Split charge relay problem

[sebrof]

Are you sure the B/t's props not fouled up,or motor seizing up?.

Also if the small gauge cabling's terminals from the switch and soforth are of the crimped type, you know Yellow,blue red ect. As i find these time and again have faulty or lose connection between wire and crimp,they don't like vibration.I hate em.i always solder all mine,and if i do any wiring work for anyone always solder,no come backs. bizzard.

 

I had the boat on the tidal grid at Chiswick a few days ago. There was indeed a bit of wood fouling the prop, which I removed, but this problem goes back months.

 

And the BT is working now.

 

I will have a look at the connections.

 

Cheers

 

PS: By all means send Trixie round.

[bizzard]

Sorry Bizzard, but that's really bad advice. We've been here before, but why do you suppose that all military, aviation and space programmes specifically insist on crimped connections only? Put a soldered connection beside a correctly crimped connection on the same vibration rig and the soldered connection will fail first. Every time.

 

Tony

Didn't know they did.Maybe all the faulty ones i've come across have been crimped badly then.And never ever have i had trouble with any i've soldered. Its a nice satisfying thing to do too.

[bizzard]

I had the boat on the tidal grid at Chiswick a few days ago. There was indeed a bit of wood fouling the prop, which I removed, but this problem goes back months.

 

And the BT is working now.

 

I will have a look at the connections.

 

Cheers

 

PS: By all means send Trixie round.

As Mrs Blenkinsop has taken Trixie under her wing,she'd insist on coming too,also her father.

She adopts the best electrical wire continuity test i know of, no ohm meter needed,known as the heavy load test.She just rips out the wires,stretches em between two points,in your case across the river to the south bank or Chiswick bridge. Dispatches Trixie to tightrope walk across and then MrsB. Abseils across.If the wire stands all this without snapping,she

will declare ''Its orite'. bizzard'

[sebrof]

As Mrs Blenkinsop has taken Trixie under her wing,she'd insist on coming too,also her father.

 

There's always a catch.

 

She adopts the best electrical wire continuity test i know of, no ohm meter needed,known as the heavy load test.She just rips out the wires,stretches em between two points,in your case across the river to the south bank or Chiswick bridge. Dispatches Trixie to tightrope walk across and then MrsB. Abseils across.If the wire stands all this without snapping,she

will declare ''Its orite'. bizzard'

 

Hmm. I think I'll await the return of my itinerant electrician. But thank Trixie anyway.

[Bob18]

I'm glad to hear you've sorted it, and without having to spend any money.

[blodger]

I'm glad to hear you've sorted it, and without having to spend any money.

Unless I have misunderstood its only working because the batts have been charged by the charger bypassing the normal gubbins. The gubbins still needs sorting?

[WotEver]

Unless I have misunderstood its only working because the batts have been charged by the charger bypassing the normal gubbins. The gubbins still needs sorting?

Yes indeed, but it's a working solution while we await the return of the sparky who installed it.

 

Tony

[Bob18]

Then Tony and I will come along and sort the sparky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(No batteries will be hurt in our sorting of said sparky, but the video....)

[sebrof]

Then Tony and I will come along and sort the sparky.

 

(No batteries will be hurt in our sorting of said sparky, but the video....)

 

There is, as yet, no evidence that the sparky was at fault. He was recommended to me by two separate boat-yards, and it was not part of his assignment to change the BT arrangements.

 

So I should prefer not to speculate until we find out what is wrong. As Tony says, it might just be a random component failure, or possibly one of the existing connections to the BT switch has worked loose since the job was completed.

[sebrof]

It's egg on face time.

 

I thought perhaps I ought to check the fuses, and discovered one had blown. Not easy to find, these 100 amp jobs, but Ebay came up trumps, and despite a long time spent in transit from Devon (came by horse, I suspect) a new fuse turned up yesterday (plus a couple of spares). Fitted today, and everything is working.

 

Thanks to all who proffered advice. It may not have helped this time, but it all adds to the knowledge base, and might well be useful next time.

 

Cheers

[bottle]

and the most important thing learnt is..................................check the basics first.

 

Well done for admitting the 'egg on face', it takes a man to do that.

[Bob18]

I've just read the last post so I'll be collecting my share of the egg as well.

[Sir Nibble]

You couldn't have been a motor engineer then. There are hundreds of different types of engineer. The Americans name for a train driver too.

Help! other motor mechanics,come clean and admit you've done it in an emergency cos i know you have,or at least heard of it.

Come on be brave! and help me out.

In the hydrogen fumes of the Stort.

OK, motor engineer, 35 years working auto electrician.

No, absolutely not. Asking for an explosion. I have seen too many batteries explode showering acid in all directions due to accidental shorts to be keen to apply a deliberate one.

Same test carried out in car with coil low tension lead off and starter cranking, yup, thousands of times, good test.Having said all that, I am more used to batteries than batteries.

[Bob18]

Sir Nibble, I will be the guy in the hole behind you when Bizzard demonstrates this test...

[WotEver]

Sir Nibble, I will be the guy in the hole behind you when Bizzard demonstrates this test...

I won't be anywhere near either of you. I'll hear about it on the news...

 

Tony

[ditchcrawler]

Didn't know they did.Maybe all the faulty ones i've come across have been crimped badly then.And never ever have i had trouble with any i've soldered. Its a nice satisfying thing to do too.

I don't know how old you are bizzard, but think back to old cars, pre 1960 and all the bullet connectors were soldered and I never saw a cracked one, lots corroded where they plugged together which required pliers to pull them apart, but never a broken wire.

Maybe people can't solder properly today or maybe with modern H&S regs you can't buy propper solder, just like you can't seem to get proper paint.

[Bob18]

I'm assuming that Sir Nibble will not be in the same county (or maybe country?), and will have forewarned the emergency services...

[bizzard]

OK, motor engineer, 35 years working auto electrician.

No, absolutely not. Asking for an explosion. I have seen too many batteries explode showering acid in all directions due to accidental shorts to be keen to apply a deliberate one.

Same test carried out in car with coil low tension lead off and starter cranking, yup, thousands of times, good test.Having said all that, I am more used to batteries than batteries.

You mean to say you've never used an resistance drop tester which can cause an almost equal amount of arc and sparks if not used boldly as the crude emergency method that i mentioned.

 

I don't know how old you are bizzard, but think back to old cars, pre 1960 and all the bullet connectors were soldered and I never saw a cracked one, lots corroded where they plugged together which required pliers to pull them apart, but never a broken wire.

Maybe people can't solder properly today or maybe with modern H&S regs you can't buy propper solder, just like you can't seem to get proper paint.

I think your dead right,

I've seen some so called electricians trying to solder. They wouldn't have worked for me in my garage.

 

Sir Nibble, I will be the guy in the hole behind you when Bizzard demonstrates this test...

Coo not very brave. Why should England shiver.

[WotEver]

Coo not very brave.

Look where bravery gets you...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYmrAr3aWUU

 

Tony

[bizzard]

Believe it or not an auto electrician taught me the heavy bar super resistance test when i was an apprentice.

Anyway folks hears a true little story about this. This perfectly true,gods honor.

I used to use a little auto electrics firm called ''Auto Electrics''Goodmayes Essex,long gone now though,for buying car electrical bits and bobs,well i called in there one lunch time and one of the electricians ''Dave'' was testing the battery on his own car,a Morris 1000. The battery on those is in the middle of the bulkhead above and directly behind the engine.

He was leaning over his engine and whacked on the resistance drop tester with the batteries stoppers removed. ''BOOM''it blew up in his face.I was the only person present being lunchtime.He was screaming in agony clutching his eye's.

I had to be horribly brutal knocked him flat and dragged him to a standpipe water tap,and literally punched him down down face upwards under it and fought with him to open his eyes which i had to do with a lot of force,whilst the water flooded into his face and eyes and washed away the acid. Believe me this was the utter panic of a drowning man that can't swim.

Thank goodness his eyes were saved. I'm not blowing my own trumpet or anything but i fear he would have lost his eyesight if i'd not been there. Still keep infrequent contact though. bizzard.

 

Believe it or not an auto electrician taught me the heavy bar super resistance test when i was an apprentice.

Anyway folks hears a true little story about this. This perfectly true,gods honor.

I used to use a little auto electrics firm called ''Auto Electrics''Goodmayes Essex,long gone now though,for buying car electrical bits and bobs,well i called in there one lunch time and one of the electricians ''Dave'' was testing the battery on his own car,a Morris 1000. The battery on those is in the middle of the bulkhead above and directly behind the engine.

He was leaning over his engine and whacked on the resistance drop tester with the batteries stoppers removed. ''BOOM''it blew up in his face.I was the only person present being lunchtime.He was screaming in agony clutching his eye's.

I had to be horribly brutal knocked him flat and dragged him to a standpipe water tap,and literally punched him down down face upwards under it and fought with him to open his eyes which i had to do with a lot of force,whilst the water flooded into his face and eyes and washed away the acid. Believe me this was the utter panic of a drowning man that can't swim.

Thank goodness his eyes were saved. I'm not blowing my own trumpet or anything but i fear he would have lost his eyesight if i'd not been there. Still keep infrequent contact though. bizzard.

PS He gave me 10 Weights in gratitude the next day.

[bizzard]

Sir Nibble, I will be the guy in the hole behind you when Bizzard demonstrates this test...

I did make it perfectly clear to Sebrof that the method was a bit dangerous,the correct safety gear to wear ect ect.

I can still picture him in a field hovering like the Stig over his battery brandishing a mooring stake.

[Sir Nibble]

You mean to say you've never used an resistance drop tester which can cause an almost equal amount of arc and sparks if not used boldly as the crude emergency method that i mentioned.

I've used loads of resistance drop testers both fixed resistance and carbon pile. A drop tester loads the battery to about 9-10 volts ish, something the size of a mooring pin would load it to perhaps 1-2V. Apart from the fact a drop tester rarely puts out more than a little fizz and a dead short will chuck out a shower of molten lead the actual thermal stresses are massive and I have twice seen explosions in a 4x6V bus battery of some 400Ah due to shorts so whilst I understand the caveats on your suggestion I personally would have to be very very desperate indeed to know the condition of a battery before trying it. As for an electrician showing you this when you were an apprentice, I was shown how to deburr the ring gear on a 6LW by running a file (sans handle, tang on inside of wrist)over the teeth with the engine running! Those were the days!

 

I think your dead right,

I've seen some so called electricians trying to solder. They wouldn't have worked for me in my garage.

Damn right, I cannot understand what happened to skill of hand. Crimping is supposed to de skill the thing and a good crimp is way better than a dud bit of soldering but crimping is a skill in itself and a poor crimp might as well be twist the wires and sellotape over, the difference being that the twisted wires will be stronger. So yes, a crimp is consistantly better if your soldering is less than artisan in quality and you have several hundred pounds worth of assorted crimp tools. Mine for closing the common AMP type insulated crimps cost me £80 and a cheap terminal will still fall off.

 

Coo not very brave. Why should England shiver.

All in all, Most of us learned some very dodgy practices "back in the day" but now it makes my flesh creep to think of some of the things we did with no thought for our soft mortal bodies.

[bizzard]

I've used loads of resistance drop testers both fixed resistance and carbon pile. A drop tester loads the battery to about 9-10 volts ish, something the size of a mooring pin would load it to perhaps 1-2V. Apart from the fact a drop tester rarely puts out more than a little fizz and a dead short will chuck out a shower of molten lead the actual thermal stresses are massive and I have twice seen explosions in a 4x6V bus battery of some 400Ah due to shorts so whilst I understand the caveats on your suggestion I personally would have to be very very desperate indeed to know the condition of a battery before trying it. As for an electrician showing you this when you were an apprentice, I was shown how to deburr the ring gear on a 6LW by running a file (sans handle, tang on inside of wrist)over the teeth with the engine running! Those were the days!

 

Damn right, I cannot understand what happened to skill of hand. Crimping is supposed to de skill the thing and a good crimp is way better than a dud bit of soldering but crimping is a skill in itself and a poor crimp might as well be twist the wires and sellotape over, the difference being that the twisted wires will be stronger. So yes, a crimp is consistantly better if your soldering is less than artisan in quality and you have several hundred pounds worth of assorted crimp tools. Mine for closing the common AMP type insulated crimps cost me £80 and a cheap terminal will still fall off.

 

All in all, Most of us learned some very dodgy practices "back in the day" but now it makes my flesh creep to think of some of the things we did with no thought for our soft mortal bodies.

Indeed they don't know how cushy they've got it these days.

 

I've used loads of resistance drop testers both fixed resistance and carbon pile. A drop tester loads the battery to about 9-10 volts ish, something the size of a mooring pin would load it to perhaps 1-2V. Apart from the fact a drop tester rarely puts out more than a little fizz and a dead short will chuck out a shower of molten lead the actual thermal stresses are massive and I have twice seen explosions in a 4x6V bus battery of some 400Ah due to shorts so whilst I understand the caveats on your suggestion I personally would have to be very very desperate indeed to know the condition of a battery before trying it. As for an electrician showing you this when you were an apprentice, I was shown how to deburr the ring gear on a 6LW by running a file (sans handle, tang on inside of wrist)over the teeth with the engine running! Those were the days!

 

Damn right, I cannot understand what happened to skill of hand. Crimping is supposed to de skill the thing and a good crimp is way better than a dud bit of soldering but crimping is a skill in itself and a poor crimp might as well be twist the wires and sellotape over, the difference being that the twisted wires will be stronger. So yes, a crimp is consistantly better if your soldering is less than artisan in quality and you have several hundred pounds worth of assorted crimp tools. Mine for closing the common AMP type insulated crimps cost me £80 and a cheap terminal will still fall off.

 

All in all, Most of us learned some very dodgy practices "back in the day" but now it makes my flesh creep to think of some of the things we did with no thought for our soft mortal bodies.

Indeed they don't know how cushy they've got it these days.----- But they were good old days ahem.