Boat Maintenance Companions E-Book

Pat Manley

• Herausgeber: Fernhurst Books Limited
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Practical Companions
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 42

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Fernhurst Books' compact, handy guides to boat electrics and diesel engines bundled together in e-book form for the first time. The perfect quick reference guides to keep on your phone or tablet, easily accessible when you are on board. They contain all the essential information for when you need it most about keeping your boat electrics and marine diesel engine running. The Electrics Companion covers formulae, tools, anodes, protection, multimeters, soldering, AC power, testing, wiring, batteries, connections and power consumption. The Diesel Companion details the parts of the engine and has checklists for monthly, weekly and daily checks. It outlines what to do if the engine won't start, or stop, if it overheats or there are problems with the fuel system. It tells you about servicing, the electrics and winterisation. This will be a valued companion when the electrics or engine doesn't behave.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

ELECTRICS

FORMULAE

MULTIMETERS

TESTING

BATTERIES

CIRCUIT PROTECTION

WIRE

SOLDERING & WIRING

CONNECTIONS

FAULTS

ANODES

AC POWER

CHARGING

POWER CONSUMPTION

DIESEL

PARTS OF THE ENGINE

CHECKLISTS

ENGINE WON’T START

ENGINE WON’T STOP

COOLING

OVERHEATING

FUEL SYSTEM

SERVICING FUEL SYSTEM

LUBRICATION

ELECTRICS

WINTERISATION

BATTERY

FORMULAE

POWER CONSUMPTION

• The power consumed by a piece of equipment is measured in amp hours (Ah): the length of time it’s switched on multiplied by the current flowing through it.

• A 25-watt navigation light has a current of 2.08 amps at 12 volts (power / volts). Switched on for 8 hours it will consume 16.64 amp hours (amps x time).

ELECTRONICS

Electronic equipment will normally run on a large voltage range. 9-16 volts or 9-32 volts.

HEAVY LOAD ITEMS

Fridges, heaters and other heavy load equipment will often be set to cut out if the voltage drops below a critical level.

MULTIMETERS

AUTO-RANGING MULTIMETER

THE MULTIMETER

Troubleshooting and maintenance of the electrical system is enhanced by the use of a multimeter. These can be purchased for a modest price from electronics stores and for general use an auto-ranging meter is probably most appropriate. With manual multimeters you need to estimate the value before you test it.

A small probe-type multimeter frees up the hands to allow the circuit to be tested and the meter to be read simultaneously, but will not measure current.

The meter has an internal battery and so must be switched off when not in use.

TESTING

CHECKING CONTINUITY

• Set the meter to resistance (Ω) (and a low range if you have a manual meter).

• Hold the probes together in contact to check for a low reading (less than 0.5Ω) and ‘beep’.

• Switch the circuit ‘OFF’.

• Put the probes at each end of the wire to be tested. The resistance should be zero but will probably read several ohms because of the resistance of the wire.

• If set to ‘beep’ you will get an audio warning of very low resistance for a continuity check. A ‘blinking’ reading indicates an open circuit.

• If the length of circuit is longer than the probe wire, use a long length of wire to extend the probe. (Keep a long length of 10-amp wire specially for the purpose.) This allows a long single conductor to be checked.

• Measurement of the resistance of a component can be made only with the component isolated (otherwise the rest of the circuit may influence the reading).

TESTING

TESTING A BULB

3.57Ω is the resistance of this bulb. Any low resistance indicates a ‘good’ bulb. If the filament is broken the scale will blink.

CHECKING DC VOLTAGE

Voltage between A & B is 12.57 volts – DC

• Switch the circuit ‘ON’.

• Set the multimeter to volts DC.

• Put the probes onto the two points at which you wish to measure the voltage (red to positive & black to negative).

• A minus sign in front of the voltage indicates that the red probe has been put on the negative terminal.

CHECKING AC VOLTAGE

• Do not expose live AC (mains) circuits unless you really know what you are doing. An error can be fatal.

• Switch the circuit ‘ON’.

• Set to volts AC (V~).

• Hold the RED probe to the positive wire (terminal) and the BLACK probe to the negative wire.

• The meter will read the volts at that point.

CHECKING CURRENT

• Select amps DC.

• You must break the circuit so that all the current will pass through the multimeter.

• It is easy to damage a multimeter with a current in excess of 10 amps.

• Put red wire into mA socket or 10-amp socket on the meter according to current expected. If in doubt, start with 10 amp.

• Put red probe on terminal nearest battery and black on the other end of the wire that you wish to measure current in.

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