The field coil on the 24V alternator has to be supplied with voltage before it will generate power. The 12V alternator gets its field power from the starter battery via the starter switch. The configu

Ian, When you try to restart the engine, can you hear the fuel pump "ticking"? Some automobile "vacuum" gauges also measure fuel pump pressure on the "other" side of the zero vacuum line. I don't know

Ian, I tried to drive the sensor out with a ball point pen plastic body as a "drift" and a large rubber mallet. I beat the shit out of the thing and it wouldn't budge. In the course of beating on it w

This is a low speed bearing and I was assured by Amel that there was little chance of damage when it happened to me on route between Galapagos and Marquesas. Had the seal replaced several thousand mil

Hi Giovanni, I will describe our experiences with SM#331 and assume that you have similar equipment. In the conditions you describe, we have found that you need to switch the autohelm drives to the li

Dave, The bilge drains from the forward head directly to the sump in the engine room. Depending upon the flow of the pipe, I guess you have a low spot that fills with fluid. When you run either the ge

I have the new board and it does work as described but with one modification. The high pressure sensor on the "old" board has four terminals and the two that are utilized are normally "Closed". The ne

Ian & Judy, The coupling is a short (approx 6 cm.) steel sleeve that internally has splines. The bottom half is attached to the vertical drive shaft and held in place by a steel pin that is driven thr

I have replaced the forward sonic sensor twice (long story and she has promised never to "help" to clean the hull again). The procedure was: 1) disconnect wires from B & G control box. 2) solder a 4 m

I am having the intermittent chain counter failure woes. Does anyone know how to remove the sensor from the housing on the port side of the Lofrans windlass? Anyone with an idea on how to test the fun

I did follow David's directions for disassembling the bowthruster and removed the motor with the drive shaft attached. The machine shop here used a 100 ton hydraulic press to remove the splined fittin

Tony, I assume that you mean the power bilge pump. First see if the motor is running. If so, see if the pump diaphragm is being depressed in a reciprocal manner by the motor. I have had a pump where t

David and Craig, Thank you so much for your prompt responses. I would love to go with Craig's treatment but unfortunately I can see through the bolt holes with a flashlight and observe that the plasti

I have just returned to SV DoodleBug SM #331 which is currently "on the hard" at Marmaris, Turkey. I attempted to perform a routine 24 month service on the bow-thruster in order to replace the seals a

Do you mean diesel smell? We carry spare diesel in plastic jerry jugs in the stern locker but as long as the caps are screwed down tight there is no leakage from these. Our problem gasoline smell is u

SM#331 has the Yanmar 85 HP engine with a ZF Hurth model HSW 250H – 2.8 transmission. The latter has had a small leak of ATF fluid from the output drive shaft seal. I had a VERY expensive repair made

My wife wants to expand the master cabin bed in our SM#331 by the addition of a small section of platform and a mattress section. This would block off the vanity of course BUT – has anyone done this?

We have a Eumenia mini 5500 dishwasher on SM#331. It went out of service in Australia last year and we have been forced to make long passages without a functional dishwasher. (Just throw the dirty one

Hi Gary, The wire from Pin 4, Plug 1 is paralleled to the wire from Pin 5, about an inch and half from the plug. The joint was buried right under the first cable tie and well hidden. Thank you for the

Hi Gary, We have been at sea and just got to an internet connection again (Limassol, Cyprus). I did try to physically track both wires from pins 4 and 5 without success. I will try again really HARD a