Kicking myself, but glad I can.

[RichT]

Alan,
Glad to hear the batteries are okay, I would have thought they would have suffered much worse. Sounds like you're getting things straightened out.

Got to disagree with Wahoo and Delmarrey on the docs though. I went for over 15 years without seeing one at all except the FAA mandated yearly physical, which usually consisted of me handing some schmuck 100 dollars and breathing on a mirror.

Then about 8 months ago, I started getting frequent headaches, ignored them at first, just took lots of aspirin. You know the attitude, " I don't need no stinkin doctor ". Finally broke down one morning when I got out of bed and promptly fell into a wall, and no, I had NOT been imbibing heavily the night before. Went to the doctor, who discovered my blood pressure, was 198 over 100....yeah... He immediatly put me on medication to prevent a stroke, ran some blood tests, sent me to a kidney specialist, who ran more tests, that led me to an oncologist, and a Pet scan which revealed a tumor next to my pancreas. After a biopsy to confirm, yep, it was cancer. Turns out to be a low grade, stage 1 non hodgekins lymphoma, treatable, but not cureable. I have had VERY GOOD doctors throughout the entire ordeal. Wish I could say the same for the insurance folks, but hey, I'm still around, so... my advice, and my .02 worth is don't be afraid of the doctors. There have been some great strides in medicine the last few years. If I hadn't gone in, they would not have found the cancer, and who knows how long I would have had. As it is, I got a few more years left, thanks to the docs.

Now, about that beer,,, by the way , does Dawn have a single sister by any chance???? She is obviously a keeper...

RichT.

[Alan Wheeler]

She is obviously a keeper...

No sister sorry, but yep she's a keeper. Don't tell her though, it'll go to her head and I have to keep her on her toes somehow.
Thanks for the Doc concern, but I am fine. Besides, part of my normal health problems mean I have to visit every three months anyway. It was costing me $65.oo per visit, but now I am 45 I get a subsidy and it will only be $35.

[seafox]

I hope you made sure Dawn finished the lawns

[Alan Wheeler]

I rigged the mower so it wouldn't stop once she started it. ;-) :-)

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by Wahoo Sails

Wheels,
I'm sure to catch a load of flack for this, but gonna give you my personal opinion on seeing doctors.
First .... wait until you're sure you're gonna die, second, wait 3 days more, If you are alive, but convinced that you're still gonna die, then, and then only do you see a doctor.
Where on Earth did I come up with this bizarre notion? .....from several doctors. Same doctors have told me "Wanna stay healthy?" "Stay away from doctors!"
Make of this what you will.
Bob

AGREED!!

[rtbates]

Pretty darn scary story there.


Are/were both your cables at the starter black?
Stop me if I'm stating the obvious,
BUT when you rewire you might consider using red for the +. Makes life easier.

[senormechanico]

Wheels,

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I still don't know what caused it.
Did you figure it out? Wiring misconnected?

Steve B.

[Captain Mark]

Wheels,

Glad you're okay... you know what they say, "That which doesn't kill us, still hurts like hell!"

Mark

[Alan Wheeler]

I am not totaly sure what went wrong. Only thing I am sure on is it was caused by me, but what I did I am not so sure on. Yes all the cables were black. I remember muttering to myself about the dipstick that did this in the begining. I should have done better at identifying them right then and there. But I had no red tape of heatshrink. I did have black and at the time thought no pint it putting black tape on black leads, so shrugged the idea off. But in hind sight, even a bit of black tape around the positive lead would have identified it against the others. I kept the cables seperate by laying the positive ones over the waterlock and the earth ones remained at the starter area. Now this is where it gets foggy. Because I have a severe memory problem, I simply can't remember these details. I can remember cleaning the cable lugs. One particular cable, I placed against a lump of engine and was suprised I got sparks. Especially when the poistive lines were isolated with the breaker switch. I didn't think that clearly through and now suspect I may have then identified it as a positive lead. The sparks were possibly just some feedback via another device like maybe anchor winch or charge devices or something. It may not have had much current behind it, I just don't know. So when the cable was connected to positive, it was infact an earth and the real positive was infact still isolated and thus then connected to earth, being live'nd but a dead short when the isolater was thrown. That's one scenario.
the other is that I had some form of short in the starter I repaired. Certainly the live terminal post had been very hot and the cable to it was also one of the many melted. But I did test the starter before I put in on the boat and also when I removed it again. Both times it worked. However, the insulators were melted, so I dismantled and fixed all that. I could see where some internals had been damn hot, but could not see why. I have reassembled it and tested it on a high current and it works fine. I tested it for shorts with a meter and it seems fine. So I really don't know. It maybe that the cable that origianly melted simply then melted through to the start and the heat melted the insulators and then the terminal shorted against the body and thus I had yet another short. The terminal had evedence of touching the body and it had arc points on it and it had been blue'd by the heat.
I go back out tomorrow to rewire everything. I have made a new isolator box up and have made a far better job of rewireing so as this can never happen again.

[Maddog]

Mr. Wheeler - I am glad you made it through this. This is no attempt to monday morning quarterback your situation. I only comment because I just rewired my batteries, ignition and starter myself.

All cables being black should have been a clue. I had almost the same situation except mine were all red with black tape or reversed black for red. Once I started, I realized that everything had to come out and go back in new. Which is what I did. The real scarry part for me was the ignition wire from the key to the seleniod on the starter. Follow me here: 4' of red 12 ga wire, splice to 4' 10 ga white wire, (this is the good part), spliced to freaking speaker wire with the insulation melted off for about a foot, spliced back to 12 ga red to the selenoid. Both ends looked like the same wire. I never saw the two middle splices, they were either bundled with other wires or behind a bulkhead. When I saw the speaker wire come out, I had to stop, take a shot of bourbon, then change my shorts. Why that boat has not burned before I will never know.

This was a boat I more or less inherieted from a freind's father who belived in deffered maintaince.

All I can say is, never trust wiring from the pervious owner. If it dosen't look right, make it so.

I am glad you are OK.

[Alan Wheeler]

thanks Maddog, and please, you don't need to call me Mr Wheeler. I makes me feel old and I don't need to feel older than I am :-)
You are right about making things right when they don't look right. But I can only do one project at a time and trust me, I have been continually fixing up stupid things the PO has done wrong. It was on my to do list, but way down the list. Now it is at the top :-) Can't wait till tomorrow to get it all sorted and going again. I am also replacing the fuel lines. I have realised through this that the fuel lines would have been providing another earth path to hull from the motor. That's not good.

[GordMay]

I slip a short length of clear hose over larger cables, when installing lugs or terminals. You can slide the hose sleeve down over the lugs, insulating them (preventing "shorts"), whenever disconnecting the cable. Size the hose for a snug fit, over the lug.

I prefer the newer convention of using Yellow (instead of black, which is then reserved for AC Hot) for DC Negative wires.

A basic tool kit should always include electrical tapes (at least black, red, yellow, & green).

[Alan Wheeler]

A basic tool kit should always include electrical tapes (at least black, red, yellow, & green).

Yeap and it normaly does. But I was out and hadn't replaced it. Shame on me.

[Lancerbye]

Glad to hear your still with us. Wiring, on boats or on a house is often times the cause of fires if someone with a lot of enthusiasm and not much knowledge decides to play electrician. Being a certified electrician for both, among other things has allowed me to see things with respect to owner wiring that has scared the hell out of me. I have often been asked to troubleshoot a little electrical problem. Many turned out to be senerios similar to Mad Dogs experiences. I have seen the worst among the commercial fishing communities where Jury Rigging is an art form. Why more boats don't burn up is anyones guess. The concept of fusing to protect the wires seems lost. A 14 Ga. wire fused with a thirty amp fuse is an invitation to a Barbeque.

[Maddog]

I'm glad this subject came up. Sorry about the way it happened.

One part of my story that I left out was the PO also spliced a fuse block into the pos+ wire running from the bat switch to the ignition key. It obviously dosen't matter wherer you get power, as long as you get it. I always wondered why the engine wouldn't start if the wash down pump was on. Everything gets replaced in stages this spring. What is amazing is the amount of work it took to do things wrong in the first place. Isn't it easier to run one wire correctly than to splice 4 together?