lucyboatgirl

all wired up and working fine like sunshine in a solar panel. thanks guys x x x x

thanks chew baka and everyone. I've rewired them now. all fine. lights all going on. engine starting. solar panels charging. all good. no sparks at all this time. tustve been that I touched the connector onto the negative terminal without noticing. thanks for all your help everyone. your all the best x

Aye Tony, I know its a bit abstract and vague because you don't know the circuit and stuff but I just thought I'd ask incase there was something really obvious. I'm leaning towards thinking I must have dragged the other connector onto the negative terminal like you say. It would explain the sparks and obviously I wasn't paying enough attention to where the terminals were anyway if I let it touch the positive so it makes sense. I'm kind of thinking the mystery has been solved here. Thanks for your help though. It took you guys saying to make me think it through that I must've made a mistake. Thanks for your help fellas. Really appreciate you taking your time to help me trouble shoot this even if it was just my own dumb mistake. Thanks for your help. It is very much appreciated. You guys always help out us less knowledgable boaters and it is a mighty kind and generous thing yous do. So thank you x x x x x x x x

Hi Tony thanks for the reply. I am not totally sure what an inverter-charger is? Does this mean like a 240V ac inverter? I am pretty sure there is not one wired into this boat, because they have a packaged inverter in its box in the cupboard. Or do you mean something else. Thanks Thanks Bee, thats re-assuring. I gave myself a fright and really trying to be safe. Thanks for the support matey x

*moored up somewhere beautiful *I hope you are not marred in anything

Hey Alan thanks for the reply. I disconnected BOTH negative connectors from the negative terminals. I am pretty sure the other end was not touching the negative terminal or any metal part of the boat when the sparks flew. Thats why I am confused because I didn't think there was a circuit. But thinking about it maybe I accidentally dragged the other negative connector onto one of the negative terminals at the same time by accident. I mean that would make more sense to me as to how it happened. If thats what I've done do you think I have done any damage to my batteries???? Thanks for your help Alan. Hope you are marred up somewhere beautiful for the quarantine. Thanks so much x x x x x x

Hi friendly helpful boaters, I have a bit of a confusing question that might be too vague to get your help with about my batteries. But any help or advice you could send me would be amazing. I was re-wiring my leisure batteries to swap the negative terminals around. By this I mean to swap the negative connectors from one battery for the negative connectors on the other battery. So the batteries would still be wired in parallel but the load would be coming off the other terminal. Another boater out here told me this would be a more efficient use for the batteries. So I switched the isolators off so there should be no circuits running. and popped BOTH negative connectors off BOTH batteries. As I have been told to take the negatives off first to avoid big sparks. However as I moved the cables around. I accidentally touched one of the negative connectors onto the positive terminal of one of the batteries. I got a sparks display for a second and a fright. I am a bit confused because I thought as BOTH negative connectors were not on the battery terminals there would be no completed circuit? I am just learning this stuff so any help would be amazing. I am trying to understand why this happened before I try to rewire my batteries again. There is a starter battery in the circuit, could it be this that caused the spark? I just don't understand how the battery connector when not connected to the battery at all can cause sparks when touched to the other terminal. I understand that my knowledge is pretty low on this stuff and would appreciate any tips or advice going and I'm sorry if I'm asking a super stupid or obvious question. And I also know you guys don't know anything about how my batteries are wired up or my boats electrics so its super vague. But thank you for any help you can chuck my way. Thanks so much you lot. Stay safe and healthy out there. x x x x x x x

ha ha- yes alan is totally amazing! very helpful! water under the bridge. x

Hey you lot, some super brilliant advice here so thanks very much. Alan de enfield thanks so much for taking the time to write that for that really careful and detailed guide. I will totally be using that when I try to clean up my little engine which I am sure it needs. And super thanks to mike hurley for stating the obvious because obviously I need it stated. ha ha! Yes it is a snapped throttle cable!!! I didnt actually know this was a thing. It has just snapped in two so mystery solved. Sorry to have bothered you all with this mystery problem when a simple look around my engine would have totally confirmed what it was. Someone just said to me that it was probably a fuel issue and I totally believed it without investigating myself! ha ha! So stupid to make assumptions like that. But at least I have got some really good advice on how to clean and care for my engine and how to clean the carburettor. So I am now about to watch any videos on youtube I can find to learn how to replace this myself. Any advice you might be able to give on this would be amazing! But even better would be a recommendation of where I could order a new cable, hopefully somewhere that would be sympathetic to someone who doesn't really know what they are doing but eager to learn and do it themselves. Thanks for all your help as usual you wonderful boaters. So helpful it's not true!!!!! You guys rock the fuckin ocean x

Hey Tony, The air vent on the tank is open so its not that but thanks for the attempted problem solving! So would the advice be when normally running my engine and turning it off that I disconnect the fuel line and let it run out of petrol rather than switching the engine off? Have I got that right?

Hey alan its a 2-stroke, and saying as I had never heard of running it dry before stopping this is obviously something I have never done. ha ha! Good advice though. But I don't understand how you would 'turn off the petrol' before the engine? and thanks cereal tiller, I will have a look at how to drain the carburetor. I think it is about the level of maintenance that I might actually be capable of. ha ha

Thanks for your help guys, but I don't actually know what a jet is? Ha ha. But I will be spending a lot of today watching youtube videos to try to learn about this stuff What do you reckon though? If its a blocked jet do you think it is something you can teach yourself to fix or am I best calling a mechanic?

Hi everyone, I am at a total loss with my Yamaha outboard 25Hp engine. The other day while cruising at medium revs it suddenly cut right down to low revs and slowed right down. Even when I gunned the throttle it still just stayed in low revs. I moored up and had a look at the prop and pulled some weeds out but nothing serious and then tried her again. The engine started fine and goes low revs fine but wont go anymore than that no matter how much throttle I give it. Any suggestions about what this could be? I have been advised that it might be a fuel line problem or fuel flow problem. Any suggestions where to start? The fuel line I bought new last summer so I doubt it is that. If anyone has any advice that might help I would really appreciate it. Or can point me towards any youtube videos that I might be able to follow to fix it. Thanks for all or any help you can offer. It is very very appreciated and I hope you all having a beautiful and un-broken down day out there on the water. thank you xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hey you lot, sorry I don't always check this forum but usually remember to post a thank you to all you incredible folks out there helping people with boating advice. Sorry I seem to have started some sort of shit storm without realizing it. Didn't mean to cause any offence or attack anyone. Alan De Enfield I certainly didn't mean to call your character into question because I am genuinely thankful and appreciate that you would take the time to answer someones question and try to help them out. I wrote that message quickly and reading it back it does look more aggressive than it was intended to be. I hope I didn't offend you. I was not trying to single you out more just trying to say that the collective feeling of logging back on to find a big conversation about me was a bit weird and unpleasant. I was defo not trying to lay the blame at your door or anyone elses. Was more just giving a heads up of how another forum user feels. And thanks also to Tony Brooks I appreciate your advice and appreciate you calling out the tone of my message which you were totally right to do. I always appreciate this forum and use it very often and if honest I come here to get answers more than I have ever been able to supply them, so I really value you guys and your help. Was not trying to be aggressive. Hope all is well out there on the water in the sunshine. Also if any of you are interested I made it down the Thames and it was amazing. Boat well brothers and sisters. Thanks again for all your amazing help. x

Hi thanks for taking the time to answer this question you lot. I do appreciate it. Special mention to Matty40s who was the only one that actually answered the question I asked. Thanks for that advice man! And of course thanks to Tony Brooks for your mega helpful answer and for actually sticking to the question! And thank you everyone for your concern but I was specifically asking abut sealing up the edges of the hatch which is why I didn't mention anything else about the boat. And I am very sorry to say I find it really creepy that some people here felt the need to do some 'research' on me. Please don't do this to other users Alan de Enfiel as it's not helpful and it is really uncomfortable and sad and feels very stalkerish. We got a really beautiful community on the water together please don't ruin it for some people. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to answer.