[C38] Starting woes

les hlhowell at pacbell.net
Tue May 10 14:00:51 EDT 2011


Any time the cranking is slow with lights diming, you probably have
resistance in the circuit.  Open the following connections in order, and
clean and retighten them:
	
	Before you start, remove the battery connections, to prevent an
inadvertant short and possible shock or fire.  12 V will not normally
hurt you, but you are on a boat and your hands will be dirty with salt
and corrosion during this process, making you a better than normal
conductor.  When working on the battery terminals, throw something over
the terminal you are not working on to prevent shorting across the
terminals with a tool.  Just a good safety precaution.  Batteries fed
into a short can explode.  If your battery is capable of 120AH (group
24), it can produce over 1500 AMPs in a short, almost 2Kw instaneous.

After cleaning these connecitons, coating them with vasoline or lanocote
will help prevent further corrosion.  Others may have other suggestions
for the coating.  Do not coat them until they are reassembled.  The
coating will cause higher resistance in the circuit.  

If you have multiple connections on the battery buy and install
connector strips rated at 150A to hold the connections, and use a
pigtail to go to the battery.  This is a requirement for safety, and you
will need it to pass most inspections or surveys these days.

	Battery lugs... Remove any corrosion, replace the wingnuts with hex
nuts and clean the connections well.  Check the wires going into the
lugs for broken strands or corrosion in that area.

	Ground... The negative side of the battery goes to the engine block.
Follow the connection ( I don't remember the exact location on the
engine) then remove it, clean all the components and the block where it
fastens down.  Replace the connection and coat it.

	Positive.  This lead runs from the House battery to the House lug on
the power panel battery switch.  Clean the switch pole, clean the nut
and washers, reattach and coat with some of the same stuff.  The other
one goes to a second battery, and its location depends on your power
configuration.  These have been changed by various owners over the
years, so you will have to find the correct battery and trace the lead
to make sure there are no issues with it.

	From the Common connector of the switch, the output goes to the starter
solenoid power lug.  This critter is the hardest to get to.  If I
remember correctly I had to remove the alternator to get to it.  Just
like the others, clean the lug, the terminal and the nut, replace it and
tighten it down, but be careful not to overtighten.  If the stud turns
you can mess up the solenoid. 

	When you get to this point, reconnect the battery and try to start your
engine.  If it doesn't work, then you have only two possibilities:
	1. The battery is not getting charged.  This can happen because the
alternator has broken.  One thing that causes this is moving the battery
switch while the engine is running, especially if the battery switch is
old.  Some newer switches have a "field disconnect" to prevent this, but
the Universal alternator has an internal regulator and you will have to
modify it to take advantage of this feature.  Otherwise, There are some
devices on the market which can be attached to the back of the switch to
prevent damage to the alternator during a switch operation, some I think
will even protect it in the event of turning the switch off.

	2.  The switch is bad.  To check this, remove the battery connection
from its terminal and connect it directly to the common terminal (this
is a test for the quality of the switch.  DO NOT LEAVE THIS CONNECTION
IN PLACE or you will kill your batteries for sure. There is a lot of
leakage in most boats, and the battery will go flat in a few days if
this connection is left in place.  Worse, if you leave a light on
somewhere, the battery can die to the point it will not work for
anything after a few days.  In other words, after the check, put the
battery wire back in the right place.

	A third, but very unlikely possibility is that one of the power wires
has chaffed and nearly broken.

	Lastly, the original wire in our Catalina 38's from the power panel to
the battery was a #10.  While this works, it is low size if you have
upgraded your electronics or added stuff to the boat, and it can wear
out from overheating and temperature cycling.


Regards,
Les H

On Tue, 2011-05-10 at 08:49 -0700, Pierre Patino wrote:
> 
> Hello All
> 
> My engine is difficult to start. It's the Universal Diesel 5424. I
> believe it was somewhat rebuilt two or three years ago but I cannot
> locate the records indicating exactly what was done. According to the
> service manual, the symptoms indicate a possible starter problem
> (assuming "bad engine" ain't the cause). Can anyone tell me about how
> long it takes to replace the starter? I'm somewhat mechanically
> inclined but no longer a gymnast.
> 
> Among the symptoms in page 17 of the manual is "[Starter] Pole core
> screw loose". It seems to me that this would preclude the starter from
> turning at all, is this correct?
> 
> By the way, the symptom is: Motor turns very slowly (about once per
> second)  while starting and the cabin lights dim almost to darkness.
> Brand new batteries too.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> 
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