Portage_Bay
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2015
- Messages
- 2,640
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Pacific Myst
- Vessel Make
- West Bay 4500
ABYC says you don't have to. Some of greater knowledge and experience than I suggest you should. I may put fuses in the starter circuits on my next maintenance cycle.
My story. I had just buttoned up the cooling systems on a pair of Cummins 6BT 5.9 engines. Fire 'em up one at a time and look for leaks. Port engine had a leak on it's cooler end cap. Cooler is located on the inboard side. Easily remedied. So time to check the starboard engine. I don't want to crawl across a running engine to get to the cooler so I get in position, head lamp on, tools at hand and signal my sweetie to start the engine. Out of my left peripheral there's a massive spark. A bolt of lightning it seems. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I had her shut it down. Twisted myself into a new pretzel position to keep an eye on the starter and had her start it, count to 3 and shut it down. Confirmed sparks were flying out of the solenoid.
Now, why am I interested in fusing the staring circuit? Well on a car long ago I the starter fail staying engaged. Starter failure? Solenoid failure? Bendix failure? Who knows. It caught fire and burned the electrical cables. Don't know which caused what to burn but I do know it was substantial damage and near loss of the car. On a car I can pull over to the side of the road and get out. On a boat? Nope.
Might I wind up with a blown fuse and a starter circuit that doesn't work. Yup. But it's fair warning. Find the fault, fix it, replace the fuse. Lost time, a bit annoyed and busted knuckles. But no fire.
My story. I had just buttoned up the cooling systems on a pair of Cummins 6BT 5.9 engines. Fire 'em up one at a time and look for leaks. Port engine had a leak on it's cooler end cap. Cooler is located on the inboard side. Easily remedied. So time to check the starboard engine. I don't want to crawl across a running engine to get to the cooler so I get in position, head lamp on, tools at hand and signal my sweetie to start the engine. Out of my left peripheral there's a massive spark. A bolt of lightning it seems. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I had her shut it down. Twisted myself into a new pretzel position to keep an eye on the starter and had her start it, count to 3 and shut it down. Confirmed sparks were flying out of the solenoid.
Now, why am I interested in fusing the staring circuit? Well on a car long ago I the starter fail staying engaged. Starter failure? Solenoid failure? Bendix failure? Who knows. It caught fire and burned the electrical cables. Don't know which caused what to burn but I do know it was substantial damage and near loss of the car. On a car I can pull over to the side of the road and get out. On a boat? Nope.
Might I wind up with a blown fuse and a starter circuit that doesn't work. Yup. But it's fair warning. Find the fault, fix it, replace the fuse. Lost time, a bit annoyed and busted knuckles. But no fire.