boatone
Well-known member
Well, spent several hours yesterday with my engineer guru, Peter, sussing out what was wrong with the starb'd engine starter circuit following on from last weekends failure to start. I had already detected sparking taking place out of sight where cable loom from alternator to starter motor was routed underneath the heat exchanger.
Having disconnected the starter motor end of things we pulled the loom out from under to find that the 60 amp cable insulation was worn through in three places and would have been shorting to earth intermittently. There was some evidence of a previous repair, but main 'new' damage appears to have been caused by a loose alternator drive belt - (VERY loose !) - coming into contact with the loom which IMHO was routed too damn close and without adequate support. Repaired by inserting section of new cable and rerouted above engine thru new hose so not quite so pretty but much safer/more practical.
End result of this - zilch ! Still no life from starter motor ! Shorted cable end across to starter and verified motor worked OK but no life in supply line from key switch. Checked cable back along loom to instrument panel and eventually found spade pin inside cable loom connector was pushed back inside connector casing. Sorted and tried again - Bingo !, all OK.
De- briefing:
1. Alternator had obviously eased loose and resulted in slack drive belt which appears to be reason for loom damage but was actually nothing to do with failure to start. Could this have been due to excessive vibrations set up when running with missing steering bolt from leg recently? If not should have checked belt more often!
2. Connector damage obviously there from way back when and just lucky not had problem previously.
3. Although installation of hatch lifter electrics absolutely nothing to do with starter circuitry, quite likely that slight movement of loom when routing new cables shifted connector just that little bit which finally seperated pin and socket inside.
Finally, tried fitting new drive belts. Jeez, is everything about boat engines a total pain ???? Had bought correct belts from Keypart some time ago and did finally manage to fit on starb'd engine after cursing and swearing etc etc but port engine had differnt alternator to original and no bloody way was belt going to fit so had to leave old one in place for now while get longer replacement. Also found port alternator missing 'stretcher' bar, presumably cos original would not fit with new alternator, so all tension just on mounting bolt - need to get new one made ! Surprised how little seperation between drive belts and fuel pipes in region of main filter which is bolted to forward end of engine block. All original V*lv* design so need one say more ?
Guess I'd better check the wiring looms on the port engine next weekend /forums/images/icons/smile.gif
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com/galleryframes.html> My P32, BoatersGallery, VolpenUsersGroup</A>
Having disconnected the starter motor end of things we pulled the loom out from under to find that the 60 amp cable insulation was worn through in three places and would have been shorting to earth intermittently. There was some evidence of a previous repair, but main 'new' damage appears to have been caused by a loose alternator drive belt - (VERY loose !) - coming into contact with the loom which IMHO was routed too damn close and without adequate support. Repaired by inserting section of new cable and rerouted above engine thru new hose so not quite so pretty but much safer/more practical.
End result of this - zilch ! Still no life from starter motor ! Shorted cable end across to starter and verified motor worked OK but no life in supply line from key switch. Checked cable back along loom to instrument panel and eventually found spade pin inside cable loom connector was pushed back inside connector casing. Sorted and tried again - Bingo !, all OK.
De- briefing:
1. Alternator had obviously eased loose and resulted in slack drive belt which appears to be reason for loom damage but was actually nothing to do with failure to start. Could this have been due to excessive vibrations set up when running with missing steering bolt from leg recently? If not should have checked belt more often!
2. Connector damage obviously there from way back when and just lucky not had problem previously.
3. Although installation of hatch lifter electrics absolutely nothing to do with starter circuitry, quite likely that slight movement of loom when routing new cables shifted connector just that little bit which finally seperated pin and socket inside.
Finally, tried fitting new drive belts. Jeez, is everything about boat engines a total pain ???? Had bought correct belts from Keypart some time ago and did finally manage to fit on starb'd engine after cursing and swearing etc etc but port engine had differnt alternator to original and no bloody way was belt going to fit so had to leave old one in place for now while get longer replacement. Also found port alternator missing 'stretcher' bar, presumably cos original would not fit with new alternator, so all tension just on mounting bolt - need to get new one made ! Surprised how little seperation between drive belts and fuel pipes in region of main filter which is bolted to forward end of engine block. All original V*lv* design so need one say more ?
Guess I'd better check the wiring looms on the port engine next weekend /forums/images/icons/smile.gif
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com/galleryframes.html> My P32, BoatersGallery, VolpenUsersGroup</A>
