My little piece of peace

What the heck, MURPHEY has struck... The starboard engine is electrically DEAD...

I jiggle the wires, run the multimeter over various points and the readout does NOT MAKE ANY SENSE... At the battery, no issues... At one stage, where the heavy battery leads terminate at the engine, (negative to the engine body and positive at the engine start solenoid), the voltage seemed to be fluctuating between 14,6 and down to about 9V...

This discrepancy I later attributed to a poor contact by one of the probes, as both arms are outstretched, - one to each side of the engine, - and the neck fully extended to read the digital readout. - (and yes the battery in the multimeter is fresh and not flat or even low...) At all other times read 14.6v (as I also had the port engine running at idle, and jumper-leads in place)...

I jiggled the plug for the wiring loom (which is 10m long), and a few other leads/connections, low and behold it started as if there never was a problem... WTF ? - - Then I noticed that the oil warning light came on so I shut the engine down and double checked the oil level, electrical connections, but nothing was wrong? Trouble is that the engine bay is rather tight, and being an "ancient piece of ****", find contorting oneself to inspect certain objects is near impossible in those close confines, and the eyes do not see too well in high contrast viewing where some is sunlit and bright and some (where I need to see detail), lies hidden in relative darkness...

The Port engine gives no problems and starts easily every time... It has always been the Starboard engine... Initially it seemed to be fixed with adding 30A relays, TO BOTH ENGINES, so the relay for the starter-motor got a good supply of electricity from the battery which is fairly close by (1.5m for a 3m loop) - battery to engine and back to battery... Now the problem has returned and I can only attribute the problems to the extended 10m wiring loom...

The boat is an 80km return trip from where I stay when not aboard... Who wants to buy my boat? in to which I have poured more than two years of blood, sweat, tears, money, and three near death experiences...

 

Mass , take it from an old stupid man like me, use a light bulb and just keep the one side to earth. Your light bulb can be easy 10 meters, but I am puzzled why the starter motor , which in cold condition could pull a few hundred ampere from your cold (lower voltage) battery, has to be some 10 meters away. Just take the battery out of your car, use some jumper cables and test the engine side first.
We want to see you having the other 50% fun, by sailing smoothly out of the harbour tomorrow.
Bert

 

ya
deep breath and just think it through, don't over-think it cause its most likely just a connection. Did the guys use antioxidant on the connections cause thats a really common issue when you loose power somewhere specially in a DC system. Check all the fuses, the simple stuff then start chasing power through the system and ignore the voltages for now, just try and find if its getting to where its needed. Keep it simple, you'll find the problem soon enough.

Cheers
B

 

Mass, don't use a multi meter. A multi meter might still show you that you have a Voltage, this is because the multi meter has a high impedance, while in realility a connection is bad and therefore, why it does not start your engine.
Use a globe of 10 watt or a headlight bulb of 50 watt with two long wires, which consume some current. You will find your fault in no time.
Bert

 

I am confident it is not in the battery, New AGM starter batteries that have just been trickle charged for about a week... Just as I feel confident that the problem lies in the 10m cable loom or connecting plugs as supplied... (the normal/standard supplied is 2.5 or 5m? and I specified 10m when I ordered...)

I am confused (because I cannot find and identify the fault), - - and really PISSED OFF because my departure is YET AGAIN DELAYED for F&$*-knows what... The electrical stuff relating to the engine is WHOLLY contained with-in the supplied loom, a plug near the engine which connects to the 10m "loom" which connects to the instruments/start key...

A separate fused cable from the starter battery to supply the bilge pump in the engine bay and another separate fused cable supplies the air blower to ventilate the engine bay (now disconnected by removal of the fuse) as it is not needed and makes a hell of a lot of noise)...

Accessing other parts of where the loom delivers its connections to various parts of the engine are VERY DIFFICULT to see in the confines of the engine bay... I am thinking I may unplug both ends of the loom and do a continuity check of the pins... A slow and tedious process but will give a conclusive result with a bit of care and careful thought to test the 15 or so lines for shorts and open circuits...

Maybe "Murphy" is looking after my best interests and forcing due diligence on that engine... ???

 

No, Murphy law does'nt know where Australia is. Have a deep breath and get a flipping globe.(light bulb), put 2 long wires on the socket of the bulb. put the one and to earth/ground/common/mass and leave it there.

1) take the other side and put it on the plus of your battery.
>>>>>bright light >>>>>
at least 5 Amp currents (headlight bulb) you have a battery.

2) Now you take the other side of the bulb and connect it to your starting solonoid terminal. The terminal which suppose to give you the Plus 12 Volt for the solonoid to pull in.

3) Then you walk over and switch your engine on. Now you walk back and see whether the bulb is on. When you have a flimsy light, bring that wire to the switch on your dashboard and see what you get there.

>>>>> Bright light ? >>>>>>Your solonoid does not pull in. Have a look at your solonoid.
>>>> No bright light?. The connection to the starter switch must be checked and the starter switch.

I would take a small battery and just connect the small battery to the starter solonoid and see whether it starts your engine.

You carry on, step by step, until you find the problem.
Never heard of Murphy visiting Australia. Just double check your connections
Bert

 

Thanks Bert,
With your advice and a bit of quiet thought, then a trip to buy some wire, globe-holder, 50W-12V-globe, light-pointy-alligator-clip, probe, warm up my soldering iron, and I will spend a few hours sipping my sherry, checking all connections and cables to find the fault - a slow and careful activity that may see me quite tipsy, but knowing what the problem was, (if I can fix it and have done so), / is, (if identified but I cannot repair - need help)...

The telephone directory here lists lots of Murphy's but the unlisted/non-existent ones are the cause of concern...

 

Mas, give the bottle to Murphy, make him tipsy, but stay sober and find your fault.
Bert

 

But, but, but he gave it to me, - and it would not be gracious to return it? - possibly, being Irish?, - he may appreciate sharing some of it? ...

 

if you sell, you could consider buying a used Catalac - they are overbuilt and undervalued, and very comfortable to live in, but you would have to add some mosquito screens. the solid foredeck is fine for where you will be cruising. but now is a bad time to sell a boat, and your one is pretty cool.

 

Hi richard,
Catalac? is it some form of floating condo? or a bathtub with a jacuzzi?

- Nah I would build another 39C but stripped out and in grp over marine-ply to do Island trading in cold-pressed coconut oil...

 

This copy and paste from one of my "economic newsletters - nothing much about economics but goes a long way to also fleshing out my personal views and feelings - F*$( the "Nanny state", the richness that poorer societies have is for me...

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/reckoning-over-raki/2011/06/03/
- From Greg Canavan in Istanbul...
While we were stuffing our face with delicious Turkish food and drinking Raki (pronounced Rak-eh), we came back to our apartment to find stock markets around the world had woken up to themselves. In one session they had fallen by around two per cent.

The Aussie market spent last week ‘recovering’. The ASX200 rallied all the way back to the technically important 4,700 level, which also happens to be where the 200-day moving average is. But it could go no further. In one day the index gave up a week’s worth of hard-fought gains and plummeted back to 4,600. In a few weeks we’ll probably be closer to 4,500.

But we’re in Istanbul at the moment and worrying about where the ASX200 is heading seems a tad trivial. So for the end of the week we thought we’d give you a break from financial markets and bring you some thoughts on one of the world’s truly remarkable cities.

Istanbul defies accurate description. It is chaotic and sublime, ramshackle, noisy and peaceful.

The chaos is most easily seen from street level. Road rules are there to be ignored. Use of an indicator is optional, tooting your horn is mandatory. Like Rugby League, driving in Istanbul is a game of inches. Crossing the road is a feat of wit and skill. Pedestrian crossings offer no more refuge than any other part of the road. But with a bit of practice, it becomes easy enough.

People sell just about anything from anywhere. Lottery tickets, nuts, bread and pastries are all on offer from roadside stalls. Shops teem with fresh fruit and vegetables.

In a country that seemingly has the heavy hand of state looming over it, interference at the individual level appears minimal.

In Australia, you can’t park your car in the wrong place for more than a minute without copping a fine. Here, you can park on the sidewalk and no one seems to mind. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, it’s OK.

The contrast with Australia is striking. In a seemingly free society, Australia – or we should say Australians – are being drowned in bureaucracy.

We caught up with an old Aussie friend here who works for Deutsche Bank in London. So he’s no stranger to rules and bureaucracy. He’s been away from Australia for a few years now but returned late last year for work.

He couldn’t believe how expensive and regulated Australia had become. He and his English colleagues thought Australia was increasingly becoming a nanny state.

Walking the streets of Istanbul makes you reflect on how this type of regulation squeezes the life and soul out of a place.

Obviously wealth has a lot to do with it. The commodities windfall has provided justification for a lot of people to have their say about how that wealth should be divided and redistributed.

You could argue that Australia’s nanny statism is the result of a wealthy and compassionate society. Fair enough. But what is unseen in this interpretation is the abdication of personal responsibility that goes with a growing welfare society.

Individuals look to the state for help whenever things go wrong. People peer over their fence and think that their neighbours’ grass is a little bit greener. So they look to the state to even things up…to get their ‘fair share’.

The contrast between a wealthy, welfare state and an emerging economy like Turkey is starkest at the family level. Because there is no widespread welfare here, the family unit remains the cornerstone of society. An individuals’ welfare is taken care of by the family. True, without a family you’re going to do it tough. But there is something endearing and nostalgic about a society that values family so highly.

We are travelling with our two-year-old daughter. The attention she gets is incredible. Strangers pinch her cheek, men pick her up, cuddle her and give her sweets. Children are the stars of the show in Turkish society. They bind the family together. They are adored.

Children are certainly adored in Australia and elsewhere in the West. But not to the same extent. The advent of the debt and welfare society in the West means our children, through economic necessity, spend two, three, four and even five days a week in day care. To afford the mortgage, two-income households are a necessity in Australia these days.

When the welfare state gets taken to the extreme, we become Greece.

Our society may be wealthier in the monetary sense, but we are also losing a richness that poorer societies seem to have in spades.

These observations are of course the romanticised thoughts of an infrequent visitor. They may be completely wrong. But the hustle and bustle of the streets makes you feel alive. You can feel the soul of the city here. Sometimes back home, we can barely feel a pulse.

While ‘the street’ moves without rhyme or reason (some bloke tried to sell us a stethoscope this morning!) the chaos down below turns to sublimity from the heights.

We are staying near the Galata Tower built in 1348 by the Genoese traders who had established themselves in the area. Built on a hill, it provides sensational views (as does the apartment) over the Golden Horn (a natural harbour) and across to the old city.

At night, you can see Aya Sofya and the minarets of the Blue Mosque in the distance, bathed in light. Aya Sofya (also known as St Sophia) was built during Emperor Justinian’s reign between 532 and 537AD. For 1,000 years it was the largest Church in Christendom.

But the Byzantine Empire crumbled from internal fighting and, for the last few hundred years of its life, was but a shadow of its former glory. In 1453, the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II, with the help of a new weapon, the cannon, breached the once impregnable walls and took the city.

As the Turkish soldiers streamed through the walls, the remaining Christians sought refuge in Aya Sofya. But it was a refuge no longer. The city was lost. John Julius Norwich recounts the moment the Sultan entered the church for the first time in The Middle Sea – A History of the Mediterranean:
That was the moment. Cross gave way to crescent; St Sophia became a mosque; the Byzantine Empire was supplanted by the Ottoman; Constantinople become Istanbul.

After more than 1,000 years as the capital of Christendom (Emperor Constantine moved the centre of the Roman Empire east in 330AD to establish Constantinople) the city became an Islamic one.

It is these vast sweeps of history that you can feel from high above. It is what gives the city its character, charm and peacefulness. It straddles continents, faiths and long-diminished empires like no other. - - Until next time, when we’ll talk about the food… -

My sentiments are closely aligned with this observation...

Essay borrowed from :- http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/reckoning-over-raki/2011/06/03/

 

your not selling anything Mas, your going to find some cash and get that thing rigged asap at which point your going to start that coconut thing on naturally collected coconut oil and make a fortune selling diesel fuels.

I gotta still read up on that link you sent ( I've been really busy lately with the accident and all ) and check out how you process the stuff

hey
do me a favor and send that link again
means I don't have to go searching through the thread all night

 

Hi Boston - found it - here = http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-building/my-little-piece-peace-25962-90.html#post464580 (it goes directly to "post 1341"), the first two are helpful and the one from James Cook University academic and not so helpful... but then caveat emptor applies - especially in the quality of copra used, filtering and general quality control and understanding of the issues and problems...

 

thanks
I just found a large 4' D kiln for free and I'm hoping if I call in the morning its still available.

I want to try this pyrolysis thing I saw the other day, gotta make a reaction chamber and a few condensing tubes, but it looks really easy