Anybody who owns a Westerbeke equipped H-34 ever have to replace their engine's instrument panel breaker? This weekend the instrument panel of our Westerbeke went dead. No gages or alarms - engine kept running. After shutting down the engine, the starter would not work. Pressed the reset on the 20 amp breaker located on the engine and everyting came back to life. Engine ran for ten minutes and the panel went dead again. The breaker would not reset while the engine ran. I have no idea if it will reset now and restart the engine (no time to play at the dock, we'll have to troubleshoot this week). The breaker is located on the top of the engine right next to the starter solenoid. It vibrates and is hot at that location. I suspect breaker failure rather than some short in the panel circuit (all gages and alarms seem to be working fine before the circuit went dead). Engine has 1316 hours. Anybody ever see this problem and have some advice?
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I popped that Breaker once
Ended up being a minor (self induced) short in the instrument panel. I changed the tach while the boat was out of the water and had wires crossed. Even with a dead short it took a while to pop the breaker. Had time to start the motor using glow plugs before it popped. Seems to me there not much current flow to the instruments while it's running. I figured if it blew it would be while using the glow plugs or starter. Possibly voltage regulator failure - charging too much? (if no short is detected) Time for a 6-pak and a volt meter. Barry
Ended up being a minor (self induced) short in the instrument panel. I changed the tach while the boat was out of the water and had wires crossed. Even with a dead short it took a while to pop the breaker. Had time to start the motor using glow plugs before it popped. Seems to me there not much current flow to the instruments while it's running. I figured if it blew it would be while using the glow plugs or starter. Possibly voltage regulator failure - charging too much? (if no short is detected) Time for a 6-pak and a volt meter. Barry
It's hot
I don't mean to sound trite but 'breakers trip for a reason' not always electrical but 99.99999 % of the time it IS electrical. Before you replace the breaker, could you use 'patch cables' and temporarily move the breaker ??? If it still trips in a cooler environment, try swapping it out with another 20A breaker. This sounds like a process of elimination and it will take time (and a few beers)
I don't mean to sound trite but 'breakers trip for a reason' not always electrical but 99.99999 % of the time it IS electrical. Before you replace the breaker, could you use 'patch cables' and temporarily move the breaker ??? If it still trips in a cooler environment, try swapping it out with another 20A breaker. This sounds like a process of elimination and it will take time (and a few beers)
Reproting back
You are right Jerry, it did trip for a reason. Because of recent work around the raw water pump, the plastic conduit from the alternator to the top of the engine got against the exhaust manifold. The plastic melted and began melting the insulation of one of the wires that connects to the alternator field. The short was intermittent. I also inspected all of the connections to the alternator and found the field connection suspect. The plastic connector to the alternator field appeared burned. Tape and wire ties seemed to fix the problems. Ran for an hour without shorting. Thanks for your input guys, I think it is fixed. Of major interest to anybody who has a Wrsterbeke in the H-34. During this incident the electric fuel pump was not operating, but the engine continued on its merry way. Ran for about 4 hours with no electric pump and did not shut down until I shut the fuel off. That's comforting to know. Apparently the fuel siphons from the tank to the injector pump without the aid of the electric pump. Very interesting.
You are right Jerry, it did trip for a reason. Because of recent work around the raw water pump, the plastic conduit from the alternator to the top of the engine got against the exhaust manifold. The plastic melted and began melting the insulation of one of the wires that connects to the alternator field. The short was intermittent. I also inspected all of the connections to the alternator and found the field connection suspect. The plastic connector to the alternator field appeared burned. Tape and wire ties seemed to fix the problems. Ran for an hour without shorting. Thanks for your input guys, I think it is fixed. Of major interest to anybody who has a Wrsterbeke in the H-34. During this incident the electric fuel pump was not operating, but the engine continued on its merry way. Ran for about 4 hours with no electric pump and did not shut down until I shut the fuel off. That's comforting to know. Apparently the fuel siphons from the tank to the injector pump without the aid of the electric pump. Very interesting.
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