Need some electrical advice

P

Plan C

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Apr 16, 2004
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C Dory Year
2005
C Dory Model
22 Cruiser
Vessel Name
Susie Q
I have a single Honda, and Lenco trim tabs. Usually when I shut the engine down, they retract noisily. I took the boat out of the water yesterday, and though I can't remember exactly what happened, the noise pattern was different - I believe it made the reset sound when I turned the key to restart the engine. Later, when I tried to start the engine to flush it, no lights on trim panel and no starter motor. No current to panel. This suggested the main breaker, and I attempted to reset that. Now the panel is still dead, but engine turned over and started.

Does it sound like I might have some misfunction in the tabs that shorts the main breaker? Has anyone else had this sort of problem?

Dave
 
Dave, I would check with Jeff Messmer, "Boat Guy" at C-Dory. There are apparently some problems that may develop if the Lenco trim tabs are wired directly into the ignition switch. They should be wired to a dedicated switch, ie: battery or fuse block, to switch, to tabs. As I understand it the Lenco "brain" can be fried if wired directly to the ignition switch.

C-Dory I'm sure would be able to address this much better than I have tried to, but it may be a starting point.

I believe that C-Dory was wiring the tabs to the ignition initially, so that they would auto retract when the engine was shut down and this presented some problems. Les @ EQ on his Lenco installations used a separate dedicated switch and has had no problems. Now, as I understand it, C-Dory is using the sparate switch for the tabs on all Lenco installations.

Good luck! Keep us posted on how it works out.
 
Dave, there are a couple of things about which I'm curious.

You said that you attempted to reset the main breaker. Is your main breaker near the batteries, with a red push button which you depress to throw the breaker, and a little arm that swings out when the breaker opens, and which you push back in toward the body of the breaker to reengage the circuit?

Are the trim tabs the only thing which don't have power, or is the power outage affecting other panel switches?

Do you have the position display feature on the tabs, or just the push buttons? If they retract when you turn off the ignition, I presume you have the display feature.
 
Thanks for the replies. The Lencos were installed by Les, so they should be right. I will be checking it further today and will let you know what I find.

Dave
 
Check for a loose ground.

When you went to reset the breaker was it tripped?

How old is the battery? Have you checked the specific gravity of the cells?
Is there adequate voltage?
Have you tried switching to the secondary battery to test function?

I would verify the ground, I would verify the breaker and any in line fuses. If the breaker was tripped find the reason before resetting more than once.
Verify the voltage level of the battery and if it is low charge it. If it does not take a charge replace it.
A few things to start with anyway, let us know how it plays out...
 
I had the same problem with my Lencos. I had the "brain" replaces twice, then Rick at the factory moved the wiring from the ignition to its own switch. No problems since.

Chris
 
I had forgotten about the lever that pops out on the circuit breaker. I pushed the button, thinking that was resetting the breaker (it's dark in there!).

Everything came back on and the Lencos seem to be working okay now. The boat is now put up for the winter, so it'll be spring before I know if there is more problem.

Thanks for the advice. Lots of good things to be aware of.

Dave
 
Dave,

I checked with Les. The installation instructions for the Lenco tabs require their own switch. That's the way he does them all. If wired through the switch, bad can happen.


HTH,

Dusty
 
Hi Dusty

If there is a separate switch, I don't know where it is. It doesn't have a switch on the switch panel. Is that what you're thinking?

Dave
 
Tip your helm seat forward and look behind the helm seat. That is where Les installed mine.
 
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