[C320-list] muffler and electrical excitment

[chester carson]

Pat
that is similar to the fire I had and the catalina solution is to fuse the
battery charger wires at the battery. They have a diagram with specs that
they can send you. I believe that ABYC now requires this on new boats.
Kit Carson
#223

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 7:10 PM, pat reynolds <lorasalum at yahoo.com> wrote:

> As a religious follower of the wisdom imparted on this site since its'
> inception, I have been fortunate to have avoided many of the problems cited,
> ie; head odors (freshwater boat), charger problems, corrosion etc.  In the
> 15 years we have owned the boat I have only had the muffler and the
> electrical fuel pump replaced. ( I know, I just opened pandora's box).  I do
> have a water under the liner problem which I have been meaning to address
> for several of those 15 years (again freshwater only).  I think fortunately
> however that that problem may have saved the boat.
>
> On a recent single handed return from a long distance race on Lake Michigan
> (blessed freshwater) I was awaken at anchor at  3 am by the bilge pump
> cycling.  It seems that the year old replacement muffler I had gotten from
> Catalina had developed two leaks in the bottom (worse than the 14 year old
> one I replaced) and motoring that day had filled the bilges and assorted
> pockets.  Tired and grumbling since I was still 100 miles from home, I
> removed the floor boards and hand pumped for a couple of hours.  Some of the
> water remained, as always, under the liner.
>
> I had the muffler reglassed at the next port and continued on.  Two nights
> later while in a slip, again at 4 am during a bad electrical storm, I
> smelled something burning.  I had a fan running off the shore power and
> thought it had overheated but it was cool.  I turned on the cabin lights
> which run off the batteries and noticed a faint wisp of smoke coming from
> behind the electrical panel.  It was heavier when I opened the panel.
>  Opening the battery compartment I could see that the charger wire
> insulation had burned completely off and these wires had fused onto and
> burned the battery cables.  These wires run under the liner through conduit
> from the starboard to the port side.  Apparently a power surge at the marina
> had come in thru the shore power cord, burned out the charger and started
> the electrical fire.  When they pulled the wiring and conduit out I could
> see that the conduit (pvc pipe) was burned completely thru under the liner.
>  I am thinking
>  that maybe the water underneath had helped keep the fire from spreading.
>  Except for all of the wiring, charger and battery switch all else was ok.
>
> The electrician did not reconnect the charger wires directly to the
> battery, but to the battery switch with fuses.  He said that would alleviate
> some of the wiring running underneath the liner.  He also said that the
> reason that the charger breaker did not pop was because the charge went thru
> the negative side seeking ground.
>
> This was just a long way of saying that we should be aware of the wiring
> which is run thru and under the liner from the engine, charger, panel etc.
>  In additon to being inaccessible it may also be subject to chafe and
> fraying.   If I am ever on the boat again during an electrical storm I will
> immediately remove the shore power cord.
>
>
>
>