No fancy battery switches here. A dedicated house battery switch with only an On and Off option. We will see what the marine electronics guy says. He promised he’d be at boat in next few days.
Electrical demons
- Thread starter Bucktail II
- Start date
I found a problem this year when I was redoing my gas tank lid, I bought a new cover for the engine harness that goes from the engine to inside the boat, the harness that controls the tach/oil gauge/info on my Yamaha engine had worn through the outer covering and 4 out of the 8 wires running to the instrument panel on my boat were broken and worn corroded, it had to be that way for sometime, yamaha wanted 400$ for the harness, I wasn't having that, so I ran cat 5 Ethernet cable from my instrument panel to the engine, one by one I spliced the harness at both ends ringing out ea. wire before making the splice, everything is working great.
I would be curious as to what they will find, I have no doubt that a rewiring job could go wrong even done by a professional, unseen broken wires that corrode/expand can cause enough resistance and prevent the wire from doing it's job, seen it many times. I once rewired a friends 28 foot silverton lol, the guy who owned it before him used lamp shade cord for everything, what a shit show. he used a 5" threaded bolt as the grounding source down in the cabin, the wires were just wrapped around the screw no nuts nothing just wrapped around it.
I spent a week rewiring and ringing out every wire, he never had a dual battery setup and I made one for him, I used 4/0 stranded cable I got when I was working for Metro North from 1970 to 1986, crimped the ends with heavy battery connectors we used when we made new grounding sticks for the linemen, anyways when I got done stuff he never knew he had was working, I cable managed all the wiring and you would have been hard press to find the wires. before they were just hanging down from the bottom of the fly bridge instrument panel.
That boat use to scare the hell out of me, I never got close to it when he was fueling up, even with the now working blowers, he use to pop the engine covers wait ten minutes and then start the engines, I wouldn't get on board till he fired it up. lol
Marine Electrician was at the boat this am. Both engine alternators are pumping 15+ volts at engine. Both starting batteries continue to read 14.1. House battery stays at 13.3 when plugged into shore power, but drops to 11.6 once removed from shore power with electronics on. He is (in his words) 99.8% sure it's the charging isolator which looks original to the boat (2005) and is corroded. He will order a new one and we will go from there. I'll let the group know once new one is installed if that was it.
It's a never-ending battle. If it's not a tackle problem, boat problem, or a weather problem its electrical! I guess that's what makes it so satisfying when it finally comes together.
Had an isolator go on me twice in the 25 seasons I’ve owned my rig. Not bad, not great. Its a boat, so not surprising. I am a bit surprised that your mechanic didn't find it earlier, as a failing isolator is not a difficult component to diagnose.
Just closing the loop on my issue - appears it was the isolator. New isolator and battery in today and marine electrician says everything is reading normal again. I’ll check the boat tomorrow to confirm.
John, that was the one thing I never asked about, I just assumed you checked it out.
Glad your electrical demons are gone, My son and I saw you and John Skinner out at the windmills last sunday, what a great day it was, hopping to get a couple of more in if my sons aren't to busy.
Rick's boat is really a sweet ride, looks even more impressive on the water, I also like the Sea Vees, saw you coming out of the west, you must have been coming from Greenport or Montauk.
Next drift posted his trip and I'm still laughing about the rod, been there done that. lol
Tight lines,
Jay
We had an insane day. Was a bit of a grind and then three drifts with I believe 14 keepers with most being 5 to 8 pounds. Please, please PLEASE pull up next time and introduce yourself (Jay or Fluke Whisperer so I can put a face with the name).
Yea, it seemed to turn on around 11 am for us, I always make it a practice to never invade someone else's space.
If we are ever together again on the same fishing grounds, I will hit you up first and ask permission.
Jay
My demons are back....at least this time I didn't have to get towed back in, I was able to start the boat by jumping the key from the house battery bus bar. She ran like crap not having power to the speed control module, but got us home. Finally got the wiring diagram and some insight from a Volvo guy.....let the games begin part 2.
Paul I know nothing about diesels, and even less when it comes to Volvo diesels, but I do know how to troubleshoot electrical systems. If you’d like me to give you a hand just Shoot me a PM and we can set something up.
Really sorry to hear this.
Now that you have the wiring diagrams you can start to trace things out.
I'm not trying to tell you what to do so don't take this any other way.
I would get myself a decent volt/ohm meter and check every wire, check to make sure what's supposed to be grounded is.
Once you have gone thru all the wiring, I would start with the relays, switches and other components that make up that circuit, then on to any electronics/circuit boards if you have them, all it takes is one component in a circuit board to cause a failure, good luck with the troubleshooting, I hope it turns out to be something simple.
Jay
Demon's have been exorcised. I spent 6 hours crawling around the engine and electrical system and found the wiring harness is a (3) piece harness. Buried under the engine and tyRapped to the back side of the heat exchanger was another 16 pin connector that someone had already been in and cut out 2 wires. The inside was all burnt up and the female side of the connectors just crumbled when I picked at them with my probe. I cut the entire thing out and painstakingly butt connected each wire, shrink wrapped, and liquid taped them all. Funny thing.....the harness changes colors at this connector. Thank God each position is numbered in the old connector.......just match the numbers and crimp one at a time. Needless to say when I was done, I was truly done physically....It was hot !
Boat ran great after I was done. It was a good learning experience and also taught me to trust my instincts.
Boat ran great after I was done. It was a good learning experience and also taught me to trust my instincts.
That's great news, I hate it when someone else does something, never documents it and it leads to the frustration you are going through, but hopefully it's behind you, I rewired my entire boat when I started digging into the wiring. I have a couple of pics.
Now you know your boat better than ever, hope your trouble free for along time to come.
Jay
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