Running AC on a Catalina 34 with Batteries

We ran our AC for hours on battery

Working on the boat in May it was HOT!

So we decided to connect shore power at the dock and run the AC, we have a Dometic - ECD10K - Retrofit Kit 410A 115V - MFG NO.207500310. It's located under the V-Berth and has vents in the V-Berth and Main Salon ( ok, so we only have one salon :) )

After connecting Shore power ( 30amp 110V ) and setting the Victron to On, we noticed that the Multiplus 3000 was not running, we tried resetting it but no luck - Hmmmm. Perhaps the issue is with the shore power. I physically disconnected the shore power and reconnected it. Check that the Polarity was correct ( to our knowledge there has been no electrical work on the dock pedestal ) and all was ok. The Multiplus was now working - we're good to go. So I opened the thru hulls for the AC ( inlet and discharge ) and the AC started it's usual start up cycle. We had to move some of the cushions that were covering the cabin air outlet grill ( cushions were from the Aft Berth where we're working on the engine & transmission. ).

Down to work. There was a lot to do as we had only reinstalled the engine a couple of days ago and we needed to reconnect all of the water hoses, coolant hoses, electrical connections, throttle, Gear Change and engine stop cables and install the Alternator.

Just before 3pm both of were beat! Time to go home, finish this job on Monday. That's when I realized that the AC was running off of the Inverter! Not Shore power - Shore power was not even connected! What !!!!!

Seems that the shore power had disconnected ( at the pedestal ) and we had been running the Multiplus, it was inverting the 12v battery power to 110v AC and powering both our outlets which had a couple of battery chargers connected and the Air Conditioning all that time.

Later, at home, I pulled up the Victron VRM and looked at the data.

That shows that the deep discharge of the batteries started at 10:09am 

Note the daily drop in battery SOC is pretty consistent, the only things we have powered when away from the boat at the dock are the Main Bilge Pump ( shouldn't run, bilge is normally dry ) and the Dry Bilge Pump ( Runs for 1 minute every hour even if the bilge is dry ) 

Battery SOC dropped to 20% by the time we turned the AC off. The Inverter was running from 10:35am until 12:39pm just over 4 hours!!!

WOW - We can run the AC during the day for 4 hours if the batteries are at 100% and there is plenty of Solar Power.  This is just what we were hoping for but had not tested it in real world conditions.

Now we need to find out why this happened. I'll check the shore power pedestal and the shore power cable ( we have SmartPlug connection on the boat end of the cable ).

This was a good day.

M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.9

Installing the M25XP engine after the Damper Plate replacement

Friday was a long day! We started by setting up the Air Conditioning, by 10am, it was already 96ºF and that was not easy ( see the post about  that here ).

With the boat cooling down, I started on the reinstall.

Here's the progress on the check off list.

• Install Heat Exchanger
• 4 Hoses connecting the engine and the heat exchanger to the exhaust system.
• Glow Plug supply wire
• Oil Pressure switch wire
• Coolant Temperature wire
• Coolant High Temp wire
• Starter Solenoid Wire
• Starter power wire
• Raw Water pump hoses
• Coolant pump hoses
• Fuel supply hose
• Fuel return hose
• Install Alternator
• 4 pin Alternator plug
• Alternator +ve wire
• Alternator -ve Wire
• Alternator Temp Sense 
• -ve Ground master wire to engine ( Bell housing )

• Connect Drive Shaft
• Connect Throttle cable
• Connect Engine Stop Cable
• Connect Gear change cable
• Bleed the Fuel System
• Change the Gearbox Oil
• Refill the Coolant System
• Tension the Alternator
• Shim the Alternator support ( Alternator alignment ) 
• Align the Engine to Propshaft

So that's the plan for Monday. Going to be busy but if all goes well, we'll be ready for the realignment for either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Note: In order to ensure there's no risk of shorting out the Alternator +ve wire while reconnecting it we have to ensure it is not a live conductor.  Before I reconnect the Alternator +ve wire which is currently insulated from shorting out against anything, I'll turn the Solar Master Disconnect switch to off, then turn off the Battery Master Disconnect, remove the temporary terminal insulation, connect the +ve wire to the alternator, turn on the Battery Master Disconnect switch and then the Master Solar Disconnect Switch.

M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.8

Putting the M25XP back together with it's new Damper Plate

( click here to go to the first in this series of posts )

As planned, I cleaned the back end of the engine and the Bell housing with Total Boat Cleaner then sprayed the surfaces with High Heat gold paint - it's not really gold.

I was paying particular attention to the area of the engine below the raw water pump and the back/bottom of the engine sump.

That sheet of plastic was shielding the woodwork from the paint. Turned out pretty good - I would not win any art contest.

Peggy was helping quite a bit today so not many photos - ok, none! So here's the process.

I setup the chain hoist and raised the engine about 6" off of the floor ( soul ) and then fitted the Bell Housing onto the back of the engine, it was pretty easy if a little awkward as the engine was now free to swing about. Luckily we are tied to the dock in a canal, no fast moving, wake inducing boats around here.

With the Bell housing in position, I torqued the bolts to 10Nm but will have to see if that is sufficient. Time to go over the manuals again.  Those bolts can be reached from either above the engine or from the aft berth, so adjusting the torque should not be an issue.

I did think we had lost a bolt, but finally realized that empty bolt hole is actually the location of the Engine's Main Ground wire on it's own Nut & Bolt - it's in the magnetic parts tray, so not lost!

Ok, time to list what has yet to be connected/installed.

• Install Heat Exchanger
• 4 Hoses connecting the engine and the heat exchanger to the exhaust system.
• Glow Plug supply wire
• Oil Pressure switch wire
• Coolant Temperature wire
• Coolant High Temp wire
• Starter Solenoid Wire
• Starter power wire
• Raw Water pump hoses
• Coolant pump hoses
• Fuel supply hose
• Fuel return hose
• Install Alternator
• 4 pin Alternator plug
• Alternator +ve wire
• Alternator -ve Wire
• Alternator Temp Sense 
• -ve Ground master wire to engine ( Bell housing )

Update:

• Connect Drive Shaft
• Connect Throttle cable
• Connect Engine Stop Cable
• Connect Gear change cable

I think that's it.  Next is the Alignment and I'm having Greg come down and supervise me doing that. 

We have put off our trip to be Tuesday next week ( 5/14/2024 ) which is still looking dicey, we may delay it so that we're just doing a Sea Trial next week as we're going to join the sailing club's Memorial Day cruise at the end of the month in Miami.

Meanwhile, Peggy is adding things onto my HDL, I'm thinking of putting sticky notes up on our kitchen cupboards, much like Mads on Sail Life 

Day off today - kidding - but I am working at home today, lawn, hedges, etc. etc. Life goes on.

M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.7

 Installing the new Damper Plate on our Universal M25XP

( click here to go to the first in this series of posts )

I spent about 1/2 an hour cleaning up the Bell Housing and Gearbox, there's quite a bit of paint that has flaked off of the housing. The underside of the gearbox was particularly dirty, grimy, yuck!

Same process, scrub down using paint brushes and paper towels along with Dish Liquid.

I did carefully look over all of the gearbox exterior and what little is visible from inside of the Bell Housing, but could not find any markings which would help identify which model of gearbox we have.  I'll ask the guys on the C34 forum about that.

Next I moved onto the Engine Bay cleanup.

Came up pretty good. A second application of the dish soap and lots of rubbing with heavy duty paper towels.

I was able to clean up both Port & Stbd sides of the stringers, it looks so much better now.

I'll give the prop shaft end of the coupling a good wire brushing and treatment with citric acid before putting the engine back on it's mounts.

Will also tidy up the electrical connections to the engine, it should look a whole lot better.

Ok, Plan for Part 8 - Paint the engine, reconnect the bell housing and gear box then lift the engine back onto it's motor mounts. I'll get that done tomorrow ( Wednesday April 8th ) and even start on reinstalling the starter, heat exchanger and the Alternator. 20 minutes work.... Right!  We'll see how much we can get done. 

Oh! When I got home Peggy reminded me about my HDL ( Honey Do List )   So I took the old, no longer working, security cameras down and finished putting up the new units. The old were installed over 11 year ago, the new cameras are amazing! 

Having crossed one item off of the HDL, I worked on the Heat Exchanger mounting.

Spent 10 minutes working on it with a wire brush and chip hammer, treated the remaining rusty surface with Citric Acid and then Sprayed it with High Heat engine paint.

Second coat before turning in tonight, take it down to the boat in the morning and reattach it on the Bell Housing.

We're making progress.

M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.6

Universal M25 XP Clean up

( click here to go to the first in this series of posts )

I know, this is Day 7 since we started the project ( not including weekends ) but I'm taking it easy and only working 3 hours each day.

 Luckily we went down the boat today. The Divers were doing their thing cleaning the hull below the waterline. 

I say 'Luckily' because if you have been following our progress you'll know that we removed the engine last week. So when the divers checked the prop, they happened to move it forwards, didn't need to be much, a 1/32" movement would and did cause the PSS to leak like crazy. As I boarded the boat I noticed that the main Bilge Pump was running, just for a few seconds, but it repeated! I guessed the issue and so quickly opened the cabin, climbed into the aft berth and moved the propshaft back towards the stern and so stopped the water ingress. No big deal, and our Solar system could easily manage the power draw - but if it was still running overnight the pump could possibly run out of power.  

But, as I said, we were there and it only took a couple of seconds to stop the water coming into the boat.

Note! Next time tell the diver's company not to move the shaft or better still, tie the shaft aft.  Duh!

Here's where I started the cleaning. I had sprayed the gearbox with soap liquid before the weekend and wiped it off, this is how it looked first thing this morning.

I'll post pics of those two labels later.

So the gearbox and bell housing is sitting on some cardboard.

Step 1 ( today ) spray the gearbox and bell housing with more soap spray. Let it sit for a few minutes and then agitate the soap with a small paint brush.

Here's the result after wiping it down with a wet cloth.

If you click on the image so that you an zoom in, you'll be able to view the labels.

by the Oil filler it reads "Oil Grade "A" Auto Trans Fluid". By the Gear Change lever it reads " R.H. Prop - Lever Up - --> Reverse 

<-- Forward

Several areas of the engine and Bell Housing are bear metal, the paint has brushed off - obviously that was due to the method of paint application.

I cleaned them off with a bristle brush and cleaned them as best I could.

I read somewhere that this Bell Housing is an early version as there is no radius between the vertical back of the housing and the top, sides and bottom of the housing.  The newer versions have a radius of about 1/4" to 3/8" 

I also noted that there are castings on the sides of the engine where the aft feet could be attached ( the same system as the Front feet ) but on our engine ( probably all of the Marinized Universal engines ) the feet are part of the bell housing. That moves the aft engine mounts much further aft.

I followed the same process on the rest of the engine. Looks so much better, not perfect, but I'd give it a **** .

The top of this pic shows the engine bay, my first attempt at cleaning that area. This is the first time I have been able to get into the area at the back of the engine bay. 

I was done by this time so we cleaned up and headed home.

Tomorrow I'll take my portable shop vac to the boat to help get the loose bits from the sides of the engine support stingers.

Also, I have to find the torque settings for the hex cap bolts that hold the damper plate in place. I know they are 5mm x 25mm hex cap bolts part number. 

I looked up the part number for the hex cap bolt, it's a 298458M5 x 12 Capscrew Din 912 and looking that up on Google I found that the torque is 10Nm. So I ordered a new Torque Wrench.

EPAuto 1/4-Inch Drive Click Torque Wrench (20-200 in.-lb. / 2.26 ~ 22.6 Nm.

Should be here in a few hours ( tonight ) 

$30 plus tax. Gotta love Amazon Prime.

Plan for tomorrow:- Assuming the wrench arrives, We'll go down to the boat and finish the cleaning of the engine bay and complete the installation of the new Damper plate - an easy day. I doubt the Spray Paint will arrive in time, so that will have to wait till Wednesday, then it's paint, have lunch somewhere while the paint dries then reinstall the engine.  I'll arrange for Greg, the Mechanic, to come to the boat on Thursday pm and we'll get the alignment done. Friday we should be ready to go for a sea trial.

Moving along.

M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.5

Day 6 Planning- Cleanup after removing the engine

Looks and Feels bad today

Thinking about how it will look 

Just clean it and smile

( click here to go to the first in this series of posts )

Last year ( 2023) our PSS - Prop Shaft Seal - began to fail and was spraying salt water into the area beneath the Aft Berth and aft of the engine.  That probably explains the amount of grot and  corrosion in the area of the Gearbox and Heat Exchanger. If you click on the image on the left, you should be able to zoom in on this photograph that shows our engine moved out of the engine bay and rotated 180º to grant access to the Bell Housing and Gear Box.

With the engine out and accessible for cleaning and some general love, I hope to be able to clean up the grot, remove any corrosion and apply fresh finish before putting the engine back in it's hole.

Went to the Dollar Store and purchased 6 various scrubbers and scouring pads, that with a bottle of Dawn power wash dish spray, should make a quick job of cleaning the outside of the engine and gearbox.  

As mentioned in my Haiku it just needs a bit of cleaning.

I tried a small area of the bell housing using the dish spray and it came up really easy.  

I also purchased a couple of cans of high heat Gold Engine paint. The plan is to clean the engine then wash it down with Acetone then a brass wire brush. Clean again and degrease and finally spray most of the engine surface with the High Heat Paint. I'll read the instructions on the can before I get to that point.

My hope is that we can get that far during Day 6 ( Monday May 6th 2024 ), it might take till the end of day Tuesday to get that far.

Assuming ( I know! ) that we finish that clean up by Tuesday - we'll let it cure overnight and start replacing the engine into the engine bay on Tuesday/Wednesday morning.

With the engine sitting on it's feet, on the mounts, I'll call Greg the Mechanic and will wait till he arrives before starting the alignment.  Greg will by my supervisor giving me the instructions so that learn to do the alignment for the next time.

So, that's the plan. If you have any advice or criticism then please leave a comment. I read all comments and delete anything that is unpleasant especially spam from website promoters. 

M25XP Damper Plate replacement Pt.5

Day 4 - Lifting the M25-XP Engine

This is the target!

The Universal M24-XP Engine Damper Plate

It connects the Flywheel to the Gearbox input shaft, the springs act a shock absorbers between the engine - a 3 pot diesel - to the Gearbox which likes to have a nice smooth input.

Prior trips to the boat this week involved removing the Starter, Alternator, Heat Exchanger and all of the hoses and electrical connections to the engine as well as the Throttle, Gear Shift and the engine shut of cables. 

Today after getting the boat setup for the engine removal, I disconnected the drive shaft coupling and removing the 4 engine mount nuts that were holding the engine down.

To lift the engine, I put a 4"x4" piece of wood across the cabin companionway just aft of the cabin top winches. Then I setup a 500lb chain hoist from the wooden beam to the engine.

The Beam was just forwards of the center point of the engine lifting line, so as the engine raised off of the mounting bolts, it shifted forwards. I noticed that there was still an electrical ground cable attached to the top of the heat exchanger mounting plate. Also, I had not disconnected the Raw Water discharge hose attached to the Oberdorfer pump.  They were quickly removed.

Now, lifting the engine an inch or so higher, it swung forward clearing the support stingers, this was working out a lot easier than I had imagined.

I had removed the rug from the deck in front of the galley to the Head door but Peggy said to put it back, we'll replace it and it would be better to protect the floor.

Now that the engine was vertically clear of the engine mounts,  I used a heavy hammer to move the support beam forwards thus moving the engine much further forwards.

We had put some puppy pads between the stringers to catch any drips from the open hoses.

With the engine basically out of the 'Engine Bay' I felt a lot better about the process.

Before lowering the engine, we put a square throwable cushion on the rug beneath the engine and lowered the engine so that it sat on the cushion. 

Despite the smile on my face, I was amazed at how grotty the back of the engine appeared. The gear box looks as though it is covered in a thick grime. In fact it was so thick that the white labels indicating the gear lever movements and the type of gear box oil were not even visible - I didn't know they were there until I sprayed the gearbox with detergent and wiped the surface off.

I'm guessing that the spray from the failing PSS late last year was the cause for the grot on the back of the engine and probably the corrosion on the heat exchanger plate.

At this point the engine is out and supported by a 3 line attachment to the chain hoist, It's sitting on the Red cushion but the bell housing nuts and bolts are not removed.

I first slackened the bolts with a manual wrench. Then we cut out a piece of cardboard and made 10 holes in it to hold the bolts. I used the new cordless socket wrench to remove the bolts and nuts from the housing.

As I removed the Bolts we put them into the cardboard and marked the board with the clock position as well as indicating anything special. ie. Some of the bolts screwed into the housing, others were nuts & bolts (N) and other were removed from the front edge of the housing (R) while all of the others were removed from the gearbox side of the housing.

The nuts were put into a separate container.

Once the bolts were removed, the bell housing is still held in place, there is a 'Pin' on the back of the engine that engages with a hole in the bell housing.

The housing is lose but need to be wobbled off of that pin.

I'm guessing the bell housing and gearbox weigh about 15lbs. It was easy to wiggle the housing off of that pin and lower the housing to the cardboard covered floor.

At last! first sight of the Damper Plate.

It's held on by 8 allen key bolts and came off in just a few minutes.

As soon as it was off we could get a close look at it's condition.

There was very little damage to the plate however, the springs do rattle around in there holders and the edges of the spring holders were showing ware.

Shaking the damper plate we could clearly hear the springs rattling and my understanding is that there should be no movement of the springs within the plate.

Ok, time to clean up and get the replacement.

I had reached out to TMI in Fort Lauderdale whom had confirmed they probably had the replacement plate in stock.  So, let's head down there.

We needed to lockup the boat. The engine was sitting on the cushion and was pretty stable but I wanted to remove the chain hoist. Lowing the engine so that the weight was off the hoist, I was able to lean the engine onto the side of the engine bay portside bulkhead.  Then I could remove the hoist.

We put all of the tools away, locked up the boat and headed to TMI.

Once we found TMI, GPS was not a big help but a phone call to them was answered by clear spoken lady and she gave us directions.

In the store they quickly found the new plate, it's identical and does not rattle!!!

With the new plate in hand and my credit card $133.75 lighter, we headed home to clean up.

Today was a good day!