Thruster intermittent in one direction

[knotflying]

I seem to remember something on this topic before, but can't find the thread.
Yesterday I noticed that my bow thruster would not work when I pushed the joy stick to the port direction. It was intermittent, but as we all know things get worse not better as time goes on. So before I have no port direction ability I was wondering if anyone can give direction (no pun intended) on what to hone in on. It sounds like it may be a contact issue that needs cleaning. Hopefully it will be as easy as that.

Thanks,

Mike Rizzo

 

[RSC]

I had that issue a while back with my EC21 and did a post on it. I checked my connections, found nothing abnormal and it started working correctly again on its own. Hopefully that will happen for you and the condition doesn't return for me. I am amazed how dependent I have become on the thruster.

Good luck and keep us posted if you find a cause for the problem.

Bob

 

[Hydraulicjump]

How timely. Mike and I have the same boat. And week before last I noticed that the thruster controllers are getting harder to activate. That is, they have to be pushed farther over and in some cases held hard over before they trigger.

Looking forward to an answer on this.

 

[Levitation]

The lever/switch at the helm just activates a
relay that actually switches the current to/at the motor.
First is to determine is the relay closing
If so - then are the relay contacts making firmly enough to send high current to the motor
So track down the relay and someone has to listen for the relay to activate as you tap the lever at the helm
Might need to use a stethoscope to hear it - might not, you will have to figure that out
If it clicks immediately with with each tap on the lever then you will need to see if voltage is going to the thruster immediately
For this you can use a volt meter across the motor lead connectors and see if it shows a flick of voltage with each tap
If it does then you will have to give the thruster a dirty look cuz you in deep doo-doo Bucky :mrgreen:

OK, that was fun now back to work.
It would be tedious for me to set up a ladder diagram of trouble shooting and tedious for you to read it.
Break it in two parts:
Determine if the power relay closes promptly
If it does not, look at the circuitry from the helm to the relay

If it does then look at the circuit from the relay to the motor - and that includes fuses and the negative cable.
Let us know what you find

 

[seadot]

I had the same problem on my Cutwater 28. An easy way to test if the joystick control is malfunctioning is to remove the four screws holding in the joystick box. Pull out the joystick box and reverse the connections so that the bow joystick now controls the stern bow thruster and the opposite for the stern thruster. If the bow thruster now works in both directions and the stern thruster only works in one direction, the joystick control is broken.

This was the case in my situation. I ordered a replacement from Defender and have had no issues since.

Seadot