stownsend
Well-Known Member
Hi All
Well, she’s been in the water for just over a week and have finally managed to get the engine sorted, well I thought she was.
In Lady Me is a VP 250A, (aq151a with 290 leg) and I snapped the B- terminal off the Valeo Alternator whilst trying to remove the wire. There was enough thread to bolt on a M10 threaded nut and then use a machine screw to attach the wire. Prior to this the volt reading from the dash gauge was OK, on tick over reading 12 and when the revs were increased, went up to 13/14 volts. After sorting out the terminal problems it stopped charging and the volt gauge stayed at 11 volts.
I took the boat out for her fist proper spin, prior to that was just around the top end of the pontoons, and she was going fine, 1500 - 2000 rpm or so and after 20 mins cruising (she was running for 15 mins at idle before we set off) she just stopped dead, the battery was flat. On Sunday early evening no one was about and as I was drifting towards the lock gates I tied off to the cardinal mark and called Barrage Control, within 5 mins that launch had come to tow me back to the pontoon (the wife and kids were on board), they said they had been inundated over the weekend with breakdowns, hats off to them, they were spot on and something I defiantly hope not to repeat.
If the alternator is not charging the battery or not working will the engine die once the battery drops below a certain voltage?
I'm going down tonight to remove the alternator and have it refurbished, check the plugs etc.. When the engine stopped temp and oil gauges were showing ok reading and when I took the air intake off, fuel was still shooting into the carbs.
Lessons learnt from the weekend, make sure I go out with another boat whilst I shaking down the issues with Lady Me, we were only going to go as far as the entrance of the Ely but as she was going well we carried out into the bay.
Any help would be much appreciated, I've had the engine checked last week and the dist was slightly advanced, moved back and she was fine, the compression was good as well.
Cheers
Stu
Well, she’s been in the water for just over a week and have finally managed to get the engine sorted, well I thought she was.
In Lady Me is a VP 250A, (aq151a with 290 leg) and I snapped the B- terminal off the Valeo Alternator whilst trying to remove the wire. There was enough thread to bolt on a M10 threaded nut and then use a machine screw to attach the wire. Prior to this the volt reading from the dash gauge was OK, on tick over reading 12 and when the revs were increased, went up to 13/14 volts. After sorting out the terminal problems it stopped charging and the volt gauge stayed at 11 volts.
I took the boat out for her fist proper spin, prior to that was just around the top end of the pontoons, and she was going fine, 1500 - 2000 rpm or so and after 20 mins cruising (she was running for 15 mins at idle before we set off) she just stopped dead, the battery was flat. On Sunday early evening no one was about and as I was drifting towards the lock gates I tied off to the cardinal mark and called Barrage Control, within 5 mins that launch had come to tow me back to the pontoon (the wife and kids were on board), they said they had been inundated over the weekend with breakdowns, hats off to them, they were spot on and something I defiantly hope not to repeat.
If the alternator is not charging the battery or not working will the engine die once the battery drops below a certain voltage?
I'm going down tonight to remove the alternator and have it refurbished, check the plugs etc.. When the engine stopped temp and oil gauges were showing ok reading and when I took the air intake off, fuel was still shooting into the carbs.
Lessons learnt from the weekend, make sure I go out with another boat whilst I shaking down the issues with Lady Me, we were only going to go as far as the entrance of the Ely but as she was going well we carried out into the bay.
Any help would be much appreciated, I've had the engine checked last week and the dist was slightly advanced, moved back and she was fine, the compression was good as well.
Cheers
Stu
