Al
Guru
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2012
- Messages
- 2,206
- Location
- usa
- Vessel Name
- 'SLO'~BELLE
- Vessel Make
- 1978 Marben-27' Flybridge Trawler(extended to 30 feet) Pilothouse Pocket Cruiser[
Well had an interesting lesson today. After sometime without excising the engine and planning a short trip tomorrow a trip down to start and warm up the engine as a pre voyage move found the engine non responsive. Double checked to assure the shift was in neutral, batteries condition, and no loose wires still had nothing. I crossed the poles on the starter to assure power to the starter, Good!.
At this point I decided either the key switch or the kill button was inoperative. No- the kill switch solenoid was working. Decided at that point to call my “Engine Wizard”. Fortunately he was in the harbor on another job cleaning up and came over. He had indicated two people would have to be involved to check what he felt was the cause. Upon his arrival, he checked the system as I had, and then said.”It will be the neutral switch on the reduction gear”. Sure enough, With me on the key switch and he at the neutral switch on our Velvet Drive reduction gear. While it had power to it, it was inoperative. He simply placed both terminals wires on a single post and bypassed the switch. He indicated that throughout the fleet where these switches are installed a great many of them have been bypassed and left that way. “No way”! want the safety of having the engine in neutral, Will have a new switch ASAP.
I wanted to post this to the forum. Not that many of you already are aware of this issue. It is a simple fix underway from a home port, another trick to be recalled when it hits.
Al- Ketchikan
At this point I decided either the key switch or the kill button was inoperative. No- the kill switch solenoid was working. Decided at that point to call my “Engine Wizard”. Fortunately he was in the harbor on another job cleaning up and came over. He had indicated two people would have to be involved to check what he felt was the cause. Upon his arrival, he checked the system as I had, and then said.”It will be the neutral switch on the reduction gear”. Sure enough, With me on the key switch and he at the neutral switch on our Velvet Drive reduction gear. While it had power to it, it was inoperative. He simply placed both terminals wires on a single post and bypassed the switch. He indicated that throughout the fleet where these switches are installed a great many of them have been bypassed and left that way. “No way”! want the safety of having the engine in neutral, Will have a new switch ASAP.
I wanted to post this to the forum. Not that many of you already are aware of this issue. It is a simple fix underway from a home port, another trick to be recalled when it hits.
Al- Ketchikan