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JB
#1 Posted : Friday, April 08, 2011 10:18:05 AM(UTC)
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I kept the boat in the water all winter and kept her active.
Boat safe bilge heater worked great
With the new paint and anodes I get a great reading of 1.04
I checked a couple weeks ago and the reading dropped to 8.50
With the shore power unplugged it hops right back up to 1.04
Plug it in and right back down.
The shore power cable is the one that came with the boat.
Boat is almost 1 year old to me. 1987 32' express with 360's
The outlet next to the one I use has a burnt mark on the outlet and the shore power cord had signs of getting hot at some point. Last year I tested the outlets on the boat with a plug-in checker and all was well with polarity and ground using the plug next to the one with the burnt mark and the existing shore power cable.
After finding the low reading and a NEW hot spot on the good outlet I went and got a new shore power cable. It still goes down when plugged in with the new cable and I tried another power post across the dock. The checker still says all is good.
I just leave the power unplugged for now.
Any ideas and actions I can take to find the problem?

Thanks

JB
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Joe Knockwafel
#2 Posted : Friday, April 08, 2011 3:35:38 PM(UTC)
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Check the hot water heater element. I had a element split,and caused the white side to go to ground.
1988 32 sfb 318s 240 hp 1.5 355 hours .Black and white. Hutton interior package. "TIME OUT" Tartans Landing. Goshen KY
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JB on 4/11/2011(UTC)
JB
#3 Posted : Monday, April 11, 2011 9:17:22 AM(UTC)
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I don't have the hot water heater on.
Would that still cause a problem?
Also get the bad reading with the main breaker off.<<<< I will re check this soon
How do I check the isolator on the boat and the power from dock?

Thanks

JB
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Joe Knockwafel
#5 Posted : Monday, April 11, 2011 2:44:37 PM(UTC)
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Yes. Water heater off, and braker off. the white side"Neutral" is still connected. My heater element outer metal tube was split. allowing the white side to go to the green ground.That made the hull "neutral" One test is to plug the boat inti a GFI plug. If the heater is bad it will trip the GFI braker. Mine was fine one day then ,I pluged in and the capak meter droped as soon as I pluged in. It took me a weekend of scratching my head. Finnally I started un hooking wires till I found the right one. Then it dawned on me. Pulled the element and their it was.
1988 32 sfb 318s 240 hp 1.5 355 hours .Black and white. Hutton interior package. "TIME OUT" Tartans Landing. Goshen KY
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JB on 4/12/2011(UTC)
dougrose
#6 Posted : Monday, April 11, 2011 4:48:51 PM(UTC)
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Make sure that you have a working ground isolator. The green ground should NOT go to the hull, it should go through a galvanic isolator. This blocks dc but will allow a large ac current to pull the breaker if the hot should go to hull. I have seen some boats with the green ground tied directly to the hull.

The isolator blocks dc up to several volts so you can check it with an ohmmeter - it should read as an open circuit or nearly so. Some multimeters are very sensitive and will show several megohms.


1975 32' Flybridge Sedan, twin Perkins 6-354 diesels, 1:1.53 velvetdrives, 16 X 19 props. Merritt Island, Florida
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JB on 4/12/2011(UTC)
Joe Knockwafel
#7 Posted : Monday, April 11, 2011 5:53:24 PM(UTC)
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In my case. The isolator was working correctly. It allows ac to pass. Sense it was not a dead "short" it would not trip the breaker. If you tested the Hull to the Black "hot " It was "Hot" Hope this helps.
1988 32 sfb 318s 240 hp 1.5 355 hours .Black and white. Hutton interior package. "TIME OUT" Tartans Landing. Goshen KY
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JB
#8 Posted : Tuesday, April 12, 2011 5:02:06 PM(UTC)
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The hot water heater is plugged into a circuit under the sink.
I guess I could unplug it altogether and check that way?
Thanks for your help!

JB
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GB49
#9 Posted : Tuesday, April 12, 2011 9:27:38 PM(UTC)
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Unless it was modified the toggle on the helm for the hot water opens the circuit at that point making any wiring from the toggle to the hot water tank completely dead. If plugged into the outlet under the sink, the toggle should kill the outlet. Generally the refer and electric stove are plugged into the outlets under the sink. I thought the hot water tank was wired directly to helm toggle.

If the Capac drops when plugging shore power in and with the main boat breaker off I would really suspect the dock supply as the problem.

Perhaps another boat around your dock has a bad shore cord?

Can you get a multimeter to test the dock outlet? Check for proper voltage in the proper holes. The hooked hole on the socket should be ground.

Stick a polarity tester on the dock supply too and see what that says.

Check the boat socket and both ends of shore cord for burn marks.

If enough voltage is present on the green ground wire the galvanic isolator may begin to buzz.

-karl
1986, 32' Sedan, twin 360ci, 275hp Chrysler's w/ K&N flame arrestors
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JB on 4/13/2011(UTC)
JB
#10 Posted : Wednesday, April 13, 2011 1:03:51 AM(UTC)
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I probably got what I thought was the water heater AC mixed up with the AC for the stove then. I looked under the sink and assumed it was the hot water AC as the cable looks the same. Probably get out this weekend and see what I can find. I guess the fact that the CAPAC reading is 1.04 with the shore power unplugged would mean that the boat and anodes are still OK.
I'm thinking with the heat etc. on during the winter and the burnt spots on the 30 amp cable something may have burned up in the shore power. I did get a new cable, changed to a different power post and got a OK with a plug in checker but still have the drop in the reading.I'll poke around with the new info this weekend.

Thanks for the info

JB
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bpboater
#11 Posted : Wednesday, April 13, 2011 4:23:58 AM(UTC)
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This sounds like a burnt white ground wire connection somewhere. Check the wires connected to the shore power inlet and the wires on the white ground wire bus. If everything ok, then remove the white wire from the water heater and check again.

Sometimes it is not what we suspect. Connect the shore power with the main breaker in the boat off. Still get a drop? Then, definitely something with the ground wire corroded or loose somewhere.
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Barkleydave
#12 Posted : Wednesday, April 13, 2011 1:13:21 PM(UTC)
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AC leaking is extremely DANGEROUS! BUT... AC will have little effect on your CAPAC potential reading.

DC leaking directly will impact and deflect reading downward. (actually more positive).

A common culprit is bilge pumps with poor wire splices leaking DC current.

In your case I suspect that DC is leaking from your AC and your galvanic isolator is not functioning. A galvanic isolator is NOT a safety device or a breaker. It just blocks DC voltage that may enter through the AC circuit.

There is a test procedure for the isolator but I do not have handy. A google search will find it.

I would also be concerned about the condition of the dock circuit and your pwr cord.

safe boating,
dave
None
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marinettejoe
#13 Posted : Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:34:04 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Barkleydave Go to Quoted Post
AC leaking is extremely DANGEROUS! BUT... AC will have little effect on your CAPAC potential reading.

DC leaking directly will impact and deflect reading downward. (actually more positive).

A common culprit is bilge pumps with poor wire splices leaking DC current.

In your case I suspect that DC is leaking from your AC and your galvanic isolator is not functioning. A galvanic isolator is NOT a safety device or a breaker. It just blocks DC voltage that may enter through the AC circuit.

There is a test procedure for the isolator but I do not have handy. A google search will find it.

I would also be concerned about the condition of the dock circuit and your pwr cord.

safe boating,
dave


Try http://www.marinetteboat.com/Isolator.htm by Marinettejoe
Unzinced ships sink at slips. yep
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JB
#14 Posted : Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:24:25 PM(UTC)
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Looks kinda like the problem is leaning towards a problem in the dock power and not the boat.
I put both the old shore cable and the new cable together and I could reach an AC post that I think is upstream from my power post. Plugged it in and got a very slight drop in the reading but it was still above 1.0.
It dropped from around 1.04 to 1.01
Is this normal and acceptable?
The isolator is intact/connected but I didn’t get a chance to put a meter on it.
It would seem that it’s working with only a slight drop when connected to shore power at an apparently good post. I know during a recent storm a boat a few slips over had his power short out when the water rose and shorted out his dual 30 to 50-amp converter box. Perhaps this caused a grounding issue in the shore AC.
At this point should I feel pretty good about contacting the marina and asking them to get an electrician to check it out?

Thanks

JB
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Docsnow
#15 Posted : Wednesday, April 20, 2011 3:42:12 AM(UTC)
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JB,

At the price these marinas charge for their services. I’d B talking to the marina manager yesterday. Besides jeopardizing your BigM there’s the safety issue they should B aware of & take proper steps to correct them SOON. There could B a STOCKING experience d'oh!

Norm,

Big BigMs Live On Dancing
http://www.picturetrail.com/gid23690601 Try it now there's music to listen to while U view the Big M's

http://www.PictureTrail..../index.php?clubID=20726 this one for the Pix club


 You'll have bad times, but they'll just wake you up to the good times you weren't paying attention to

Some people try to turn back their odometers.Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way.I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.
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dougrose
#16 Posted : Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:30:01 AM(UTC)
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JB,

With the boat unplugged from the shore power, check between the marina ground (green) from your shore cable and the hull. There will be some ac voltage but very little dc voltage. Do the same for the neutral (white). On a Twist-lok, the hooked terminal is green ground, the larger of the other two is neutral, and the narrowest one is hot. Unless you get big numbers (greater than 10 Volts AC and 2 Volts DC) the marina does not have a problem. Your galvanic isolator should handle small DC voltages.

Good luck and keep us informed.

Doug


1975 32' Flybridge Sedan, twin Perkins 6-354 diesels, 1:1.53 velvetdrives, 16 X 19 props. Merritt Island, Florida
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JEB
#17 Posted : Saturday, August 13, 2011 2:32:05 AM(UTC)
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A common culprit is bilge pumps with poor wire splices leaking DC current <<<< Quote

BINGO!

That was it!
I keep the bilge pretty clean so it was only acting up after a rain would put enough H2O in the bilge to get on
a splice the PO had done.

New splice with heat shrink and it's fine now.

Thanks!!

JB
JB
1988 32" B floor plan Sedan
Twin Chrysler 360
Custom Radar Arch
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