alarm

[jpaull]

hi, I have a hunter 27,2002, and my alarm which is situated at ignition point started sounding after about 20 minutes running.thanks for any ideas. jp.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Engine temp? ... check your impeller, or blockage in the strainer. Really, you should give us more to go on ....

 

[jpaull]

thanks for that,dont really have more info. jp.

 

[Bill Roosa]

The only alarms are low oil pressure, high engine water temp and possably alternator not charging. Most just have an idiot light for the alternator.
You should be able to tell from looking at the gages which system is having problems.

 

[Johnb]

Do you not have any lights to indicate which of the alarms Bill mentioned was the cause? Check your owners manual.

 

[jpaull]

Thanks for information guys. Have no gauges on the Hunter 27 so will check out your ideas today and see whether anything helps. JP, Australia

 

[gpd955]

What engine jpaull??

 

[jpaull]

yanmar 9hp

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I would first be leery of overheating. But, there should be other tell tale signs if that is happening, like very high temp in the engine compartment. Look at the exhaust outlet and see if water is pumping out. If not, stop the engine immediately and investigate: 1. the seacock for engine water intake closed, 2. bad water pump impeller 3. blocked intake hoses, or, if you also have a closed cooling system with a reservoir for antifreeze, make sure the antifreeze is full. If you severely overheat the engine, the paint on the engine will discolor and you could do more damage like warping the head in which case you would probably see steam coming out from the exhaust because water is entering the cylinders. Not good. Good luck.

 

[Benny17441]

I would say you have a partially clogged raw water intake. The buzzer will sound well before the engine reaches a critical temperature. With a partially clogged intake enough water may get through to maintain the engine running at a safe temperature but not enough to shut off the buzzer. It seemed to me that you continued to run the engine with no apparent ill effects so I won't consider low oil pressure and non charging alternator will manifest itself in a dead battery. Check for a plastic bag blocking the intake, check oil level and viscocity and put a voltmeter to the battery to check state of charge. (Check battery voltage with battery at rest at least 2 hours). Cannot imagine that Hunter would have wired a buzzer to the sensors on three different systems without providing for a way to identify whic may be at fault. Do read your owners manual. If I had a single circuit to wire it would be the oil pressure as once the buzzer is activated the engine will not run long. Like other said, there are telltale for temperature faults loike white smoke or a valve cover to hot to touch. An alternator fault is a nuisance but not critical.

 

[NotCook]

Do you have a bilge pump alarm? I like the water pressure/clogged intake possibility., and Benny's owners manual comment.

Please do let us know when you figure it out.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

It sounds like you have a Yanmar 1GM like me, or maybe 1GM10. My impeller fails just about every other year for no apparent reason. Like Benny said, look over the side to see if you are discharging the exhaust water. When you rev the engine, you should get a decent amount of water spitting out. If your impeller has failed, you won't get any water spitting out. BTW, I can never find anything wrong with the impellers when they fail. They look and feel exactly like a new one, but I replace it and it's good to go for another few years until it mysteriously fails again. Some folks replace theirs every year. I just wait for it to fail since there isn't any likelyhood that it will fail at the worst time (we don't have problems with tides, current or other problems like that)

If you have a partial clog, you may get a very weak water flow, but not enough flow to prevent the overheat alarm from going off. Don't worry when the alarm goes off, there won't be any immediate danger. Just don't continue to operate with the alarm sounding. Personally, I've never been able to detect any extra heat from the engine when the alarm goes off.

Keep in mind that you could have weeds clogging the hose between the intake and the strainer. I've been frustrated by that on one occasion when I cleared the intake and cleared the strainer and still had weak flow and the alarm go off.

If you don't have a strainer, then you may have to look at the hose from intake to water pump, but I would guess that you must have a strainer.

 

[Benny17441]

Scott in the recent past I have had 3 impeller failures which were traced to the rubber and the metal sleeve separating. The result is the metal sleeve spins but it does not move the vanes. I had heard that some Yanmar impellers were faulty so it did not catch me by surprise when it first happened but on the last ocurrence I noticed that there was a thick oily film on the water as if someone had spilled diesel fuel in the area. The fact that another boat close by had an impeller failure 2 days after mine kind of confirmed my theory that oil in the waqter may help the rubber part to separate from the metal sleve. At least it sounds better than blaming Yanmars quality control. I hope to perhaps have solved your mistery impeller failures.

 

[jpaull]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I have discovered that I do have indicator lights that I could not see whether they were lit up because it is so sunny at the moment. So I tried it at night and found that it was the "water temperature" light - I think. I have cleaned the inline filter - it had creatures in it. I have topped up oils etc. Went out boat went well, but alas after running it for half an hour in the marina in neutral and then going out, it started again when I had it on full revs. The same light went on as well. The impeller was changed last year before I bought the boat which was only last February. Weather is very hot here approximately 42 degrees celcius today so we don't need any antifreeze here. Cheers and hope you have a good New Year and 2012 is great. JP

 

[Fred Villiard]

It would be a good bet that you need a new impeller, running with poor water flow due to the clogged filter could cause the impeller to overheat and wear.

Happy New Year Everybody

Fred