the way back I order a new starter from
Drum Point Marine and it will be here tomorrow between 1000-1300. I get back
and Robbie calls Wenger to see if they could fit us in. They can so we hit the
road for Saint Mary’s Amish country. The fella at Wenger tests the motor and
its fine. We start asking questions and he gave us a wealth of ideas. Sooooo,
back to the boat.
Phase three: I wire brush
all the contact point for the starter to the block and all the terminals, even
though they were pretty good. As I was putting the last positive lead though
some piping I bumped the block, IT DIDN’T SPARK! It should have been a direct
short. Robbie suggests taking some readings. They all come up empty, almost
zero. As I am scratching my head I look forward and shazam!! the Main Engine
battery cutoff switch is in off. It’s a big plastic key switch that looks like
and oversized clock key. I must have bumped it while loading stores.
NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
The wire that fried to the alternator did so because that little 10 ga. wire was
trying to back feed and start the engine.
Put the key in 'on' and the engine fires right up. NOTHIN BUT JOY!!!.
I am not sure what the
moral of the story is. The ordeal took solid none stop work from 0800-1600. Oh
well I know how to pull the starter now. Looks like the LOOP starts tomorrow.
I wonder what Betsy would do if I took a picture of her in a compromising position(_|_)
Dave, a two minute drill or a robust operational barrier could have prevented this bump / mispositioning event. Back in your day it was a 10-3-1. Hope all goes well in the am. Judi and I will be checking your "blog". Rick
ReplyDeleteYou know Rick, that was the thing I thought when I saw that switch. I told Rob I must have missed those self check tools.
ReplyDeleteI can see that following your progress is going to be very educational. For instance, what does "dif" represent? Looking it up online, the best fit I could find is "differential item functioning." It looks like a good fit in this situation. Am I close? Yep, a good take-off checklist would have come in handy. :) Our future plan is to meet you guys when you get to Chicago or maybe somewhere in New York. Can't go to Canada...no passports. :) I'm afraid they might not let me back in if I do go. :) Let me know your timeline for your trip or give me an idea where the best place would be to meet.
ReplyDelete