www.iFourWinns.com

So I had some problems with my girl this weekend. Twice when I stopped the boat and turned her off, when I went to turn her back on...nothing. This has happened probably a dozen or so times so it's enough time now to try to remedy it.

Here are the facts.

On my first trip out with her after leaving the dealership, this happened...took her back and said fix it and they replaced all the circuit breakers (or so they said) which seemed odd to me since I have a little electronics experience, but I accepted the answer because it didn't happen again for months..

So when it does happen this is the scenario..

boat has been running fine for some time.
Is stop and turn off the key, when I turn it again there is no power.

1 time it was the big circuit breaker at on the port side of the engine. The rest of the times it has been one of the 3 in the cluster on the startboard side.

My belief is that something is causing a surge when it switches from alternator to battery power and popping the breaker (I could be wrong)

Any ideas? maybe someone has dealt with this before and could save me some time with a good place to start...I really suspect the Refrigerator. but can't say for sure since it's one of those damn intermitten problems.

Lastly, when it happened this weekend I was traveling on rough water and connected the kill cord to me. Naturally I stopped and stood up and pulled the kill switch. when I recoonected it..nothing and I started worrying. but of course it was just the breaker...thing is the next day after cruising around for an hour...I stopped, went for a swim, and nothing....circuit breaker again but I never pulled the kill switch.

Thanks in advance.

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

Breakers themselves can fail. Corrosion can attack them just like anything else. If they've been replaced then they'd look new, especially on the back. Check to make sure they actually got replaced?

No chance it's the ignition cylinder?

And remember, all electrical circuits have two sides, positive AND negative. Make sure you've got good grounding. Things come together at a ground buss bar (looks like a bunch of bolt posts with the wires coming to it). There'd be one for ship systems stuff and another for corrosion protection. Ships ground are typically yellow insulated, corrosion stuff is typically green. If you have a ground line that's corroded it won't pass enough wattage for the circuit. This will lead to the hot side (positive) having a heavier load pulled through it. This would trip the breaker. It might not be easily detectable, but a line that's overloaded this much would be a fair bit warmer than others. Look for signs of overheating to the wiring.

Electrical troubleshooting is a royal pain in the butt.

_________________
-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Breakers themselves can fail. Corrosion can attack them just like anything else. If they've been replaced then they'd look new, especially on the back. Check to make sure they actually got replaced?

No chance it's the ignition cylinder?

And remember, all electrical circuits have two sides, positive AND negative. Make sure you've got good grounding. Things come together at a ground buss bar (looks like a bunch of bolt posts with the wires coming to it). There'd be one for ship systems stuff and another for corrosion protection. Ships ground are typically yellow insulated, corrosion stuff is typically green. If you have a ground line that's corroded it won't pass enough wattage for the circuit. This will lead to the hot side (positive) having a heavier load pulled through it. This would trip the breaker. It might not be easily detectable, but a line that's overloaded this much would be a fair bit warmer than others. Look for signs of overheating to the wiring.

Electrical troubleshooting is a royal pain in the butt.

_________________
-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

Heh, the most common way to 'test' the ignition is to wiggle it. If that affects the circuit then replace it.

But I'd lean more toward checking the grounding system.

This is one of those areas where if you make the time you can avoid paying a mechanic a lot of money to hunt everything down. It can rack up serious money on labor trying to find electrical gremlins. That and if you're willing to be methodical about it you can probably do as good a job or better. Just be sure to have the right nut driver tools handy and some emery cloth and/or sandpaper. You don't want to be using pliers or a crescent wrench on the terminal posts. You want a straight-on tool to deal with each connection individually. This to avoid pressing against the others and possibly disrupting them.

ANY TIME YOU WORK ON THE ELECTRIC YOU SHOULD ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE SYSTEM IS OFF. No shore power, no batteries turned on, nothing. You can burn the hell out of yourself if a tool slips across terminals and shorts them out while they're live. Don't skip turning everything off.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Thanks! Not sure I'd see anything wiggling the ignition as it only happens when I turn it off, but I'll give it a shot.

You know that reminds me that I removed all the battery cables and cleaned the posts and re-attached and I had no problems for quite some time(I believe). So I will try to get to every contact I can find and clean and tighten.

Wish I had the boat here to maintain it every night, I have to give up time on the lake to do maintenance items/troubleshooting, but HOA forces storage area...next house WILL have RV parking.

Been burned by electricity lot's of times even 480vDC arc from a tube television. When I got into electronics forever ago, I fixed TV's CBs, and car stereo's so I have an idea...but it's been a long time, now I only muss with computers.

_________________


Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi