Kalina gets new engine electrical

[ndutton]

I completed the installation of new engine electrical and instrument panel today and thought I would share. This was an aggressive replacement, the only remaining original items were the sending units on the engine and 4 small gauges grafted from the original panel.

New panel with new tachometer

The orange block is a delay relay to silence the engine alarm system for the first 10 seconds after the keyswitch is turned on. The black box underneath is the alarm buzzer.

Here's the old panel

and the new one installed

with gasketed spray shield

The drawings are attached to the following post due to attachment limitations.

[ndutton]

Continuation of previous post

The engine electrical upgrades include an oil pressure safety switch (didn't have one before ), wiring for a soon to be installed electric FWC pump and permanent wiring for my purge/polish/fuel transfer system including coil cutout per USCG requirements.

Here's the engine electrical
E-3 Engine wiring.pdf

and the instrument panel
E-4 Engine control panel.pdf

and finally the new engine harness. Connections within the harness are physically wrapped, soldered and shrink tubed.
E-5 Engine harness.pdf

As soon as the final connection was made it was time for the moment of truth, no guts - no glory right? Bless her heart, she fired right up in her normal half second crank. The only instrument not reading was the temp but I only ran at the slip, without load and without the thermostat (removed for other reasons). I didn't expect any temp under the circumstances.

Cross another one off the list.

[sastanley]

Neil, nice work..even my wife likes the handywork of the backside of the panel after seeing what we are dealing with on #511...what's the big handle in front for?? - it looks like a diesel cut-off but I am sure it serves some other important function. (full disclosure, as is usual with offline discussions with you, my Acrobat Reader has taken a dump on the home office PC, and I am too lazy to go out into the (45F!!) garage and use the other PC to get the answer thru one of your diagrams..it's easier to drink a beer in here and type!)

[ndutton]

...what's the big handle in front for?? - it looks like a diesel cut-off but I am sure it serves some other important function.

It's the choke.

And believe me, the tangle of wires on the original panel of #600 (not pictured - 2 generations ago) was equally bad. This is why we do things ourselves and aggressively.

[Mo]

Beautiful job there Neil! Amazing what a bit of time and will power can accomplish.

[Laker]

What a great tach. Truly fine panel. Visible too !

[msmith10]

Very impressive. I particularly like the neatness of the panel back. I may get inspired to clean up my rat's nest back there.

[sastanley]

So Neil...now that I look at it a little closer...did you do bus bars back there and mount them to the acrylic, then offset the acrylic with screws/studs from the panel?

I really like the idea of not having 15 things hanging off the ignition switch! Nice!

[ndutton]

Thanks to all

Besides being pretty happy (yes, and proud) with the result, my point in posting all the pics, drawings and descriptions is we all have aging boats with aging systems and really, this wasn't overly complicated.

It sure feels good having new wire, new terminations, everything tight, everything supported up off the hull and supported independent of the terminations (important!!) and as part of the process, fully documented. Should make any future troubleshooting infinitely easier.

Shawn,
I made mounts for the plexiglass from nylon spacers of a suitable size (found at Lowe's in their specialty fastener drawers) and ran an 8-32 tap into both ends. I threaded them onto the gauge mounting studs and mounted the plex with 8-32 x 1/2" SS flatheads. That and the spray shield took a little figgerin'.

[sastanley]

Roger...understood...I am thinking about an inside shield (wire side) because I likely will not relocate my panel, which is in the port side 'sail locker'...so a protective panel on both sides is desirable..one to protect from weather, and one to protect from falling gear/sails in the locker..

Like I've said to my beautiful lovely many times before.."honey...don't stress out about this..there are 6000+ other Catalina 30's out there...someone else has already had this problem..we just learn from them!!!"

[thatch]

"Been There"

Having been fortunate enough to spend some time on Neil's "Kalina", I can honestly say that this panel is just a continuation of the excellent work he has done on the rest of his Catalina. Nice work Neil.
Tom

[67c&ccorv]

That is a beautiful piece of work you have done Neil...congtratulations!

[hanleyclifford]

Neil - Great concept, design and execution. I'm studying that panel backing to see if I can adapt it. Really cleans up clutter. Regards, Hanley

[ndutton]

Thanks to all again.

Hanley,
Here's a slightly different, albeit poorer, perspective of the terminal block/alarm deck. Might make things a little clearer.

[hanleyclifford]

The conventional wisdom on wiring has always been to minimize connectors but we pay a fearsome penalty in clutter by going that route. Neil's panel design is almost modular in concept and allows a single entry for all eight wires and the plug - even has extra terminal for expansion. Quite brilliant, you've got us thinking. Those blue twist clamps are a nice touch - must be an electrician in the family.