[alberg30] Re: Westerbeke engine wiring

[Tom Sutherland]

From: Tom Sutherland <tomsu at uky.campuscw.net>

Gorden,

    After all was said and done , were you satisfied with the way this was
handled by Westerbeke ?

Tom S
A-30  #412........(Westerbeke 30 aux.)

Gordon E. White wrote:

> From: "Gordon E. White" <gewhite at crosslink.net>
>
>     I alluded a while back to problems I had with the wiring on my
> Westerbeke 21 hp diesel, but  wanted to give the company time to reply
> to my problem before describing it:
>
>     Last summer, about a half hour after getting under way, we noticed
> smoke coming out of the engine hatch. (I have an 18x18 Bomar in place of
> the original deck plate in the cockpit sole.) I found the wiring harness
> was in flames. We got the fire out with some difficulty because the
> plastic casing around the wire bundles was a persistent burner and the
> plastic air cleaner housing started to go up as well. It took my galley
> fire extinguisher and a few buckets of water to get it out. Having shut
> off the engine and the main electrical switch, we had to sail to a
> nearby marina's pier since my place was upwind via a channel too narrow
> to tack in.
>
>     Needless to say, this was not a pleasant day's sail. I bless the
> fact it was a diesel, not a gasoline engine.
>
>     Inquiry suggested that getting replacement wiring was going to take
> a while, so I hiked home and got enough wire to make a lash-up to the
> starter so I could power back to my pier. That's one other advantage of
> the diesel: if you can turn over the starter and power the electric fuel
> pump you can get home. No ignition wiring.
>
>     The Westerbeke dealer in Norfolk sent my local marina what was
> supposed to be the right harness for the Westerbeke 21 but it turned out
> to be for a 21-A. Close but not close enough. The marina, Chesapeake
> Cove, ordered the right one, but the wholesaler refused to take back the
> 21-A wiring, though it was not used. At the time, Chesapeake Cove "ate"
> the price of the one originally sent.
>
>     I checked the second one very closely with the diagram in the manual
> and it was different from the one that burned up, but with a lot of
> head-scratching and checking with a multi-meter I was able to make the
> harness conform to my engine, despite different color coding and
> attached terminals. With some fits & starts I installed it and made it
> work.
>
>     The moral here is that new wiring can't  just be hooked up, it may
> not be the same as the old. Westerbeke did make good on the cost of the
> 21-A wiring and they told me they had had to change color coding & wire
> sizes because of directives from ABYC.
>
>     They also, at my suggestion, say they are going to include wire
> diagrams and instructions with replacement harnesses from now on, though
> there are a number out there in warehouses with no diagrams attached.
>
>     Neither Westerbeke or I can figure why my harness burned up. It was
> not worn, nor had it been modified since new.
>                                                             - Gordon
> White A-275
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
> to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
> select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.





------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.

 914033775.0