No (Electrical) Power to Harness: Any Ideas?

[randyb]

Hello Fellow Albin Owners,

Man oh man am I stuck!

As background, 1995 Albin 28 TE, Cummins 5.9BT M1 250 HP named after my bride (Sea Vee).


This all started out with a bad connection to the fuel-open/close solenoid for starting. In fact, the starter had to be rebuilt because I overused the darn thing keeping her running. I solved the issue by removing the plug harness at the solenoid and replacing the plug with soldered joints for the red (start), white (run) and black (ground). This worked for about 2 days.

Now I have no energy going to my ignition switch in the panel.

• Checked incoming power at the key-switch -- nothing, no energy, no alarm, nothing to the starter button.
  So, in order to start her I took a 12V positive jumper from the bus bar put power to the ignition switch -- so the start function worked.
  Now how do I keep it running because the solenoid run signal is not there (white wired).
  Next, I jumper the white wire (run signal) to the fuel solenoid to the red (start signal) (because no harness power to the white wire!) to keep the solenoid in a "pull"/run position

Here's where I (think?) need help:

• Location of the power source for the harness
  Ways to check power to the harness and/or location of a fusible link
  Issues I'll have bypassing the harness as described -- i.e. burning up my alternator, causing more problems...

Any other ideas? I'm really stuck and need your help please. I know you all understand and I'm thankful/grateful for any ideas and questions.

Kind regards,

-randyb

[DougSea]

I have completely different engines, but...

All power for my engine controls comes from the engine end. The main feeds from the battery run to the solenoid and a ground point, and additional wires tap to those lugs to provide power and ground to the panels. In all of your moving around did you leave a jumper disconnected? That's where I'd start looking.

[jleonard]

My 1999 Cummins had a circuit breaker and 2 relays. The breaker was a red button should be easy to spot. The relays were mounted low on the engine starboard side.

[marko]

Ditto on the breaker reset button, but also check for loose wires on the back of the button. Easy to get to. An AOG member gave me that advice after one of my Cummins 6BTA's shut down, limped into port on one engine. The boat and engine were new to me at the time and I didn't know about the reset button, which by the way was no longer was red, it faded out. Fixed that real fast with a screw driver and a red marker. Also, there's a fuse, relatively near the reset button, in line with wires to maybe check. My problem was just a loose wire.