Westerbeke starting panel

Pat

.
Jun 7, 2004
1,250
Oday 272LE Ninnescah Yacht Club, Wichita, Ks.
yesterday in shutting off the engine the entire key/Westerbeke panel at the aft end of the
cockpit of the 272LE became disconnected from the aft cockpit bulkhead.. Does anyone
have any thoughts as to how to reattach this panel ? I have not crawled into the quarterberth
to try to look at it, but the clearance behind the bulkhead can only be a couple inches. Any
suggestions on how to reattach this panel will be appreciated.....Thanks in advance. Patrick
 
Aug 17, 2010
311
Oday 35 Barrington
The panel should be held in place by 4 or 6 screws (depends on which panel). Remove the screws, and pull the panel out. Then fish out the wiring harness from the bowels of the boat. There should be plenty of slack to pull the harness out. The harness SHOULD have a terminal strip on the end of it, but I suspect that yours has the infamous trailer plug connector. (I hope that you don't have an ammeter on that panel.) Figure out which wires connect to which, and swap the trailer plug connector with a terminal strip. Use adhesive lined heat shrink crimp connectors, and put everything together. Test the panel to make sure that you didn't get any wires crossed, then re-install the panel with the 4 or 6 screws that hold it in place.
 

Pat

.
Jun 7, 2004
1,250
Oday 272LE Ninnescah Yacht Club, Wichita, Ks.
Thank you very much for the help above....Went to the lake last Sat...and a friend of mine came over
and helped me...He is pretty good mechanically so I assumed he knew what had happened...this after I had
many conversations with Bob Bisante (sp) at Westerbeke Customer Service....My friend told me to take off the instrument panel cover by removing the 4 screws (one at ea. corner), which I did...it was easy then to
pull the key mechanism out forward and of course the engine started right up.....that thing missing is the ring that holds the key mechanism in place....so I'm not sure this can't happen again....even with a new key switch from Bob I can't see what holds the key switch in place....he told me there is a copper ring that tightens to hold the switch in place...darned if I can find it....one thing for sure I'm going to be very careful
not to put any aft-ward pressure on the key...'aftward' ....Is that a word ? If I put any backward pressure on the key, it's going to return to it's home against the rear face of the plate...there is a styrofoam box that
protects all the electronics of the starter/generator from moisture and damage, so I have not tampered with
the box....the glow plug and starter button all seem to work fine at the moment.

I do want to say thank you to Bob Bisanti at Westerbeke....He has been a fabulous help to me and gives new
meaning to the word "Customer Service"....He may have been eating breakfast or lunch, but he always spoke to me to help me....so thank you Bob...and I want to say thank you to you "Eherlihy" as well. I'm going to be very careful with this key mechanism...what a help this forum is to me. Patrick in Wichita
 

Pat

.
Jun 7, 2004
1,250
Oday 272LE Ninnescah Yacht Club, Wichita, Ks.
mostly the "or this"....but the instruments are different style, but basically the same locations...key is in exactly the same place....the bottom right key switch is in exactly the same spot, but because mine got pushed in, the key can barely get pushed into the ignition...my key ignition used to be out front but not any longer...the clear plexiglass or plastic cover is the same with four screws, one at each corner.. hopefully I can get out there tomorrow and relook at what could hold the ignition key out to the front of the panel.....
pat Thanks for trying to help me......Pat
 
Aug 1, 2011
3,972
Catalina 270 255 Wabamun. Welcome to the marina
Pat,
The key will have a retainer ring or nut of some sort to hold that assembly in place on the panel. From the "or this" picture, you see molded plastic forming a cup in behind the panel, and depending on whether this is molded in at the same time it was made or attached later, that could be part of the issue. You need to sort-of look at it "sideways" to see what the layers look like and that will dictate what the mechanical attachments should be for the individual bits. If you're missing some part of the assembly, unless it's like my iPhones that like to visit the fish, the parts have to be there someplace.
 

Pat

.
Jun 7, 2004
1,250
Oday 272LE Ninnescah Yacht Club, Wichita, Ks.
Meriachee, I did crawl to the back of the quarter berth and there I can see what looks to be a stryrofoam box shaped exactly like the one shown above...it is occupying the space between the aft
bulkhead of the cockpit and aft bulkhead of the boat itself....above 4 inches....still cannot find a retainer to hold key switch in place....look though at the pictures, the box looks like the one in the picture, but the box is not being held toward the front of the plexiglass cover by the 4 screws (at each corner of the clear cover) it is 2-3 inches behind the screws which makes it really hard to even put the key in the switch....if the sun ever shines again I will go out there with a friend and get another
opinion and will report back.....up to 18 inches of snow today in western Kansas..
so probably not today.. everyone's help and opinions are very much appreciated.
 
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