Very Angry Zippy! "Rant Warning"

Zippy · 13 November 2004, 18:31

So, sun is out this morning, weather looks fine for the day and tides are freiendly. Hitch up the boat and head down to Hythe to launch. Some stupid chav almost drives straight into me on the way down.

Back the trailer down the slip. Almost top of the tide so plenty of space. jump in and get a gentle push back down the trailer. drop the engine and ...........

Nothing. check the battery isolator. fine. check the battery terminals... good connection. turn the key. . clunk!

Jump over the side, get the boat back secured on the trailer. pull it back up the ramp, engine cover off. starter motor is spining the flywheel, just. about as lively is me on a sunday morning with a hangover.

Spend the next hour trying to a, find out whats wrong and b, fix it so i can get down to cowes to meet a man about some seats.

Having tried to give the battery some charge for another car, removing plugs, attempting a manual start (and snaping the pull cord) it made no differance what so ever! Packed up and came home feeling very

To make things worse it looks like some electrical gremlins have crawled into my light board just to round my day off.

Sorry for the rant but if i didnt get it out of my system i might have just kicked the cat! (Hyperthetically speaking of course!)

The Jackeens · 13 November 2004, 19:08

Awwwwwwww

Sympathies....

Us

gingercoastie · 13 November 2004, 19:09

Was the kill cord on?

Zippy · 13 November 2004, 19:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by gingercoastie

Was the kill cord on?

Aghh. so that was the problem!

ADS · 13 November 2004, 20:42

We've all done it!

Zippy · 13 November 2004, 21:01

I know!

I would be delighted to admit to that if it was the problem. The fact that the engine was hardly spinning up suggests lack of grunt from the battery. didnt get anywhere near close to firing. The thing thats really bugging me now is i dont know why the battery went flat!!

Is it just a dud battery of have i got a drain in the wiring somewhere? got the battery on charge in the garage now and seems to be taking charge but will wait and see!

ADS · 13 November 2004, 21:19

With the killcord out I believe the engine should turn over it just won't fire. I think the killcord cuts the ignition circuit but the starter motor is on a seperate circuit so will still work. I don' t know how long you spent trying to start it but you could have flattened the battery.

Alex

Zippy · 13 November 2004, 21:29

You be right there. without the kill cord it will spin but not fire.

as for trying it and flattening the battery, right from the first turn it wasnt very healthy.

Still, off to Egypt next sunday so got her booked into fairweather for a full service and will let them get things sorted.

give me more time to get the rest of the things sorted like seats, a frame and GPS!

Rogue Wave · 13 November 2004, 21:34

What sort of Battery are you using. is it the dogs bllx or one that's been on the boat for a while. Don't forget it's got a bit colder all of a sudden

Zippy · 13 November 2004, 21:42

All very good points.

I dont know how long its been on there because i only bought the boat a month ago. i was told it was new in 2004 but have no evidence of that although it does look pretty new and clean.

Cant remember the name of the battery but its an 85 amp hour leasure thing with a green splodge to tell you whats going on with the charge level. (Might add this stayed green throughout todays little episode)

As for the cold! there was a frost on the window of my car at 8:00 this morning so if it was bad that could have easily finished it off!

ADS · 13 November 2004, 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zippy

All very good points.
i was told it was new in 2004 but have no evidence of that although it does look pretty new and clean.

Cant remember the name of the battery but its an 85 amp hour leasure thing with a green splodge to tell you whats going on with the charge level. (Might add this stayed green throughout todays little episode)

!

Sounds like the battery could be quite new then, I am not sure whether leisure batterys require running in like mbile phone batteries (for example). By this I mean some batteries require a certain amount of charging and discharging before they work and hold their charge to full efficiency.

Zippy · 13 November 2004, 22:30

Never heard of that before but im going to do some research tomorrow. (Its too cold to go out to the garage now)

the bottle of red wine has mellowed me now so i can officially say..

"Rant over"

Thanks for your input guys.
Howard.

TIM · 14 November 2004, 08:54

Sounds to me like a classic case of bad connections !!!!, check and clean/tighten these before you do anything else ..... the fact that you tried to jump it , and it didnt improve situation, this would indicate conections to me