Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Hobe Sound Anchorage - Genset troubleshooting

The anchorage at Hobe Sound
At last we had a typical Florida day of the type that I remember from the last five years I've been coming down the ICW. The temperature reached 70 with light wind and  bright sunshine, just great for traveling south. We arrived at one of our favorite anchorages, Hobe Sound by marker R38. There's a sandy beach for Hoolie and although there may be some traffic during the day, by night it calms down. There's plenty of room for a half dozen boats.

What I found, a broken connection
Once anchored it was time to tackle the genset again. I had called several service centers and none were helpful except one who suggested checking the starter terminal since that's where the battery voltage was picked up for the control panel which was presently dead. So once again everything came out of the starboard locker and I got close and personal with the genset, it's a tight fit. After checking everything else I started jiggling wires and got a response when I touched a wire near the starter motor, hummmm. I started pulling stuff off (the genset is packed tightly) so I could see what I was jiggling. It turned out to be the wire giving power to the control panel. It was attached with a lug to the starter post and vibration had caused the lug to separate when the installer had bent the lug to fit in over a second lug, a bad wiring practice.

This took down the genset
Knowing the problem now, I crimped on a new lug and positioned it so it didn't need to be bent, what the original installer should have done in the first place. I now have a fully functional genset again! Now it's on to the A/C unit that doesn't heat, tomorrow's challenge.

The first sunset we've seen in months!
We're taking advantage of the good weather to head south as fast as we can but there's yet another cold front rolling down from the north on Friday through Sunday. We will probably hole up in Ft Lauderdale and yet again wait for a window to travel south, hopefully Monday.

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