The weather here was really nice today. They have a new seacock installed for my macerator so it'll be a few days to let it all cure.
I was going through the engine room and bilge and checking all the bonding wire connections today (one of many things I was doing) and two of the bonding wire connections have deteriorated. The one that was troublesome was for the Airmar depth transducer body. It's a bronze tube and the transducer slides into the thing. There is also one like it for the speed wheel.
Anyway, the bronze bodies of these transducers, as well as the seacocks for the the main engines and 3 of the AC units is in the sump area. This means that sometimes saltwater sits on these things and there is a bonding wire connection at each base. The wires have simple crimps (no shrink tubing) on them with ring terminals and there is a terminal screw on each of the bases.
Two things have happened. The wire for the ring crimp terminals is exposed and the exposed wire in the crimps is not looking too healthy. They did not use shrink wrap connectors for some reason... Even though they could be submerged in saltwater... I am going to strip back to fresh wire and recrimp all the wires with heat shrink connecters for these bases.
The other thing that has happened is the terminal screw on the transducer housing had the head break off... So a new hole is needed and will have to be drilled and tapped in the housing and a new terminal screw installed. Does anyone know what this terminal screw on these bronze fittings is made from? Is it bronze? Can a stainless screw be used? Another one that broke like this was on one of the small strainers... new hole/tap for that one as well.
I was going through the engine room and bilge and checking all the bonding wire connections today (one of many things I was doing) and two of the bonding wire connections have deteriorated. The one that was troublesome was for the Airmar depth transducer body. It's a bronze tube and the transducer slides into the thing. There is also one like it for the speed wheel.
Anyway, the bronze bodies of these transducers, as well as the seacocks for the the main engines and 3 of the AC units is in the sump area. This means that sometimes saltwater sits on these things and there is a bonding wire connection at each base. The wires have simple crimps (no shrink tubing) on them with ring terminals and there is a terminal screw on each of the bases.
Two things have happened. The wire for the ring crimp terminals is exposed and the exposed wire in the crimps is not looking too healthy. They did not use shrink wrap connectors for some reason... Even though they could be submerged in saltwater... I am going to strip back to fresh wire and recrimp all the wires with heat shrink connecters for these bases.
The other thing that has happened is the terminal screw on the transducer housing had the head break off... So a new hole is needed and will have to be drilled and tapped in the housing and a new terminal screw installed. Does anyone know what this terminal screw on these bronze fittings is made from? Is it bronze? Can a stainless screw be used? Another one that broke like this was on one of the small strainers... new hole/tap for that one as well.
