Westerbeke 4.5 Genset blowing 8 amp fuse

[BayBoy]

My generator is blowing the 8 amp slow blow that is in the side of the generator panel. The generator was working fine and now this fuse blows instantly when you put a new fuse in. Westerbeke stated that this fuse is primarily designed to protect the remote panel circuit. Anyone had this problem? If so, what was the fix?

[seapuppy]

haven't had that happen too mine....keep me informed with what you find out....hate to find that my 4.5kva would start that one....check connections??..

Sp

[BayBoy]

I'll give you an update in a few weeks. Trying to get all the waxing, zincs, etc out of the way so I can drop it in the water in 2 weeks. Need to get out of my marina by April 15th (contract expires). Switching to a nicer place on the Sassafrass River (Chesapeake Bay tributary) which is closer to where we usually wind up anyway which is Baltimore/Annapolis/St Michaels.

Westerbeke rep said that the problem is most likely a chaffed wire that is giving me a dead short but I need to disconnect the remote panel harness from the genset and if the fuse doesn't blow then it's in the harness to the remote panel. Nothing better than chasing a bundle of wire as it snakes through places no man was designed to squeeze into

[BayBoy]

Finally found the problem! The previous owner had installed a battery isolator and hacked into one of the charger outputs in an attempt to charge the generator battery using a charger that was only designed to charge 2 batteries. For the past 2 years I had noticed my volt meters were always running on the low side (<12 volts) and then at the begining of this season my charger had an internal meltdown as soon as I hooked it up to shore power. When replacing the charger I upgraded to a 40 amp unit capable of charging 3 batteries as I had the intent to tie it into the genset battery. At that time I noticed the battery isolator, didn't know what it was for but also did not find it on the wiring diagram. Then in my attemp to diagnose my generator (without the battery connected) I started to remove the battery cable from the starter and touched a ground a got a spark. This shouldn't have happened since the battery was disconnected so I started tracing the other wires also attached to the starter post and found one running back to the battery isolator. I disconnected and no more spark. I also noticed that there was no ground lead from the battery running back to a common ground buss which is required for the charger to work correctly. I did some research on the battery isolator and found that the wrong one had been installed based on the Delcotron type alternators I have so I removed it and returned the wiring back to factory locations. I then shifted my efforts to my alternators and found that the ring connector for the primary wire attachment to the alternators had burnt through and I was getting little to know connection. I replaced the ring connectors and bingo, I had 13.8 V output out of my alternators. I then returned to the generator issue and being totally miffed, I had a local marina who was authorized to service Westerbeke take a look at it. The problem was a circuit board, 2 relays and a switch were fried. The conclusion was a backfeed issue to the circuit board as a result of the improper selection and wiring of the battery isolator which I am sure also caused the alternator connections to fail.

Just of word of caution to all of you! Before you start adding electrical gizmos to try to add additional funcionality or solve some problem, do your research first as you may create more problems than you solve. And electrical gremlins can be some of the most difficult and costly of all.

[seapuppy]

Wow BB..thanks for the update.....that was one heckuva sluthing effort...


good job!

SP :hello: irate: