electrical fire

[wayne grenier]

Hey guys-I need your help-here is what happened to me yesterday-I was motoring in after a nice sail on my cd-28-md2b engine-the temp gauge went into the red so I shut it down and sailed to the mooring-there I confirmed the raw water side was fine and the coolant tank was full I pulled the thermostat and ran without and it overheated again I pulled the fresh water impeller pump and found it was stripped I installed the spare (the originial was new in MAy) then I started the motor to check for leaks=this is where it gets interesting-I had a raging electrical fire with tons of smoke-I shut the engine and batteries off and it went out -I think it started from the "hot" wire from the battery switch that supplys 12 volts to the starter-I melted this and some wires that were runnung along it but there was no other damage-especially since I declined the local volunteer fire depts request they tow the boat to the dock and do "an investigation"-anyhow-it appears with the battery switch on "2" I would have the total amps of both batteries running through this wire-so we are taliking about 110 amps-now I use the engine as my electrical ground so I suspect I may have melted off some insulation off this wire were it was touching the block when I overheated and then had a direct short-my question is can I or shoud I place a fuse in this wire-and if so how many amps will a starter draw? Is it sop to leave this wire unprotected? I can see now other relationship between the fire and the water pump impeller shredding. Any thoughts before I spend the weekend trying to get things back together again? thanks



grenier@ma.ultranet.com

[Kurt]

I've never heard of a starter motor circuit being fused protected...at least not in the automotive or inboard engine marine world (although my 9.9hp Honda is protected with a 15amp fuse)...just put it back togeather with new cable and route it in a protected fashion.
Also, I don't know what kind/size batteries you have installed but I suspect you had more than 110 amps flowing when the short occured...at any rate, it's any interesting albeit unfortunate tale



kjlgpw@aol.com

[wayne grenier]

I've never heard of a starter motor circuit being fused protected...at least not in the automotive or inboard engine marine world (although my 9.9hp Honda is protected with a 15amp fuse)...just put it back togeather with new cable and route it in a protected fashion.
Also, I don't know what kind/size batteries you have installed but I suspect you had more than 110 amps flowing when the short occured...at any rate, it's any interesting albeit unfortunate tale

just got back from the boat-fri i removed the melted wiring sat I replaced the cable from the battery switch to the starter and turned on the switched and evrything started heating up again-just traced the porblem to the battery switch which is supposed to be A SAFETY FEATURE TO PREVENT ELECTRICAL FIRES $%%^&@#!-the contacts are worn so it is not making a complete connection and heating up the wire-It had been acting funky and needed to be played with to get it to connect and disconnect properly-if yours ever does this replace it asap and do not buy a cheap one (this one came with the boat) thanks