Westerbeke 5kw Diesel Genny stopped

Was running fine and then just shut down. When I went to the panel to start it up again the panel light was off and didnt comeback on when i switched it into start (or prestart) which usually turns the light on and I hear the clicking.

Its almost as if somethig electrical blew. The red reset breaker in front was fine

what else should I initially look for?

thanks

Which model WB exactly?

Water flow? No? Check strainer, clean as necessary. You could have sucked up a plastic bag, back flush from strainer through the hull valve. Still no water flow? Hmmm, impeller needs to be replaced? Blow back through the cooler to remove "stems and pieces" from the other impeller.
The generators are designed to protect themselves and they do, 99% of the time.

High Wire said:

Which model WB exactly?

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5.0 bcdb

OldDan1943 said:

Water flow? No? Check strainer, clean as necessary. You could have sucked up a plastic bag, back flush from strainer through the hull valve. Still no water flow? Hmmm, impeller needs to be replaced? Blow back through the cooler to remove "stems and pieces" from the other impeller.
The generators are designed to protect themselves and they do, 99% of the time.

Click to expand...

Raw Water was fine as far as I now. impeller was replaced maybe 20 hrs ago

But even if that were the case, it would still have power and turn over. Its totally dead. No Power.

Is there a main fuse someplace?

My NL has a reset switch.
I had a WB but cannot remember where the reset switch was located, sorry.

My Westerbeke 4 has a reset switch, right out in front when you take the side off of the cover.

I looked at the 5.0BCDB wiring diagram and there is no reset switch. Sounds like you have lost control power. Get a copy of the wiring diagram off the WB site (Engineer 45633) and start troubleshooting with a DVM to see what component is failed. Even a 12v test light will work on a WB. I hope you have decent access.

On my 8 BTD Beker, there was a hot wire for ignition that was a spade connector on the hot lug of the starter.

It gets loose through time and occasionally would not make a good connection and kill the remote start panel.

will try to go down today and poke around w tester.
let you know how it goes.
Thanks

psneeld said:

On my 8 BTD Beker, there was a hot wire for ignition that was a spade connector on the hot lug of the starter.

It gets loose through time and occasionally would not make a good connection and kill the remote start panel.

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+1

Yup, check out loss of power or loose wire triggering the shutdown devices. Moonzy, does your genset have its own alternator and start battery?

sunchaser said:

+1

Yup, check out loss of power or loose wire triggering the shutdown devices. Moonzy, does your genset have its own alternator and start battery?

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yes it does. i actually checked the battery directly the other day because I though it was turning slowly on startup and it was 13.5 w charger and 12.8 charger off.

I dont feel like any of the shutdown protect senders are an issue on this one. Its either a main fuse I dont see or a wire that came loose from the power somehow.

I am ashamed to say I am not sure of an alternator. I assumed that when its delivering ac power, the batt charger should be taking care of that...no?

Thank you!

Crap!
I just realized something.

I forgot the switch the main power from shore to Gen AC when I left the dock.

If theres no ac to the charger then its running its own battery out which would explain the absence of power to the control panel

Ill bet thats what happened

Now im gonna head down. Its been charging all night

Had same. First time was because the exhaust elbow was corroded and sending water backwards through the overflow and into the bilge. You won’t catch this unless you see more water in the bilge / shutting off quickly after start. That generator has thermal protection that shuts down to prevent overheating. Second time was on initial startup after winterization. Forgot to note that I turned off both sets of switches.

charged all night and still no power
will have to start digging into and testing wiring

bummer

Moonzy1 said:

Crap!
I just realized something.

I forgot the switch the main power from shore to Gen AC when I left the dock.

If theres no ac to the charger then its running its own battery out which would explain the absence of power to the control panel

Ill bet thats what happened

Now im gonna head down. Its been charging all night

Click to expand...

Doubt it. The symptoms you have described are all DC side related.
A loose or corroded terminal likely.
Loss of the battery charger alone would take months to drain the charge unless to battery was completely toast.

I believe on the WB there is a 15A fuse on the DC side. If that blows, then it shuts the panel off which will probably shut everything down. On my NL there is a 15A breaker on the DC side.

Tom

tpbrady said:

I believe on the WB there is a 15A fuse on the DC side. If that blows, then it shuts the panel off which will probably shut everything down. On my NL there is a 15A breaker on the DC side.

Tom

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This is what im thinking. Im missing a fuse someplace... and on my last one i do recall a black cap on the control head that had a fuse in it

New boat doesnt have as good of access so will have to hunt around a little

Thanks

looked through the parts manual and found a 10amp circuit breaker.

Does anyone know if this would cause total dc shutdown?

My 8KW Nordhavan had a 20KW and an 8KW WB generator. One day the 8KW shut down, called a tech. Took him about 3 minutes of checking, I had to have the generator end rebuilt. As I recall, it really wasn't that expensive and the tech was the one who got all sweaty. All the problems went away.

Moonzy1 said:

View attachment 77335looked through the parts manual and found a 10amp circuit breaker.

Does anyone know if this would cause total dc shutdown?

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should not. that breaker is used for a mod that helped with low voltage to the fuel solenoid. everything still worked but not well. A test light will prove go/no-go.

The site won't let me attach the wiring diagram today.
https://www.westerbeke.com/wiring diagram/engineer_45633.pdf

Archie, did you have a remote panel?

Usually engines with remote start and panel have a push button CB someplace on the engine. Mine 8BTD does.

I have but have not done that mod left.

PS Depco pump said my water pump was worn out and not worth rebuilding, yours works great!

psneeld said:

Archie, did you have a remote panel?

Usually engines with remote start and panel have a push button CB someplace on the engine. Mine 8BTD does.

I have but have not done that mod left.

PS Depco pump said my water pump was worn out and not worth rebuilding, yours works great!

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Sweet!
Yes mine had a red 20 amp push button breaker right next to the pre-heat relay.
Mine also already had the mod done. If youhave the little box type circuit breaker hanging off the pre-heat relay, its already done.

If this unit uses a fuel solenoid to run the engine, that is the circuit I would be looking at, if a fuse isn't the problem.

Some engines open the fuel flow with a solenoid when the engine key is switched on. Loss of power to this circuit could also be the problem with your light.

How about the internal dc battery charger failed so starting battery got low. It operates the lift pump. Now lift pump stops and no fuel to injector pump. Engine stops and will not restart. This happened to me due to failed diode. 8

kpinnn said:

How about the internal dc battery charger failed so starting battery got low. It operates the lift pump. Now lift pump stops and no fuel to injector pump. Engine stops and will not restart. This happened to me due to failed diode. 8

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Paddle hard!!

kpinnn said:

How about the internal dc battery charger failed so starting battery got low. It operates the lift pump. Now lift pump stops and no fuel to injector pump. Engine stops and will not restart. This happened to me due to failed diode. 8

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Sorry for late reply.
It has taken me some experimenting to figure this out. And still may be a little fuzzy.

Last battery was shot. So I replaced.
Started rt up and ran fine. Tested w a multi meter all looked ok w house charger on and off.

The issue seems to be an ACR charging isolator between the power distribution panel and the pos+ pole of the battery. When the gen is running and the house mounted charger is on the ACR opens and cuts off charge to the Gen batt as the ACR is also connected to the stbd starter battery so it is protecting it for charging. I dont know why its doing this to the point of wasting the gen battery but that seems to be whats going on.

While offshore, I tested the "charge in" side of the ACR and it was reading 13.7 volts. The "charge out" side was nothing, hence the gen is draining itself out.

My immediate solution was to use a jumper cable from one of the accessory batts on the boat to feed the gen battery and it worked fine for the rest of the trip (20 Hrs)

My work around for this is going to be a separate drymount charger to supply the gen batt directly.

I am going to call Henriques Yachts and see why they do it this way. or perhaps they dont and someone messed w it.

Update:

There is a red DC charge circuit wire that comes off of the AC end of the gen. Had no voltage coming from it so I replaced that wire and all seems to be ok at the moment.

Update

Ran offshore for 24hr trip.

Ran Perfectly. Was the charge wire.

Thanks all for your help

Chris