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Old 20-01-2017, 14:45   #1
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Link Solenoid Wiring

Can anyone tell me why my electrical system is wired as shown in the attached picture? It seems that the house bank that is supposed to service the starboard engine can't connect to the stbd starter or the house load unless the link is made.

I'm trying to check the wiring to the house bank to see if bad connections are preventing the alternator from charging the house bank with its rated 105 amps but I don't understand which wires to check. Very little charging is happening and I'm running the generator a lot to power the battery charger.
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Old 20-01-2017, 19:52   #2
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

By link do you mean battery isolator?

Are you tracking consumption?

How many switch positions do you have? Off, 1 battery and both batteries? The diagram is not clear.
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Old 20-01-2017, 20:34   #3
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

How often you charge is a product of how many amps are drawn from the batteries. Most alternators don't reach their maximum rate unless the batteries are very low. The charge controller, either built in or external controls the alternator. After market external controllers usually do a better job of speeding initial charging without overcharging.
Line 70-R ties the batteries together via the isolator switch. I don't see another path. Both banks won't get charged without the isolater on. Corrosion inside cables and at contact points can keep batteries from getting fully charged. It's a good idea to clean contact points on some schedule.
Several times I have seen people with charging problems eventually find corrosion deep in the heavy cables. In a marine environment, unless the ends are well sealed, corrosion will creep into the cables.
Another issue, unless your AC generator is small, running for many hours at light load will eventually glaze the cylinder walls, lowering compression, cause oil burning, and hard starting in cold weather.
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Old 20-01-2017, 21:52   #4
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneM View Post
Can anyone tell me why my electrical system is wired as shown in the attached picture? It seems that the house bank that is supposed to service the starboard engine can't connect to the stbd starter or the house load unless the link is made.

I'm trying to check the wiring to the house bank to see if bad connections are preventing the alternator from charging the house bank with its rated 105 amps but I don't understand which wires to check. Very little charging is happening and I'm running the generator a lot to power the battery charger.
If I interpret the schematic correctly, the wiring is pretty standard, where the starting battery is used to start both engines and the battery link solenoid connects the house bank to the starting battery when it is energized.

Without knowing the actual function of the 'isolator switch', it's impossible to know the different permutations of positions that could affect charging, but, as shown in the schematic, linking the start and house bank shouldn't effect the charging (other than possibly increasing the load and timing on the charger). Of course, as drawn, the charger won't charge the batteries at all unless the isolator switch is on for the desired battery...

In the schematic below, check the isolator switch for continuity in all current carrying positions (checking ampacity is a bit more difficult, if the switch is suspect it might be easier to bypass it, temporarily, to check charging function), check all the wires and connections bordered in red for the starting bank and all the wires and connections in yellow for the house bank. As noted above, internal cable corrosion can be a big problem because you can't see it, but it can often be revealed by noting a relative difference in the suppleness of comparable lengths of cable.

Equally important are all the ground cables and connections.
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Old 20-01-2017, 23:42   #5
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

That diagram makes no sense. It looks like everything is off the left battery (both engines and house). And absoluty nothing is in the right bank.

Assuming that is an on/off/ combine switch. Which is the only one I've seen with 4 posts

The link is likly an emergency parallel with a momatary switch at helm.
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Old 21-01-2017, 04:20   #6
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

The reason the schematic shows no house loads is because it is a schematic for the starting system for the engines (and a winch if fitted),
as can be seen by the cable nomenclature; 70R appears to be 70 sq mm (00) red battery cable, 40R 40 sq mm (#1) red winch power cable, 10R 10 sq mm (#7[!]) red battery charger cable, and so on.

The actual house bank wiring will be on a separate sheet...


All the 1/2/both battery switches I've seen have 3 high amperage posts, though some have additional posts for alternator fields...
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Old 21-01-2017, 06:28   #7
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

Thanks to all. I hope to get into your suggestions the next few days and will get back to you. Jim B - thanks for confirming that one starts both engines. I assume that the auxiliary breakers go to the house load. I have noticed something wierd. My house bank is two 4-Ds. The first holds voltage well (12.5v overnight). The second goes down to 11.2v overnight. My inverter is directly connected to the second, but the two batteries are cabled together.

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Old 21-01-2017, 08:20   #8
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

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Originally Posted by jimbunyard View Post

The actual house bank wiring will be on a separate sheet...
To me the power goes from left battery to single post to aux breaker through shunt to dc panel.

You will need someone who knows what they are doing to go through all cables. I would not trust a diagram unless you made it yourself. . All boats end up geting changed

Also that diagram doesn't show alt cables. So we don't even know what the alts charge.
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Old 21-01-2017, 09:21   #9
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

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Originally Posted by smac999 View Post
To me the power goes from left battery to single post to aux breaker through shunt to dc panel.

You will need someone who knows what they are doing to go through all cables. I would not trust a diagram unless you made it yourself. . All boats end up geting changed

Also that diagram doesn't show alt cables. So we don't even know what the alts charge.
Yep, as shown in white in the schematic below.

But this is a schematic, not a wiring diagram, so we're just making assumptions. The schematic could be wrong (it seems to me that the 'service cupboard stud' should be on the house bank side, not the start battery side), or there may be something in the panel wiring (sheet 8) that we don't understand. Even the selector/isolator switch is an unknown.

It certainly makes sense to have someone who knows check the schematic for accuracy (or learn how to do it yourself, the system shown is not very complicated), and if necessary make any needed corrections.

We'd really need to see sheets 7, 8 and 9 to make any sense of it, and there could still be questions if they are as incomplete as the sheet illustrated below.
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Old 21-01-2017, 18:26   #10
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Re: Link Solenoid Wiring

Thanks again. I attached 7, 8, and 9. I think I know how I messed up. I added the inverter to the house bank, but I connected only to the second battery. I will move the inverter + to the other battery + and hope I didn't kill the second battery.

I think I can now trace the wires and check for problems


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