generator issues on 31

[Mikep]

I am about a week into my new ownership and took my 2014 31S over to Catalina for the past 4 days. Second day there I wanted to make coffee so I started up the generator. It runs fine but it does not show any power going into the AC panel.

I had the AC panel switched over to generator, the inverter is set to shore power/charge, and I kept the top 2 AC breakers on. No juice. I reset the shore power breakers to no avail... I reset the breaker on the cummins generator to no avail.

Any ideas? When I asked the question on the facebook page when over on the island, one member came back and said that he had same problem and generator breaker was bad and had to replace.

Also, are the starting batteries isolated from the house batteries or do I have to make a habit of turning off the starting battery switch when away from shore power? Fortunately I had brought my honda generator as a back up, which I needed to top off the starting batteries this am to get the boat started. So my assumption is that either the starting batteries are on the way out and they cant hold a charge for more than a couple days without shore power, or the way these boats are wired, the starting batteries get a bit drained thru house usage?

 

[sgeary]

Mike,
The starter battery is isolated from the house batteries if you have the parallel battery switch set to "Off".
On your boat, the parallel battery switch is set slightly outboard of the house, starter, and thruster battery switches.
The normal position for the parallel switch is "Off".
If for some reason your start battery is inadequate to start the engine, you can turn the parallel switch to "On" and use the house bank to help start the engine.
Enjoy the new boat.

 

[Bobby P.]

Mike,

I know you said that you checked and rechecked all of the breakers, but there is one that is often overlooked because it is in a tough place to see and access. If you haven't already done this, that breaker is located on the sound shield, front top left corner. There are three "switches" there. One is the primer/starter, one that looks like a light switch (that provides juice" to the starter) and the third looks like a typical two-pole breaker. That is often the culprit when there is not electric coming from the genset.

There are other things, but let us know if this might be the fix.

Best,
Bobby

 

[ethanbarnett]

Have you confirmed the capacitor on the generator is not bad?