Controlling the situation

I need a few short lengths of #2 battery cable to connect the battery with rest of the engine electrical system. Last Sunday I drove up to West Marine to get a short section that I figured I could cut up into the lengths I needed. West Marine is clearly significantly over priced compared to other outlets; at least on most items. However, I sometimes justify the additional expense simply for the convenience of buying locally and not waiting for UPS to deliver. Well, Sunday, I stopped at West Marine and found the 18 inch cable I needed; for $43. There was no way I was going to pay that much for less than two feet of wire. And then I got to thinking about how many times I have made the drive only to be turned away because of the cost or because they didn't have what I needed. I realized that 60-70% of the time, I walk out of store without buying anything. That really isn't very convenient at all. West Marine is now dead to me. I have no idea what took me so long.





I had purchased this bracket from Moyer Marine last year. My throttle cable had been attached to a board that was drywall screwed to the nearby 'aft bulkhead'. It was a pretty flimsy setup which allowed a lot of play in the cable. This bracket mounts directly to the engine and holds the throttle cable securely in position. It looks a lot more respectable too. I had to make a quick run to the hardware store for some longer screws. The originals that came out of the engine were too short after the hefty bracket was in. This bracket is really over kill for what it does. But it works well.

Then I held my breath, whispered a prayer, and cut a new hole in my freshly painted cockpit well.



I was planning on buying a shiny new throttle lever but even from non West Marine suppliers, they seem to be rediculously expensive for what they are. I cleaned up my original lever and will mount it near the original location. I can't remember exactly where it was- I filled in the old hole so well that I can't find it now- but this is a good location to operate it and the cable has a good point to attach to- or rather it will when I build the structure it needs.





I had some luck today with my bronze shift lever. It was stuck on quite well. Some friends from the local diner recommended a place that they thought could fix me up. It was one of these places way back in the woods where the banjos play. A few quiet old guys hanging around that don't seem happy to see newcomers. A few quick words, a half nod to follow inside, and then pick my way through piles of junk and tools to the very back of the shop. There was stuff EVERYWHERE. All kinds of random stuff. A wall with at least 100 old junked starter motors, a race car under wraps, another car with the front taken off, all sorts of random car parts, boat parts, HUGE sheetmetal tools and a dusty deer head on the wall. The owner was able to press out the lever from the shaft at considerable effort. It was really on there good. And then he spent a few minutes with the shaft on a lathe cleaning it up for me. Then he refused to take my money and said come back next time with a real job. He smiled. I gave him $20. He threw it back. I gave $10 to one of the workers and I left with a working shift lever. A new one was going to cost me several hundred dollars and wouldn't work nearly as well as this one is going to.

I positioned the cable and decided that my original thought of putting the lever back towards the aft end of the cockpit wasn't going to work out well. It puts too much bend on the cable. Maybe not 'too much' but by moving the lever forward the cable runs easier and it puts both throttle and shift levers in front of the helmspersom. I anchored the shift lever temporarily and found a good spot for the lever. I drilled a small pilot hole and then realized that I didn't have the drill I needed to cut the big hole for the big bronze shift lever. That will have to wait until next week. To give an idea, the pilot hole is about 6 inches aft of the forward cockpit locker drain hole.



I was worried that the shaft seal hose wasn't going to fit over my modified shaft tube. I was right to worry as the extension added about a 1/4 inch to the diameter and the hose didn't want to go on. In the end I reamed out the hose a bit, sanded down the tube a bit, added a bit of lubricant (Dow DC4- similar looking to petroleum jelly -its what I had on hand), and used some brute force to get in in place. I probably could have used a longer tube. This one was brand new for the one short season that I had the boat in the water. This time I can get two clamps around the tube end. Before I could only get one on the short tube.

Just in case anyone doesn't know how great a Bomar hatch in the cockpit is...



Servicing the shaft seal is a breeze with one of these in place.

Tomorrow just might be good weather for sealants so I cut some exhaust hose and did a trial fitting of my cockpit drain tubes.



The Triton cockpit sole is only an inch or so above the waterline. When 4 people crowd into the cockpit, the stern sinks and the cockpit floods. For this reason, and to guard against the unlikely chance that a drain tube will leak, I had removed the glassed in fiberglass tubes and installed seacocks under the drains. This leaves very little room to replace the hoses so to get around that I made the drain fittings removable. These are Marelon 1.5" flush thru-hulls. Remove the nut and lift up on the fitting and then there is enough room to lift the hose off the seacock and replace it. The holes in the cockpit are countersunk for the thru-hulls.





It has been a busy day and now it is past my bedtime. I will try to add a bit more tomorrow.

Making connections

Continued with the engine wiring today.





Last week I suddenly decided that I wanted to put in fuses on the battery and alternator feeds. Luckily, there was room to add them in neatly. I also added in an on/off switch for the battery. Not sure how important that is but I have it. Its for the long term. Someday I will think I want one and now I have it. There really wasn't a great place to put it so I just put it in front of the battery. I want to keep all the battery wires the same size and I didn't have any 2 guage wire on hand so I wasn't able to finish up those connections. Close, but not quite done. I also ran the power wire off the starter post (which in turn is directly off the positive battery terminal) out to where the ammeter will be installed at the aft end of the cockpit. Then I ran a similar wire back from the future ammeter to the 'battery bus bar'. The Alternator feeds into the other end of the battery bus bar and whatever needs to take of power from the battery will be connected to this bus.


My original plan for the bilge pump hoses was to run them alongside the engine beds inside the engine box. Its becoming apparent that it is going to get crowded in there so today I decided to cut some holes and route the bilge pump lines under the platforms aft of the settees.

The small bilge pump is out for the moment. The larger Rule 3700gpm pump is located on a shelf about six inches from the bottom of the bilge (It would be impossible to retrieve if it was any lower). I pulled the 1.5 inch outlet hose from that pump away from the engine beds...



... out under the starboard aft platform and past the starboard drain seacock (note the handy access via the cheezy plastic hatch)...



... and along the fuel tank through the starboard cockpit locker. When I get the boat cover off next month I can install the thru-hull fittings in the counter where the hose will terminate. At least for now I am no longer tripping over that hose.



The wiring, the hose, shoveling a few cubic yards of leftover snow and a quick brake job on the truck finished up my Saturday. Hopefully I can squeeze in another blog update tomorrow.

The Countdown never ceases...


...

Addendum:

Spent another hour or so on the boat Sunday. (sorry camera was at home charging)

I laid out the engine control cables and was a little scared for a bit when I realized that the transmission cable wouldn't go over the fuel tank as I had thought it would. The approach angle was too much for the heavy type 64 cable. Luckily, it does seem to work going under the fuel tank. That means attaching at the lowest hole on the transmission shift lever which won't help with the leverage much. On the other hand, its a heavy type 64 cable and it would probably lift my car if it needed to. I spent a good bit of time frantically trying to figure out how to route the cable and where the other end of the cable should wind up since my primary idea was a failure. Luckily, bending it as much as I am comfortable with, it just fits on the aft end of the port cockpit locker. That location was one of my preferred locations from the beginning anyway. Big sigh of relief.

In the future I think I should have spent time with an old junk cable to try out different positions and lengths. It ended well so that is good.

The throttle cable too has to be changed from its original run. It had a funny awkward loop in it from the beginning anyway. I had always assumed I would be buying two control levers and mounting them in different locations but now it looks like a two lever single unit might work out well. I am going to do some snooping online tonight and see what my options are.

The choke cable should be pretty easy. I did use my throttle cable as a stand-in however just to check out how it would run. It turned up a few errors in my original ideas but it will work out okay.

I must say it was also hard to remember which way the cable needed to go to make the engine operate correctly. Now was that forward on the cable to push the throttle open or closed? Does pushing the lever forward make the cable go in or out?...

Nothing is easy.

Watching snowflakes

That is what I was doing today instead of getting much done on the boat.

Yesterday, I ran my weekend errands and then decided to work on Other-Peoples-Boats. Other people have launch deadlines too apparently.

Speaking of deadlines...

Deadline Countdown

A friendly reminder set up by some 'friends'...

With the snow flying I did what I could on the engine instrument panel. Yesterday I managed to find the hardware I needed to push forward. Unfortunately I need more so it isn't quite finished.



I was going to make the panel hinge out for maintenance but I haven't been happy with any hinge stock I have found so far. I just don't like the look. Considering how many times I expect to have to get to the back of this panel it isn't really a big deal to remove the whole thing from the cabin. I think I am just going to screw the panel down and be done with it. The main electrical distribution panel is another story but this one should be about complete and need very minor and infrequent maintenance. I might just regret those words someday.

I also forgot my heat gun so the shrink tubing isn't on yet.



I cleaned up the inside of the corners of the instrument panel using a sharp chisel to work out the epoxy smears. I was trying to explain a detail of the inside corners to a friend and had a hard time using words so I am throwing up this picture as a demonstration. Its just some toerail scraps for a demonstration only.



My desire for a router last week was to easily round out the inside edge of the frame. And then I got thinking that I like how the corners come to a tight right angle rather than a round inside edge. That's what the demo picture is for. Had I thought about it, I would have rounded the inner edge of the frame pieces before I glued it up and then cut 45 degree angles in the ends to match them together. At this point I am not sure how I will finish the inside edge. I might leave it square. I might take a router with a quarter round bit or something more fancy and just walk it around the inside. Sometimes I get lost in these silly details. The closer I get to completing something the more I want to fuss with the details.

And speaking of details. Yesterday I suddenly started thinking about fuses and switches for my limited electrical system. I could have put it off. I have never had a car that needed a battery switch or fuse after all. On the other hand its something I probably would have put in at some point so in a last minute online shopping frenzy I ordered an on/off battery switch, 2 fuse blocks (for the battery and alternator outputs), and the appropriate fuses and spares. I could have waited. But I didn't.

Snow falling today. Big storm tomorrow. Sadly, that's all that is going to happen this weekend. I wasn't expecting my simple wiring job to take more than a day or two and I realise I have been tinkering with it for a month now. I better go back and click that deadline link...

Crimp, crimp, crimp

That about sums it up. I continued working on the engine electrical system this weekend. After shoveling the driveway of course. That seems to be a regular weekend chore these days.



I installed a few more electrical bus bars. Top left is connected directly to the battery and alternator. Just below comes off the 'Ignition' switch. In the middle is the bus for the navigation lights (top is +, bottom is ground)and engine instrument lights (switched through the engine electrical panel. On the right is a connection point for the ground wire. The battery negative terminal is connected to the engine flywheel cover (as per original) which is in turn connected to the ground bus.







I went ahead and ordered #4 guage wire and connectors to run the full alternator output to the ammeter at the back end of the cockpit and back to the 'battery bus' at the engine. The rest of the system minus the switch panel is about complete. The alternator has a max 37 amp output but I am selecting wires and the guage in anticipation of upgrading to a 60 amp output alternator at some point. For general wiring I am using #12 guage. I could have gone smaller on a lot of it but #12 covers 90% of the boat needs and I just felt it easier to stock one size rather than rolls of many different sizes and colors. It means that sometimes a 2 amp draw is running through wires capable of handling 20 amps but I did it just to simplify my stocks of wire and connectors.

So, the battery bus feeds the switch panel, bilge pump(s) (not connected yet), a automotive type 12v utility socket (cigarette lighter) and provides a connection for the alternator (bus bars are rated at 100 amps)

From the the 'Ignition' switch, power goes to the 'Ignition' power bus bar. This feeds the ignition coil, electronic ignition sensor (replaces the old mechanical points) and after passing through the oil pressure safety switch, the electric fuel pump (temporarily removed)



From the 'Navigation' switch, power goes to the navigation bus bar which will power the red, green, white and engine instrument lights. I don't know if these will be connected by launch day. Its there for whenever I can get to it.

Whatever is not grounded directly through the engine, like nav lights, coil, and fuel pump, is connected to the 'Ground' bus bar

I have yet to run the power and sensor wires to the engine instrument panel. That has to happen out in the cockpit and it is cold out there. I also figured I would wait until I have the panel installed so I can run all the wires in a bundle at the same time. Darn, I just remembered I need to order more wire for those sensors...



I did run the common power, ground, and light power wires to the individual guages. Single wires from the just installed terminal blocks will supply guage power, light power, and a ground to complete the installation.

Doesn't look like much I know. I am waiting for the switch panel to be installed before I bundle up the wires neatly and secure them.

Replacing my stock of crimp connectors, shrink tube, and the #4 wire and connectors ran up my weekly bill to about $150. It looks like my total bill for the engine wiring project is going to run around $300-$400 just in wire and connectors. I have no idea where it all goes...

With the epoxy having set this week, I used a belt sander to clean up the instrument panel frame.



I really wish I had a table saw.
With a skilsaw, plane, and chisel I cut out the 'notch' (the proper term escapes me) that will allow the panel to insert into the hole in the cockpit well.



Here is a preview of what the panel is shaping up to look like. I think I can finally justify a router. I want to put a quarter round on the outer and inner edges. I have been wanting one for years and I think I am finally getting to the point where I am not going to be happy with the results unless I get one. Free handing the curved edges gets old and is tough to get perfectly. With my interior furniture projects getting closer I think its time and this would be a good job for it.

Sparking some interest

I managed four or five hours on the boat this weekend and managed to get something done in regards to the engine electrical system.

But first, over the past month, this beautiful creature has been growing right next to me at the boatyard. Today, I saw it turning for the first time. Silent and beautiful and clean. I love it.



I continued glueing up the engine instrument panel frame. Doing the frame one joint at a time is introducing some uneven-ness that will have to be rectified later. I should have bought four clamps and done it all at once so I could control the layup better. I can fix it but I could have done better.

I started making up the wiring harness for the engine. First, I had to clean up the old wires. I really wished I had something to clean the engine with. It is looking dirty with lots of fiberglass and primer dust on it but the water at the boatyard is turned off for the winter so a good scrubbing will have to wait.

I forgot to bring anything to clean up the connections so I just left them loose for now. I thought I had more electrical terminal strips but a couple of them looked old and dirty so I ordered a few more. I installed the two decent ones that I had over the engine to get me started. The upper one is connected to the battery. The lower one is downstream of the 'ignition' switch. I will add a third one soon that the nav lights will connect to. Nearby, I will install a fourth for the ground connections.



I thought I had ordered an externally shunted ammeter but I guess I didn't. I have an internally shunted ammeter*. That means I have to run the full charging load through the meter which will be located at the aft end of the cockpit. For a run that long I need some larger wire that I didn't have on hand so I had to skip that bit. The battery connects to the hot terminal on the starter. A second wire off the starter hot terminal will run to the ammeter and back to the 'battery' terminal strip. On the other end of the terminal strip is the alternator connection. That puts the ammeter between the battery and alternator and the rest of the load where it belongs. The ammeter doesn't really measure total system draw, it measures the charging / discharging current to the engine start battery. When the house system goes in it will have a separate ammeter for keeping track of total power consumption.

Not too exciting. I ran the wires from the 'ignition' terminal block to the oil pressure safety switch / electric fuel pump. Also, on the same terminal, the power to the coil and electronic distributor.

When I get the rest of the terminal blocks installed I can run the rest of the wires and bundle them up in a nice neat harness. Pictures now would look boring and slightly hideous. After I finish writing this blog I am going to spend a bit more time with the electrical panel and get that ready to wire into the terminal blocks. There really isn't much to an A4 electrical system.

On a side note, I took my electrical temperature guage to the boat and was reading 71 degrees near the cabin roof and about 60 degrees down by my knees. The temperature outside was just below freezing so I think the cabin insulation is definately working.

That's it for now. I took some more pictures of the engine so I can update the 'engine' page on the website - dirty engine and all but I need something to do weeknights.

Roughly 15 weekends before launch. I am starting to feel the pressure.



*For those of you that want to know what shunting and ammeters have in common:

A typical ammeter is a sensitive electrical device requiring only a few milliamps to operate. Running the whole load through the a meter would require a huge and heavy device to handle the big electrical currents. The shunt is a bypass. Most of the current goes through the shunt and only a little goes through the meter. Now for the meter to operate properly, it needs to be calibrated to the shunt. The meter has to know that, say for example, 99% of the load is going through the shunt and 1% is going through the meter. That way the meter can read 100 times more than what is actually going through it so that it can accurately show the full system current. An internal shunted ammeter has terminal connections for the full load. The whole load is taken to the meter case. Inside of the case the shunting occurs. On an externally shunter ammeter (which is what I wanted but didn't get) the shunt is located somewhere convenient, say off of the starter terminal, and two tiny wires carry 1% of the system current back to the meter. That would have been better in my system with the meter 6 feet away from the rest of the system. Its okay. It will work. But I will need to buy 12 feet of 4 guage wire or something like it to carry that much current over that distance.

Winter Slog

This week the boat has a three foot iced over snow berm all around it. I spent Saturday chipping ice out of the driveway after spending an hour trying to get the truck out of the driveway over the 3 inches of solid ice. Dog days of winter.


I started glueing up the engine instrument panel frame.



I want to re-mount my spicerack/secondary electrical panel on the aft end of the cabin but I don't want to see the screw heads on the outside. I spent way too much time fairing the cabin sides and prepping them for a smooth paint finish to have a couple of random screw heads poking through.

The solution was suggested to me by a friend of mine. Build a back panel for the spice rack, Glue it in and screw the rack to the back panel. There is quite a bit of surface area to the panel and not much weight on the rack so I think this will work. Clamping the panel to the cabin while the epoxy sets is going to be the tricky part. I will put flush counter sunk machine screws under the panel and protruding into the cabin. The spice rack will mount onto those screws. Today, I cut out that panel from some left over 1/4" okoume plywood. I think I will varnish the visible surface before I glue it in. Or maybe just paint it white. I don't know yet.



The rod end for the transmission shifter cable came in. Someone listed the dimensions incorrectly. I thought it was odd that an aviation supplier would have the right sized clevis end. In my 15 years of fixing airplanes I have never seen a fitting that large. The fitting I received is not nearly big enough. Here is a picture of the 1.)original, 2.)recently ordered fitting, and 3.) fitting that came with the cable.



To make matters that bit more frustrating. I looked at the rod end and ordered the clevis in a 5/16" fine thread. Turns out the thread is metric so it won't screw onto the cable. The original clevis I received was only listed in the catalog as 'clevis for series 60 cable'. Now I know series 60 threads aren't fractional. Learn something every day. That one only cost me $15.

I am thinking the solution is to file down the fitting that came with the cable just a bit so that it fits inside the original beefy bronze fitting. After jamming it in I can just fill the void with thickened epoxy and call it good. It will look odd but it should work okay.



Next week I have a maxed out social calender. I might have time to snoop in a buddy's boat shop and find something I need. Otherwise, the project will continue to creep along at this abysmally slow pace.

An old boss used to tell me that somedays, "all you can do is to push the ball forward. Try to make progress somewhere". Another friend has told me that the secret to being successful is to, "keep working, and it will get done." I am pushing the ball forward and working. That's about all I can say these days.