RCA Dolphin 7 petrol engine

[Guest]

I have recently bought a sailing boat with a dolphin inboard. The engine was submerged in rain water for a long time and I have freed it all up and got it turning.
The problem is the electrics, I don't fully understand them. I got the dynastart turning by pushing a coil and the points spark when the engine turns. Does anyone have a wiring loom diagram or something? As the engine seems to need 12 and 24 volts to run. Any advice will be great.

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[jleaworthy]

Suggest you try www.dolphinengines.co.uk

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[yoda]

You will find Mr Chapman at Dolphin very helpful. You have discovered the major weakness in the engine - the electrics BUT do keep at it as it is well worth it. I have had one for many years so hear are a few starters but do PM me if you want more. Firstly you need to carefully lable up all the connections and disconnect the engine from the electric panel. The most difficult of these are the 4 battery connections which are critical to the starting / charging. You must get them right. The loom to the engine should disconnect and be clamped in order so is quite straight forward and the last group of wires you need to do by colour ( they go to the controls). Once this has been done place panel in warm ventilated space and cook gently for a week until dry. Very carefully remove the connector block lower right and remove salt deposits from behind it. make sure the battery leads have clean earth connections on the back plate, take back to shiny metal. Clean any other traces of dirt and salt away. This panel is not cheap so it is worth it! now you can start to test.

With 2 fully charged batteries connect panel up and remove metal box from over 2 large relays. Moving the contro lever to astern will cause one relay to depress. Moving to ahead will do nothing. Pressing the start button will cause the second relay to depress. If these two move as said you are in with a shout. Obviously points and contactors on the relay should be clean. Start the engine!

Now to understand why is not for me to say but the panel does this. On starting it connects the batteries in series to apply 24 v starting and once started it places them in parallel to charge. If you have one poor battery they will, once the engine is running, equalise quite quickly and indeed if one is dying will cause the engine to not start the next time. Ever since I understood this and fitted 2 small dedicated engine batteries all has been well. The dynamo is not man enough to supply much more so I have a dedicated house battery with a solar panel to charge it and the engine has allwys been good as gold.

Hope that helps

Yoda



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[yoda]

Forgot to say that you will probably get good wireing diagrams from Dolphin but unless you understand electrics in depth it all becomes a bit of a black art. Worth a visit to Bodmin to visit the 'factory' if you can find the time. If you have problems getting drawings I know a man who has my old ones and can probably get you a set.

Yoda



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