Engine not stopping Lister LPWS4 - possible solenoid.

[HalfBoaterHalfBiscuit]

Yesterday I could not get my engine to stop. After advice from RCR, I manually pulled the arm from the solenoid and this did the trick.

I checked connections behind the ignition control panel and on the solenoid and all seemed fine. I then found that there is a solenoid reset switch on the control relay box. Once this was reset the arm travelled the full distance and the engine stopped and started fine.

I thought that the tripping may have been caused when I got a rug wrapped round the prop and this stopped the engine.

However after a couple of hours cruising today I had the same problem of the engine not stopping. I reset the switch again but it kept tripping.

Having stopped cruising an hour ago I went to have another look at it and once the switch was reset, it was once again stopping and starting fine without tripping.

The only similarity I can see, is that it has stopped when the engine has been cold or cool but not stopping when it's at full temperature (though this could be pure coincidence of course)

I know that intermittent faults are always the hardest to cure but are there any suggestions?

[Jess--]

same engine here but the engine stop was changed to a cable pull before I got the boat.

My suggestion would be to strip and clean the solenoid, the trip you mention is probably activating if the solenoid takes too much current and a dirty / stiff solenoid could be demanding more current.

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, Jess-- said:

My suggestion would be to strip and clean the solenoid, the trip you mention is probably activating if the solenoid takes too much current and a dirty / stiff solenoid could be demanding more current.

I don't know this arrangement but the above advice seems eminently sensible (and the likely culprit) to me. 

[Martin Megson]

I had a similar problem with mine. In my case the screw attaching the solenoid push rod to the stop lever had partially unscrewed moving the rod out of alignment and causing it to jam when operated and thus trip the reset breaker 

[HalfBoaterHalfBiscuit]

Thanks for the feedback. I have given the solenoid and arm a clean and it has turned off without a problem all day.

[mross]

Thanks for letting us know, much appreciated!

[jonathanA]

There is a well known issue with these solenoids and they can need operating lever adjusting. There used to be a note on the old marine engine services (Uxbridge ) about it.

Here is the link 

http://www.marineengine.co.uk/Fuel Control Solenoid.pdf