Rmlow
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2016
- Messages
- 30
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Melissa Lynn
- Vessel Make
- Selene 53
Wanted to share something that happened to us a few days ago.
While returning up the Columbia River from a 10 day trip we experienced an abrupt main engine shut down while at cruise speed and were unable to restart.
I heard an alarm prior to the shutdown and before I could see which one it was, the engine had shut down. We immediately dropped anchor and called the Coast Guard to notify as we were right at the edge of the shipping channel and were likely to swing into the channel on anchor.
We had just left some friends at Walker Island so we were able to call them and they side tied to us and towed us to nearby docks.
I had initially assumed the worst with the engine but after noticing the the ignition breaker in the pilot house was unlit I verified power and that breaker was dead on both sides.
Next stop was at the main engine disconnect and there was power at the feed side but not the engine side. I unscrewed the switch from the mount and found that the inside switch had separated effectively breaking the circuit. the remainder of the switch fell apart in my hands due to the internal screws breaking out of the switch case. These are 4/0 cable connections and this could have easily been a fire instead of a engine shut down.
I was able to bypass the switch by bolting the leads together and insulating them to get it running and cruise the remaining 3 hrs home. The switch that failed is:
Guest Extra duty on/off diesel power battery switch p/n #2304A it appears to be very a poor design and I think this could happen to others.
I spoke with a marine electrician friend about it and he told me of 70' Hylass sail boat that he did repair work on recently that actually did have a fire due to one of these switches
It will be replaced with a Blue Seas switch along with the other Guest switch serving the inverter
While returning up the Columbia River from a 10 day trip we experienced an abrupt main engine shut down while at cruise speed and were unable to restart.
I heard an alarm prior to the shutdown and before I could see which one it was, the engine had shut down. We immediately dropped anchor and called the Coast Guard to notify as we were right at the edge of the shipping channel and were likely to swing into the channel on anchor.
We had just left some friends at Walker Island so we were able to call them and they side tied to us and towed us to nearby docks.
I had initially assumed the worst with the engine but after noticing the the ignition breaker in the pilot house was unlit I verified power and that breaker was dead on both sides.
Next stop was at the main engine disconnect and there was power at the feed side but not the engine side. I unscrewed the switch from the mount and found that the inside switch had separated effectively breaking the circuit. the remainder of the switch fell apart in my hands due to the internal screws breaking out of the switch case. These are 4/0 cable connections and this could have easily been a fire instead of a engine shut down.
I was able to bypass the switch by bolting the leads together and insulating them to get it running and cruise the remaining 3 hrs home. The switch that failed is:
Guest Extra duty on/off diesel power battery switch p/n #2304A it appears to be very a poor design and I think this could happen to others.
I spoke with a marine electrician friend about it and he told me of 70' Hylass sail boat that he did repair work on recently that actually did have a fire due to one of these switches
It will be replaced with a Blue Seas switch along with the other Guest switch serving the inverter
