No electrics help

[troggles]

As probably aware i had a overheating pr0blem, water pump, new one on order.

Anyway went to visit boat today, to start port engine, starboard one with broken water pump.

Nothing on helm working only bilge pump will light up and work. Everthing dead. :smt017 , no horn lights nothing

silly question but do these have a trip switch for electrics. Could everthing of cut off when engine alarm came on. as it like the blind leading the blind here where i am , found a guy who seemed to know what he was on about, but recently suffered a bad back and out of work at moment, so god knows when getting pump fitted.

can not understand why not working, am i missing something :smt017 On shorepower only microwave came on and fridge ,and then the galley light for a few seconds.
thanks

 

[Dave M.]

It sounds to me like you are missing 12 volt DC power. When you plug in to shore power and run the MW and fridge, then that is AC power, totally different beast.

I am not familiar with your boat, but it is same vintage as mine, only bigger. I don't think your problem is with the engine overtemp that happened before, although experience tells me that when you have a problem, always check out what the last person did because they likely caused it. Here is basically the power flow to the things you want to operate.

Battery -> Selector or On/Off switch -> Breaker panel in bilge -> Breaker panel at helm -> Individual switches at helm -> end devices

You most likely have a battery for each engine, so just because you can start one engine does not mean the other battery is OK. It might be dead, and may be the source of your problem.

If not that, then maybe the Battery Selector or On/Off switch is in the wrong position.

If not that, then maybe the circuit breaker in the bilge that feeds the helm is tripped. If you look and find this breaker, then check out what sorts of things it feeds. Then see if ANYTHING it feeds will work. If so, you have power to the main breaker panel in the bilge. If you have a helm breaker here, try and reset it.

If that checks out OK, then if you have a breaker panel at the helm, see if anything powered off it works. If so, that is a fair, but not foolproof, indication that you have power to the items in that panel. But from what you say, I don't think you have power to this panel. I think the problem is with something earlier in the chain than this.

The bilge pump circuit bypasses some of the above things; you want it to work when all else fails. So it is not a very good indicator of overall status of things except that the battery that powers it has some charge. But if you don't know which one powers it, that is not much help.

This thread belongs in the electrical section.

 

[troggles]

thanks Dave

Battery switches were both on and Both.
Any idea where circuit breaker in bilge is, so i can check looked manual can not find.

My partner and friend were last one on boat, said they remeber everything being fine apart from overheating problem,

With having 3 batteries, and the starboard engine not being started could that then mean baterry flat, so that would not work 12v, but with port engine starting surely that alone with work 12v :smt009

 

[Dave S]

Karen

If it were me the first thing I would do is check the voltage on each battery with a multimeter. If you have one that putting out less than 12 volts, you can be pretty sure it's bad and if the batteries are more than 3 years old, I would replace all of them if it were me. If they all put out more than 12 volts then your problem is probably elsewhere and I don't know what to suggest.

 

[Dave M.]

Dave S. is right. If you have a voltmeter, then checking all the batteries is the first thing to do.

The following is all conjecture from what you have written, as I don't have a boat like yours. But I am almost at the point of being willing to place a wager here. When things go wrong on a trip, then sometimes the details at the end of the trip don't get taken care of. Details mentioned below.

I see you have 3 batteries. I think from what you write that you have one switch that is on-off, and one that selects 1, 2, or both. I think Sea Ray commonly used the two battery set on the starboard side, but I don't think this was a consistent practice. Could be wrong about that.

The switch that selects 1, 2 or both is what gives starting power to the engine on that side, and also powers the lights, electronics, and all that. You cannot power them from the other battery that just has the on-off switch, without putting your emergency start switch in the emergency start position. Don't do that yet, if you have one.

The purpose of the 1, 2, both selector switch is so that you can use power from one battery, and have a good battery left in reserve so you can start your engine even if you run the first battery down. But if you leave the switch in the Both position, then you defeat this.

The mercathode system will be drawing some current if the boat is sittig in the water. This will try and run the battery down. I would expect it to be connected directly to one of the batteries on the side with the 1, 2, Both selector switch. IF you leave the switch in Both, then it will try and run both batteries down, leaving you unable to start, and with no power for lights or electronics.

The only thing that would prevent that from happening is that you should be plugged in to shore power properly, have the shore power breaker on, have the Main AC breaker on in your boat, and have the Converter breaker on. If any one of these is not connected or on, then you won't be charging the battery while sitting in the water at the slip. Then with the switch in both, you should expect both batteries to go dead over time.

If this is what happened, then you need to get shore power connected and the breakers turned back on so that the converter can try and bring the batteries back.

And also if this is what happened, and you have two dead batteries and one good battery, I would not recommend trying to use the emergency start switch, as you will be trying to make one good battery try and overcome two dead batteries.