Yesterday Brad brought over a new E-Meter and installed it. As usual, all did not go as planed. Oh, the E- Meter is good now, but the wiring is not. Once installed we discovered that James wired the main ground bar directly to the battery, failing to rout it through the shunt. All ground wires MUST be wired through the shunt. Brad had some other work to do so he took off, allowing me to do the repair to save some badly needed funds. I disconected it, made up a new ground wire and ran it back into the engine compartment and connected it to the shunt. Problem solved, right? Wrong! Upon Brads return we tried to initiate the E-Meter cycle once again. At this time it was discovered that James had obviously circumvented the shunt in more than one place. As it was still a no go! Brad ran me through the workings of said meter and drew me a schematic, explaining the procedure to remedy the situation. Basically, I have to go through the complete grounding system and re-do all of the ground wires that James grounded to the wrong places, and run new wires from all individual grounds and ground bars through the shunt. This will be a major time consuming procedure that we can not afford to pay another electrician to do.
Once this is completed the new E- meter will performe its duty and enable me to find the culprit wire or device that is draining the batteries. In the mean time we will have to use the generator to make up for the drain of electricity caused by a novice electricion. This will result in more expense due to more fuel consumption. It seems that ya just can't win! I have decided to forstall the electrical problems until we get to the Sea of Cortez. On the bright side, we are leaving for Ensenada, Mexico soon. We are tired of all work and no play, so We're going fishing! In Mexico. Who needs electric anyway? It's a sailboat, right?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yes it is a sail boat that works best with the wind pushing it along. Go for it when the winds are favorable. Oh, and have some fun along the way.
ReplyDeleteWe are looking at fuel issues such as; metal flakes in high pressure fuel line clogging an injector, as the engine shakes when it knocks. A bad injector. Water traped in fuel system, releasing periodically etc. Also the possibility of a loose head. The knock just doesn't sound like a rod to me. The sound is more high pitched, like a fuel knock and rattles the engine. A rod noise is constant and this nois is intermittant.
ReplyDeleteThe mechanic said it was a rod, but I do have my doubts after talking to several others that confirmed my thoughts about a possible fuel issue. We have to move the boat today, so will have to run it (at idle) to get it out of marina to anchorage. I will pray for enough wind to sail most of the few miles to the anchorage. I wonder if our dink will tow it? Maybe!