We knew early on with our boat that butchery had occurred on the fuel pump/glow plow circuit with resultant death to the engine alarms. Changing the single contact oil pressure switch back to the OEM double contact one restored the alarms and all seemed OK except for a weak alarm sound. Put in a new buzzer and all seemed fine.
However, I had noted a white wire spliced into the purple line to the glow plug solenoid at the back of the engine, it ran into a purple line again later in that harness. I assumed there had been a bad wire in the harness and they bypassed it but because this harness was all scrunched up behind the HE I couldn't tell for sure what had happened.
When I took the HE off for rebuild, I was able to fully open up that engine wiring harness and I found out the real story. What they had done was chopped into the purple 14 ga. line coming from the control panel to the glow plug solenoid low amp side at one end and the purple 12 ga. line coming from the solenoid hi amp side to the glow plugs. This bypassed the entire solenoid, meaning that all along we had no fuel pump running when using the glow plugs and also the glow plugs were being powered by a little 14 ga. wire coming from the instrument panel instead of a 2 foot length of 12 ga. wire. I think it may also be why they put the single contact oil pressure switch in since that was powering the fuel pump all the time and while it killed the alarms, that was an acceptable trade for them. Not for me though.
Even though the engine started OK but needed more glow plug time than our last boat, I could not understand why anyone would do that. I jumped power to the high-amp side of the solenoid and then powered up the purple wire connection on the low amp side and found out why, the solenoid was dead. I was ordering a bunch of engine parts and hoses so I talked to the Universal parts guy about this solenoid, he told me there's many different ones that have been used and they're just automotive parts, best to match it at a parts store. I took it off, took it to NAPA and got the exact same solenoid for 23 bucks. So I bought 2 of them to have a spare.
I am dumbfounded at times what people will do to save a buck. Makes zero sense to me on any level that someone would do that. Seems like this boat was a dock queen for the last few years of her life, I guess that's why they could get away with stuff like this. Hopefully now I have found the last of these types of "improvements" and can get it back to stock so at least I can figure out what's going on when stuff happens, as it always does.
Hi Bud,
Would you pass along the NAPA part number for that solenoid? My boat pre-dates the factory installation of that feature and this upgrade is near the top of my to-do list.
FWIW, I believe all these excursions into our boats' systems are positive, every experience adds to our ability to be self-sufficient and handle emergencies.
However, it is discouraging when a PO has taken a shortcut without engaging his brain.
Cheers,
Graham Mackey
SV Nostromo
1989 C36 908
Tall Rig/Wing Keel
Toronto, Canada
Graham, it has ST81 on the top of the box, and in smaller letters V10135. It is an Echlin part.
NAPA has about 6 different solenoids, this one is identical to what was on the boat right down to the labels on the terminals cast into the case. There are a couple of different wiring schemes though for this install. Mine grounds through the case but some engines are wired with a solenoid that grounds through a separate terminal on the solenoid, they can't be interchanged. But if you're starting from scratch, either would work, though I think this one is the simplest to work with.
This is the basic conept of the glow plug solenoids, which those of us with older engines use to eliminate that nasty long run back to the cockpit panel. Works for M25 and M25XP engines and was "standard" on newer engines.
[url]http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=Faster%2C_More_Efficient_Glow_Pl...
Good detective work, Bud.
Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)
Graham, The solenoid represented in the drawing in the article Stu referenced is the same as the one I bought so if you get that part the directions given in that article will work.
Bud, I agree with your thoughts on Rube Goldberg repairs though I suspect that often times the repair in question may not be a financial based situation.
I too have performed a fair number of patch repairs either while underway or when preparing to cast off for a day sail. Unfortunatly some of these repair schemes stay as permanent fixes as they hit the Round To It list.
Many times a quick patch is installed in a system keep from turning a perfectly good sailing day with freinds into a day of your freinds getting a salty language leason for the day, handing you tools as you complete a proper repair. Like the day a cotter pin fails and the only thing available is a galvanized nail, you stuff it in and go sailing. The next time you go out something else pops up and the cotter key replacement falls farther down the Round To It list.
Cepheus dream
C36 MK I # 825
MK I Tech Editor No Mas
Good one Steve, haven't heard Rube's name for a while, thought he had retired and some McGyver guy took over! Probably some new guy took over from McGyver by now. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter so I don't know these things.
I've been fortunate in that my current C36 and prior C30 were both new, so I didn't have to deal with too many 'improvements'. Though I must admit, I've seen a few things that the commissioning dealer did that make me scratch my head.
My 1st boat was a 10 year old Watkins 27. I was having a wonderful time working on things and learning about boats. One thing had me baffled, and that was the electrical accessories. Almost nothing worked. The small electrical panel backed into the cockpit locker, so I got in there and started tracing wires. The PO must have gotten a special on #18 red wire, as that was all that was there, positive and negative. All of the wiring he'd added went through a passage in the bulkhead. I was trying to pull some of it out and it wouldn't budge. Finally out comes this big ball of melted plastic and copper, what had formerly been red #18 wire. Something had obviously shorted and, not being fused, created quite a bit of heat. Amazing it didn't cause a fire. There were a quite a few strange or poorly executed mods that made me consider carefully any improvements I make.
Hopefully whoever bought my C30 isn't thinking the same thing about my work..!
Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay
Ok I have searched on here and have not found my answer so here is my question. While we have been out cruising now for 10 months I came across an 1995 Catalina 36 that I showed him how to bleed his fuel system. What I noticed though was while doing this was that when he turned his key switch on that his electric fuel pump did not come on. To activate the electric fuel pump he had to turn the key switch to the glow plug position. Now on our 1990 Catalina 36 when I turn our key switch on the electric fuel pump starts right away and stays on all the time. I am thinking mine is wired wrong as I have never changed this circuit. So what is the proper circuit? Is it once the engine is running that the manual lift pump takes over and the electric one is cut out of the circuit if the glow plugs have been used. Both boats have the same M35 engine as well. Just a note on our trip, so far we have almost gone 4000 N/M and the 36 has done a great job for us and would recommend it to anyone. We have lots of stories to tell as well.
Randy
Randy Sherwood
Mutualfun 1990 # 1057
T/R W/K M35a
Home. Charlotte, Mi.
Boat. St Augustine,Fl.
Randy, the way the M35A in the 1995 Mk II comes from the factory is as your friend's boat is set up. Activating the glow plugs activates the fuel pump through one circuit, then once the engine starts and the oil pressure switch closes the fuel pump is powered through a circuit there. You should see two terminals on his oil pressure switch instead of one.
There's some disagreement in some quarters about whether that is necessary, but that's the way they come from the factory. I would prefer a simpler system and may look at changing mine but for now at least I've got it matching the factory wiring diagrams.
Last fall when I fixed up my wiring I found out our fuel pump was dead though it had been fine in spring! We never let our tank get below 3/4 so it seems the siphon effect does work enough on the Mark IIs to keep things going with no fuel pump.
We've been following your blog, looks like you are having a good time!
Bud's right, there ARE two different wiring diagrams for the older and newer engines. The newer ones have dual activation for the glow plugs.
This is discussed in great (agonizing?) detail in this thread, starting with my Reply #52.
[url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3347.45.html[/url]
You may want to download and peruse the wiring diagrams discussed in earlier replies.
I personally think the dual activation makes no sense, especially for bleeding, as discussed in that thread.
Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)