Probably dead engine battery but

[jrudge]

Squadron 58 2004.

Boat will only start on the stbd engine if I cross feed.

Logically the engine batteries are dead. The only odd thing is that the volts on that side show 26v and the charger says it is in float. I would expect the voltage to fall when I try to start but it stays up at 26v.

I will change the batteries but wondered if anyone had any other ideas?

System is evc a and it clicks and “ pulses “ when I try to start. Engine batteries has sep charger and I took it for a run today. Surprisingly it all works other than this !

 

[BartW]

this sounds more like a corroded or loose connection,
could be on the negative pole of your engine battery bank to the engine,
try measuring the voltage at different points on the pos & neg connection between batt's and starter, while starting
if the starter doesn't work, there must be a point where the voltage <<26VDC

 

[kashurst]

knackered battery -- but check connections just in case

 

[jrudge]

Checked. All ok. Swapped positive to other bank and started. So batts.

Strange as normally the voltage drops when they are not on charge if dead but these seem ok. Boats in Cala Dor have stock !

 

[kashurst]

I had a similar experience last autumn and it turned out the battery charger was knackered and over-charging the batteries. Check the actual charging voltage with a meter and the level of the acid in the "dead" batteries if you still have them

 

[itspaul]

Had exactly the same problem this week came in from a trip and distinct smell of acid in engine room check batteries stb eng batteries red hot. Turn red everything off and ventilated engine room. Checked next morning one battery 12.6 the other 9.5 went to swindlers in port €400. Thank you very much. So went to insubat in binisselem €194. Same battery &#55357;&#56842;

 

[Paul_S123]

My P50 starboard batteries only charge off the alternator...not sure if the s58 is different or not. The starboard batteries never charge off the battery charger. The battery charger just charges the port engine batteries, which are also the house batteries.

 

[vas]

Checked. All ok. Swapped positive to other bank and started. So batts.

Strange as normally the voltage drops when they are not on charge if dead but these seem ok. Boats in Cala Dor have stock !

could still possibly be what Bart mentioned above though J...
did you check all V- connections?
Else, the voltometer is probably picking another path to the batteries and is not affected by the attempt to crank the engines which should get the voltage to a decent dive.

I currently have a duff battery on the starter bank which is v.convenient as the boat in on the dock and I'm tuning some arduino boards doing all sorts of things.
It's amazing what things fail or give completely false values when one bank is down to 22 or less...

V.

 

[MapisM]

Else, the voltometer is probably picking another path to the batteries and is not affected by the attempt to crank the engines which should get the voltage to a decent dive.

You saved me the time to type this possibility, Vas. In fact, that's what sprung to my mind while reading the thread.
And I'd be more concerned about the V-meter unproperly connected (hence misleading) than by the dead batteries.

Btw J, while you are at that, you might consider taking the opportunity to NOT replace the dead batteries, and get rid of one startup battery bank altogether.
That's in fact a redundant redundancy (so to speak), if you think about it.
I've yet to hear a single half decent justification for having separate startup banks for each engine, in spite of the fact that as I understand it's a rather common setup, among Brit builders.

 

[jrudge]

The s58 has only 2 circuits. The stbd battery and the domestics which also do the port engine - so sadly nothing to remove !

 

[MapisM]

Ops, I misunderstood that.
That's even less logic, though: one startup bank for both engines and one domestic bank is the cleaner and better solution, imho.
With some mean of putting them in parallel to grant some redundancy, of course.

It remains to be checked if the V-meter really measures what you are expecting, anyhow.
Does it drop to zero after disconnecting the bad bank?

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015TKSSB8/ref=twister_B07Q1GX8K1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[jrudge]

Thanks all.

Borrowed a clever digital tester. One dead. E375 and a trip to plant to collect all fixed !

 

[MapisM]

I'm not sure to have understood your conclusions, J.
Was the onboard V-meter connected to something else, or what?
Just curious.