Hi!
For the last few weeks, my oil alarm was playing difficult, sometime it turned itself on at start and sometime it didn't. Trying to troubleshoot it today, I realized it was coming from a bad contact to one of the ground connection.
When I was touching this red cable, the alarm was turning on or not.
This cable is plugged this way between #1 and #2
I have 4 questions:
- How should I rebuild this cable?
- Why a resistor is here?
- What is actually the part where this cable is connected? (Sorry for the stupid question)
- Any documentation I should look at to better understand the electrical part of the engine? The M25XPB parts list pdf is nice, but doesn't cover this.
—
Ludovic François
Hotel Catalina - Catalina 36 Hull #883
Marina Del Rey, CA


Ludovic - after looking at the wiring diagram I have only one guess -- if this is for the oil pressure sender (not the oil pressure switch) - the only reason for a resistor I can think of is to try and match the sender to the gage. There are different resistance senders - the gage needs to have "matched" so the pressure reads correctly.
If this is for the OP switch - don't have a clue.
https://www.westerbeke.com/technical%20manual/200554_m-25xpb_m35b_m40b_technical_man.pdf (page 95)
Les & Trish Troyer
Mahalo
Everett, WA
1983 C-36 Hull #0094
C-36 MK 1 Technical Editor.
Commodore
Here is a simplified diagram indicating the purpose of the 1K resistor. It provides a path in series to ground with the Soanalert so that it can sound when the oil pressure switch is open indicating low oil pressure. When the oil pressure is high the switch closes and provides a short across the soanalert so as to stop the beeping. On my C36 I have no sending unit.
I hope that helps.
Sail La Vie 1999 Catalina 36 MKII, M35B-17031, Coyote Point, San Mateo, CA
About Sail La Vie