Summary: If you mount a remote OFF-1-2-ALL (let's call it a OFF-HOUSE-START-ALL) switch to the end of the Starter battery cable, that cable then becomes dual-use for multiple banks. Say, for example, to keep the existing Start battery on the START side of the remote switch and then to add one...
My big project for the winter was upgrading most of my battery-related systems. Though some of this had long been on the list, the whole lot got moved to the forefront when my old Newmar 25 AC charger died. At about the same time, one of my flooded LA batteries was having trouble holding...
Does there really need to be a Part 2 to this blog? No, unless, like Matt Damon in The Martian, the goal is to just to, “Science the sh** out of this." Why bother then? Maybe because in Part 1, I just wanted to find out if I could crush my fiberglass keel stub by over-tightening the keel...
One thing I had on the list for my next haul-out was checking the keel bolt torque. I’ve never had issues over an excessive keel seam, nor water seeping in or out of the seam. I just figured that after three haul-outs (the last one unplanned and due to a shaft seal failure) in my 5 years of...
I just re-did my bilge pump configuration on Mariah for the third time. I keep playing with ways to handle the forward or “mast” bilge, which constantly overfills with water during the Seattle winter.
The layout of my 32-3 bilges, as I inherited the boat, was as follows: 4 removable bilge...
I had my holiday close-call, and my most trying experience as a boat owner yet, on Christmas eve. I just took the boat out to warm up the engine so I could do an oil change and winterization. 100 feet off the buoy, I slipped it into reverse and heard a very loud BANG--I thought I’d blown out...
Spent most of last season finishing up my running rigging re-do that I started the season prior.
Reasons for the re-do:
1. Some of the hardware had leaks and needed rebedding anyway.
2. Existing winch placement didn't allow for a full swing of the winch handle with dodger up (both port and...
I first posted on this subject in 2017 when I pulled the ammeter and the old charging circuit out of my Universal (M-25) engine panel. I wanted to replace the ammeter with an oil pressure gauge. This would require adding an oil pressures sender in addition to the existing oil pressure switch...
I finally got around to installing an automatic bilge pump in Mariah last month. It only took me 3 years since I first thought of doing so. I voiced my reasoning elsewhere in earlier posts: The boat is on a mooring buoy (no AC or solar) in an isolated area. Ultimately, all the auto bilge...
Continued from Part 2.
Thought I'd post the final chapter of my engine panel upgrade. I finished the wiring back in May and have been happy with the results—mainly, no more surprises during engine start.
I had to design a new spray cover because I “flipped” the original panel upside down (to...
(Continued from Another Engine Panel Upgrade - Pt. 1):
The original black engine panel frame was in pretty good shape. The panel-back has a slight rim around the mounting flange which leaves a shallow void behind the screw holes. I think this is why it often cracks beneath the screws. I...
Here’s my posting of my recent Universal engine panel upgrade. The real nuts-and-bolts of engine panel and wiring upgrades has already been posted, thankfully, by C. Williams and T. Metzger (see CW-1, TM-1).
My write-up assumes you’ve...
And so it goes with owning a boat. As in these are “winter projects” from last winter; things I’m just now finishing up months later than planned. The winter list was something like this:
- Alter sail cover to fit around Dutchman and add bird-proof netting underneath,
- Revamp compass and...
I've replaced five Marelon ball valves on my '85 E32-3 since I bought the boat last year. It wasn't my explicit goal to change out so many valves, I only replaced the ones that stopped working. My E32 has 10 valves; three in the head, four in the galley, and three in the stern. All are either...
Before rebuilding my exhaust & cooling systems, I was alarmed at how easily the engine would warm up to 185 degrees, requiring me to back-down on the throttle and run at a lower speed. I was also concerned about the lack of warning about rising engine temps--you wouldn't know it unless you...
This was a project I decided to undertake after my first round of repetitive engine maintenance last year. The starting battery was mounted on a piece a wood sitting behind the engine, bridging the two elevated surfaces surrounding the prop shaft. The battery was difficult to remove or...
As I mentioned in the previous post, I was unable to remove the bottom flange nut that held the exhaust flange on to the exhaust manifold. It wasn’t simply a case of the nut being frozen on the stud; there just wasn’t enough physical clearance to get a wrench-head between the bottom of the...
The beginnings of this project came out of this post:
http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=5078.0 (a Catalina 34 forum, but applicable to Universal M25/25XP engines)
This post helped me realized that my hoped-for, turn-key, Ericson 32 wasn’t going to be quite so simple to own and...