We had a bit of a scare this weekend and I thought I'd share it in case it happens to anyone else.
We had just pulled into the lock at Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River and had gotten secured to the bollard. I was on the fly bridge and my wife was on the walkway on the stbd side of the boat.
She yelled up to me that she smelled something very hot. I hot footed (OK, bad pun there, sorry!) it down and could smell it also. I opened the hatch to the engine room and was greeted with a bit of smoke and a strong smell of smoke, and a whirring sound I'd never heard before.
I went down into the engine room and discovered the smell and whirring sound were from the starter motor on the stbd engine. I quickly shut off all battery switches on the main panel (port, stbd and genset/house batts) and the noise from the starter motor stopped.
I left the hatch open so the smoke could dissipate and went back down into the engine room. The starter motor was hot to the touch. Not so hot that I couldn't momentarily touch it, but I would not have wanted to hold my hand there.
I turned the switches for the port and genset/house batts back on and restarted the port engine. After a few minutes I turned on the stbd batt switch and the starter motor started spinning again so I shut it right back off. We were able to make it out of the lock and back to the slip on the port engine.
I went down to the boat this morning and tried the battery switch again and the starter motor spun up again, so I turned the switch back off.
Next stop was my mechanic. I explained what happened to him and turned it over to his capable hands.
I don't know if that could have started an engine room fire or not. It was not THAT hot when I checked it, but who knows what might have happened had we not been stopped inside the lock. Had we been cruising and had the runaway starter motor we probably would not have smelled it and been able to turn it off in time before it self destructed.
Neptune was smiling on us yesterday!
We had just pulled into the lock at Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River and had gotten secured to the bollard. I was on the fly bridge and my wife was on the walkway on the stbd side of the boat.
She yelled up to me that she smelled something very hot. I hot footed (OK, bad pun there, sorry!) it down and could smell it also. I opened the hatch to the engine room and was greeted with a bit of smoke and a strong smell of smoke, and a whirring sound I'd never heard before.
I went down into the engine room and discovered the smell and whirring sound were from the starter motor on the stbd engine. I quickly shut off all battery switches on the main panel (port, stbd and genset/house batts) and the noise from the starter motor stopped.
I left the hatch open so the smoke could dissipate and went back down into the engine room. The starter motor was hot to the touch. Not so hot that I couldn't momentarily touch it, but I would not have wanted to hold my hand there.
I turned the switches for the port and genset/house batts back on and restarted the port engine. After a few minutes I turned on the stbd batt switch and the starter motor started spinning again so I shut it right back off. We were able to make it out of the lock and back to the slip on the port engine.
I went down to the boat this morning and tried the battery switch again and the starter motor spun up again, so I turned the switch back off.
Next stop was my mechanic. I explained what happened to him and turned it over to his capable hands.
I don't know if that could have started an engine room fire or not. It was not THAT hot when I checked it, but who knows what might have happened had we not been stopped inside the lock. Had we been cruising and had the runaway starter motor we probably would not have smelled it and been able to turn it off in time before it self destructed.
Neptune was smiling on us yesterday!
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