Last month when I pulled the push-pull ignition switch, nothing happened. Then ten minutes later the instruments lit up and the engine started as usual. Huh? Cursory checks showed nothing wrong. Ah, an intermittent problem--in some ways, they're the worse of all.
Today, same thing. No ignition. I figured the switch--Cole Hersee, standard item--was shot. They're vulnerable to corrosion and mine is eight years old. But when I jumped the terminals with a wire, no joy. Dead as doornail. So, not the switch.
Was a ground loose? The panel wiring seemed seemed fine, just as I rewired it a few years ago.
Did I have battery power? 100 percent on the Victron readout. And anyhow, I was plugged into shore power--which I now remembered to disconnect.
An ignition switch brings the gauges to life and commences the oil pressure alarm to howl. That's pretty simple circuitry from the 12v panel in the cabin--and that panel looked fine, all the other instruments were working.
So--wait. Let it sink in. This is going to be obvious. Obvious to Charlie, at least, my marine electrician, whose availability is questionable and who later sends a bill. Just think it through. Cleanse the mind of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio and Arthur miller all in the same bed, which is hard to do even while sweating in the cockpit of a sailboat. Her taste in men was various. Whereas all men have the same taste, which is Marilyn Monroe. All real men.
While thinking of her I remembered something. When I bought the boat, the Previous Owner had installed a theft-preventing ignition switch hidden in the cabin panel. He had Alzheimer's Disease, and the broker and I had the devil of a time starting the engine until he remembered, very slowly, that he had installed it.
I immediately cut that switch out of the ignition circuit ten years ago. I continue to believe that the threat of 38-foot sailboats being shoplifted out of Marina del Rey at 6 knots is low. Actually, that happened here a month ago. But the threat is, well, still low.
But golly, nothing kills an ignition circuit like a switch installed to kill the ignition circuit. Better have a look at that.
As I removed the first screw from the nav station panel door, the ignition turned itself on. Loud buzzing from the cockpit! Huh? It happened the very instant I touched the first panel screw, which made only the slightest disturbance of the equilibrium of the nested wires within. More hmmm.
Here is what I found upon retrieving the ignition ground wire, whose ring fittings I had joined with a bolt ten years before, wrapped in electrical tape and labelled for posterity,
.
.
What the devil is that lump of what looks like solder? I have never soldered anything in this panel. And ten years ago, I'm sure I would have noticed such a lump.
Close inspection of the stripped wire continued the puzzle. Why are strands of wire protruding from the lump? Is the lump fused? I;ve never seen wires do that, but can they? More likely somebody joined a wire with solder, making a very precise incision in the insultating jacket.
I cut the joined ring connectors out, along with the lump, and rejoined the #10 green wires with a butt connector.
The engine started immediately.
Problem solved? Who knows? But it is true that the lump violated the integrity of the wire, and perhaps deep in the spaghetti of the panel, it caused a fault or a short. Theories appreciated.
Interrmittent is the enemy of confidence. Only time can heal its ills. But I have a hunch that time will reveal that the culprit was the myterious lump.
Listed as a Thelonious Blog entry.
Today, same thing. No ignition. I figured the switch--Cole Hersee, standard item--was shot. They're vulnerable to corrosion and mine is eight years old. But when I jumped the terminals with a wire, no joy. Dead as doornail. So, not the switch.
Was a ground loose? The panel wiring seemed seemed fine, just as I rewired it a few years ago.
Did I have battery power? 100 percent on the Victron readout. And anyhow, I was plugged into shore power--which I now remembered to disconnect.
An ignition switch brings the gauges to life and commences the oil pressure alarm to howl. That's pretty simple circuitry from the 12v panel in the cabin--and that panel looked fine, all the other instruments were working.
So--wait. Let it sink in. This is going to be obvious. Obvious to Charlie, at least, my marine electrician, whose availability is questionable and who later sends a bill. Just think it through. Cleanse the mind of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio and Arthur miller all in the same bed, which is hard to do even while sweating in the cockpit of a sailboat. Her taste in men was various. Whereas all men have the same taste, which is Marilyn Monroe. All real men.
While thinking of her I remembered something. When I bought the boat, the Previous Owner had installed a theft-preventing ignition switch hidden in the cabin panel. He had Alzheimer's Disease, and the broker and I had the devil of a time starting the engine until he remembered, very slowly, that he had installed it.
I immediately cut that switch out of the ignition circuit ten years ago. I continue to believe that the threat of 38-foot sailboats being shoplifted out of Marina del Rey at 6 knots is low. Actually, that happened here a month ago. But the threat is, well, still low.
But golly, nothing kills an ignition circuit like a switch installed to kill the ignition circuit. Better have a look at that.
As I removed the first screw from the nav station panel door, the ignition turned itself on. Loud buzzing from the cockpit! Huh? It happened the very instant I touched the first panel screw, which made only the slightest disturbance of the equilibrium of the nested wires within. More hmmm.
Here is what I found upon retrieving the ignition ground wire, whose ring fittings I had joined with a bolt ten years before, wrapped in electrical tape and labelled for posterity,
.
.
What the devil is that lump of what looks like solder? I have never soldered anything in this panel. And ten years ago, I'm sure I would have noticed such a lump.
Close inspection of the stripped wire continued the puzzle. Why are strands of wire protruding from the lump? Is the lump fused? I;ve never seen wires do that, but can they? More likely somebody joined a wire with solder, making a very precise incision in the insultating jacket.
I cut the joined ring connectors out, along with the lump, and rejoined the #10 green wires with a butt connector.
The engine started immediately.
Problem solved? Who knows? But it is true that the lump violated the integrity of the wire, and perhaps deep in the spaghetti of the panel, it caused a fault or a short. Theories appreciated.
Interrmittent is the enemy of confidence. Only time can heal its ills. But I have a hunch that time will reveal that the culprit was the myterious lump.
Listed as a Thelonious Blog entry.
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