[C320-list] Wiring and power on old 320

[Kirk McCullough]

I have a 1994 boat and installed a dedicated starting battery a couple of 
years ago. Its under the starboard settee and the cabling runs under the 
cabin sole to the panel and to the starting motor on the engine. Its not 
that long actually. I think the cables are supposed to be zero gauge, except 
for the shore charger cables which i believe are 2 gauge.

It may be your stater motor or solenoid. I had to have mine rebuilt after 
2100 hours on the engine, that makes a big difference in how much juice you 
need to start it.

Are you using the glow plugs. The Perkins doesn't start to well without 
using at 10 or 15 seconds of glow plug. At least my Perkins needs that much.

Kirk
Boomernang #124
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nicholas Ward" <Nicholas_Ward at brown.edu>
To: <c320-list at catalina320.com>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 8:47 A
Subject: [C320-list] Wiring and power on old 320


> We have old 320 (1993).  We've had a lot of trouble with engine starting
> and after replacing just about everything related to ignition we still
> have problems.  A good boat electronic guy and a good deisel mechanic
> told us our problem is with insufficient wiring (curiously our surveyor
> said the wiring was ok).   We have a brand new starter battery and two
> huge truck batteries but.. They are on the starboard side, far from the
> engine.  The wiring is ?2g (about as thick as a #2 pencil).  It takes
> all the batteries to start the engine.  We have now begun the task of
> re-wiring and have (at least) 3 questions for the group.
> 1. what route do your wires take from battery to panel?  Our house
> batteries appear to go forward into the V berth, then up the starboard
> wall then dissapear somewhere. Its got to be like 30 feet of wire to get
> to the panel.  Our starter batter cable also appear to take some crazy
> route back into the aft cabin wall. I would hav ethough they would just
> run under the cabin floor.
> 2. As one solution we are contimplating moving the starter battery back
> to the engine so it only has a short cable distance.  Has anyone ever
> done that?
> 3.  Given the monstrous length of cable , what guage do you all use?
>
> Nick
> (almost named) #1
>
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>
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