Hi, we are having trouble starting our engine. Thought it was an issue with the glow plugs but determined that there was no power to them. We actually wired one of the glow plugs directly to the battery and the engine fired. We are thinking that the switch may be the issue. The switch has three positions. The first is off. The second position activates the panel gauges and I think the fuel pump. The third activates the glow plug. Is this correct?
Is it possible that the third position shorted out which is why the glow plugs do not have power.
What is the best way to check this?
Anyone have this issue?
Any help would be appreciated?
Thanks
—
Jules Cardin
Catharsis
1995 Catalina MKll
Marion, MA
On my panel there is a separate momentary switch for the glow plugs and the third position on the key switch is to power the starter and start the engine. Yours may be different.
Nick Tonkin
*Former* Website Administrator, C36/375IA
*Former* owner, C36 tr/fk #255, Santa Barbara, CA
On my panel the glow plugs operate by holding the sw in the spring loaded position. If you hold the sw you should see voltage and each glow plug. If you don't, you have an "Open" condition not shorted. Try doing a search for "Glow Plugs" There are lots of mods that have been done or should be done to improve the glow plug wiring. You may have a bad sw, bad relay or broken wire. It depends on how your boat in wired. I would start at the plugs and work backwards toward the sw looking for voltage.
Chuck
Chuck Lennox
97 MKii Ventura Ca
Island Girl Hull #1611
Jules,
Welcome to the group. As has already been written, there are several (many?) ways the ignition/starter/glow plug circuits have been wired from the factory thru the years, and then there are always PO mods. You have to take a look at your boat and see how your boat is wired. After correcting any corroded or broken connections or components, you might want to consider adding a relay to the glow plug circuit. The way it's wired from the factory, about 20A goes from the starter, up to the ignition switch, and back to the glow plugs on only a #10 wire. Not really the best design. Many owners (including myself) added a relay near the engine, eliminating the long, high-amp wire run for the glow plugs. The result is higher voltage at the glow plugs, shortened glow plug use (30 sec to 10 sec?), and much easier starts. The glow plug relay has been written up many times, both on this site and on the Tech Notes CD. Hope this helps.
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT
Tom, thanks for your reply. I did a search for glow plug relay on this site and there were no useful results. In fact nothing regarding glow plugs except my posting. Is there a trick to searching this site.
also, what is Tech Notes CD.
thanks for your help.
Jules Cardin
Catharsis
1995 Catalina MKll
Marion, MA
Jules,
By your last comment I assume that you have signed up for the Forums here, but you have not joined C36/375IA. If you are not a member, your search results will not include technical articles or upgrade articles on the website. You might want to consider joining C36/375IA. Here's a link to some of the benefits:
https://www.catalina36.org/about/membership
Being a member of C36/375IA gives you access to both the Technical Articles and the Upgrade Articles on this website. A three year membership gets you a free copy of the Tech Notes CD, which is a compilation of all of the Mainsheet Magazine technical articles going back to 1984. Many owners have said that the money they spent on membership is the best money they have spent on their boats. As they used to say in some commercial, Membership has its privileges! Hope this helps.
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT
Hi, since we were going to have to replace the wire from the switch to the glow plugs we decided to install a solenoid . The solenoid is installed and it operational. It works well. The problem is that we cannot pass the new wire through the conduit from the engine panel through the cockpit floor. The person who installed the panel shrink wrapped the wires and the conduit is full. I cannot pass a coat hanger through the conduit. They also used 5200 to secure the conduit into the panel so I cannot remove it. Has anyone installed a second conduit into the panel. I would need to drill a new hole and before I attempt I would like to know if anyone has tried. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
thanks
Jules Cardin
Catharsis
1995 Catalina MKll
Marion, MA
You don't generally have to run a new wire to have the relay option unless the wire powering the glow plugs has gone bad. You could simply re-purpose the glow plug wire from your panel switch and connect this to the relay control input. One side of the relay would be fused to +12 volts and the other side of the relay goes to the glow plugs.
Nick Caballero
Retired C36/375IA Mk II Technical Editor
Hi, the wire to the glow plugs failed, which is why we started this project. So we had
to replace it.
Jules Cardin
Catharsis
1995 Catalina MKll
Marion, MA
I'll check my boat later on this week and see if that's possible. One possible thought is that if the segment of the wire that failed is outside the bundle that you can't manipulate, it might be possible to just snip out the bad section and splice in a new section. The current being carried by the wire when used as the control input to a relay is very small.
Nick Caballero
Retired C36/375IA Mk II Technical Editor
I'm with Nick. Try and use the old wire. Most always the wire will "fail" at the connections on the end. Get a VOM meter and check the wire after trimming some off.
You can buy a cheap one for a few bucks. Watch a you tube to learn how to use. Every boat should carry one for trouble shooting.
There are many other ways to test the wire, but I love the meter. Fun to use.
Chuck Lennox
97 MKii Ventura Ca
Island Girl Hull #1611
We are using a meter. We thought about that but the electrician that installed the panel shrink wrapped from inside the panel until the bundle goes into the stearn. I will try to open up the bundle and pick out the glow plug wire. Hopefully the break in the wire is after the bundle goes under the aft cabin . That would be much easier than installing a new conduit into the engine panel.
Jules Cardin
Catharsis
1995 Catalina MKll
Marion, MA
The solenoid is finally installed. I ended up opening up the bundle of wire, locating the glow plug wire and splicing in a new wire. It worked very well. Thanks to everyone for your help and suggestions. It would have been difficult without your help.
Jules Cardin
Catharsis
1995 Catalina MKll
Marion, MA