Location of a/c and strainers

[John Macaulay]

Hello all. I am a newbie to the Sea Ray family as I just bought my first sport yacht. My salon a/c quit working and there is no water being pumped out of the boat. I think the strainer is clogged but I have no idea where they are located. Also, I may need to find the a/c unit itself. Does anyone know where these items are located and how to access them.
I have a 1997 400 Sundancer with twin Mercruiser 454 inboards.

 

[Stee6043]

Your salon AC is under your couch, the most aft section. Just slide the cushion off and presto, AC unit.

Your AC water pump is likely smack dab in the center, most forward section of your engine room mounted to the bulkhead. Actually, mine is mounted just a touch to port. The strainer for your AC pump should be not far from your pump, centered in the bilge. Mine happens to be directly below my AC Converter/Charger.

You say your AC was working, and water was pumping, before it quit? Silly question...but you did turn on the breakers for both the AC and the AC water pump? To make both zones of AC work on our boats you need to flip all three breakers. You probably knew this but thought I'd mention it.

 

[John Macaulay]

That's perfect. I will look there. So, the salon a/c quit in the middle of an outing. I did check all the switches and breakers to make sure everything was on. At the time it quit, the generator was running, and every couple minutes I could hear a loud buzzing for 5 seconds or so and the a/c current meter would peg. After a few times of that, we shut off the a/c completely. Once we were back on shore power, we tried again with the same results. I also noticed that no water was being discharged at that time. A few Google searches led me to check the strainer.

My experience with an RV a/c unit tells me that the start/run capacitors are bad. In order to check those, I needed to find the unit.

Thanks for the info. I'll be going back out there tomorrow and see what I come up with.

 

[be_prepared]

I hope the a/c strainer is easier to reach on your 400 than it is on my 340... it's mounted much lower than the engine strainers, really requires being upside down leaning down well into the bilge to get to it. One of those things they could have probably located a little better for maintenance. Of course, the seacock is in an equally challenging location to make it more fun. Maybe my body's just not as psyched about being a contortionist anymore. I need a real engine room in the next boat

 

[John Macaulay]

Your salon AC is under your couch, the most aft section. Just slide the cushion off and presto, AC unit.

Your AC water pump is likely smack dab in the center, most forward section of your engine room mounted to the bulkhead. Actually, mine is mounted just a touch to port. The strainer for your AC pump should be not far from your pump, centered in the bilge. Mine happens to be directly below my AC Converter/Charger.

You say your AC was working, and water was pumping, before it quit? Silly question...but you did turn on the breakers for both the AC and the AC water pump? To make both zones of AC work on our boats you need to flip all three breakers. You probably knew this but thought I'd mention it.

 

[John Macaulay]

Well the unit and strainers were exactly where you said. The strainer was clear. So now I gotta find a capacitor. Thank you so much for the info.

 

[John Macaulay]

I changed out the capacitor yesterday. Still does not work. Called an a/c tech. He suggested putting in a start capacitor kit to help but we may need a new compressor. Is there a specific start capacitor kit I should be looking for or will any work?

 

[KevinC]

That's a big jump to say you may need a compressor because the water isn't pumping. Is there power to the thermostat display? Any errors showing?

-Kevin

 

[John Macaulay]

The display is good. No error codes. When the system is turned on, there is a loud buzzing for 2 seconds or so, the 115 vac amps jump to 50+, then the buzzing stops and the amps go back to normal. The compressor is not kicking on. The blower is working great. My a/c guy suggested that the compressor is probably needing replaced soon. A start capacitor will give the compressor motor a little more umph to get it to start. I have never seen an Air conditioner unit without a start and run capacitor but I only have a run capacitor.
The water pump works good. Both a\c units work off the one pump and the other a/c is great. I don't see any issues with water flow.

 

[John Macaulay]

Update...I put a start capacitor in parallel with the run capacitor and the compressor did turn on but it sounded like a spoon in the garbage disposal. My a/c guy suggested to replace the compressor or put a new unit in. Gonna bite the bullet and replace the entire unit. The system is all original so 24 years is a good run. Hopefully I will not have any more issues with this one for a long time. I will put the start capacitor on the other unit and hopefully extend that one another season or two.

One good thing, I learned a lot about the cooling system.