A/C won’t kick on. And it’s hot today!

alk

alk

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I’ve got a pair of the old school split unit cruiseair 16k units in my Viking. Got down here last night and the cabin was 90. Both units kicked right on, and cooled the boat down to 70 before i fell asleep. Woke up this morning and the aft unit was still cranking away, but the salon compressor would not start. Shut it down for about an hour, tried again. Still no. It’s getting power, makes the ‘click’ like it does when starting, but then in a couple seconds a quieter ‘off’ click, and nothing. Getting good water flow thru the unit, I have one pump, but each unit has its own discharge. The dead guy is spraying out the thru hull with same velocity as the good one. But when I run with no water flow, it does exact same as when there is water flowing.

Maybe there is a flow sensor, that failed? Any way to run a quick bypass, to check this? Happened on my hot tub, and all I had to do was jump the switch and the heat would kick on. Maybe something similar will work, to isolate the problem? I had a spare smx control panel that I hooked up, but no change.
 
I once had the run capacitor go out on a RV ac unit. Fairly simple to fix diy. I forget how to test, but I'm sure there is lots of data online for that. I think it is one of the most common problems, but hey been decades since I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.
 
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No flow switch on these. It’s either the compressor or the start capacitor.
 
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I’m going backwards; now I don’t have any power at the display, and for good measure my multimeter has flaked out, telling me I have 3 volts AC at the panel - but I have 120. Love boating.
 
I sympathize with you, Alk. It's posts like these that reminds me that I made the right decision to sell the 36', twin-engine, time-consuming money pit.

But, everytime I cross a bridge, and see all the boats running around, I wish I had it back. 😕
 
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Years ago I had decided to leave a company I had grown up with. I found a 52' sportfisher for sale and was in the process of setting up the survey, having agreed to a sale price. My dream, at the time, was to go into the charter fishing business off the Alabama coast. I really knew next to nothing about that business, but I could use a loran unit, could rig tackle, and knew the pointy end of the boat was for going forward. However fate and likely the good lord entered the picture and I received a late night phone call asking me how much it would take for me to move to Georgia to run and form a technical support organization. In a late night daze I gave them a figure and the next day, per my word, I had a new job and no new sportfisher in my future. I'm told the good lord watches over little children and crazy people. The rest is history.

I should point out that all this was before BoaterEd and I was single. I had no source of wise counsel....
 
Bill D. said:
I should point out that all this was before BoaterEd and I was single. I had no source of wise counsel....
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Young dumb and full of cum got me in trouble a few times as a young as well....
 
We had a nice morning of boating on my Wellcraft, but then the outdrive decided she didn’t want to shift out of reverse. Got some great looks from people as I was returning to the somewhat crowded ramp, in reverse. And I think I’m sunburnt now on the opposite side of my body from usual. But once the sun goes close to down, the aft a/c at least keeps me comfortable

Can’t decide if i should buy a new outdrive next week, or an air conditioner, or both. But I think rest of my family is hoping to put a pool in the back yard instead. I’m not 1000% opposed, for first time, and I think they sense it!
 
Bill D. said:
IDK, sounds a lot like the start of a normal boating season.💲💲💸💸💸
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I usually make it until mid July before stuff starts breaking. But then again, I usually don’t have one boat, let alone both, in the water until early July. Guess I started too early this year.
 
I can get the cover off, and see the tops of the capacitors - barely. One of them is covered with rust and some liquid - so good chance it’s a goner? But getting them out is going to be nearly impossible for someone of my size, limited flexibility and mild claustrophobia. Unless i remove the water heater. But even then not that easy.

I see a portable air conditioner with a big hose blowing out my window in the very near future, if I can’t find anyone to come work on it over next 1-2 weeks.

The outdrive repair may be easier than I thought. The no-skilled hack of a mechanic who replaced my shift cable last year didn’t do a great job adjusting the new one, apparently, and was lucky it even worked last summer. Sadly he is the same one working on the fix, so it will likely fail again in a few months after my second try.
 
If the cap has a swollen top it's a gonner for sure. If it has leaked I guess that is another symptom but I am thinking it is not water inside a cap.
 
Is it frozen up? It needs to cycle on and off to work
 
It will not cycle on. The display finally powered back up yesterday. But when I turn it on, just get a ‘click’ and then nothing but warm air out the vent. Compressor is absolutely not running. My other unit, 2-3 seconds after the click, the compressor starts up.

I would not have been that surprised if it didn’t work at all this year, being such an old unit. But it worked great on Friday night, blowing sub 60 degree air until the temp dropped enough to turn off. Then Saturday morning it was dead.
 
Finally tore out the rusted water heater - quite a project that was. And wouldn’t you know it, once that was out of the way, wasn’t hard to notice the 10 gauge white/red wire sticking right out the side, below the compressor, not connected to anything. Found a wiring diagram, to confirm where I thought it went, hooked it up, turned on the breaker, compressor fired right up, and 50’ish degree air out the vent. Then I turned the a/c off, at the control panel. Uh-oh, compressor and pump kept running. Only way to stop it is at the panel, via the breaker. Better than no cold air, and a relief the compressor still compresses - but not there yet.

Would be nice to call in a pro - but not having much luck finding one. And with a heat wave coming, probably not going to get any easier.
 
Check your wiring for grounding etc.. I wonder if the compressor will start regardless of the tstat setting.
 
boatbum said:
Check your wiring for grounding etc.. I wonder if the compressor will start regardless of the tstat setting.
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Yes, regardless of the thermostat setting, or any other input from the control panel. And I tried swapping the control panel with the other one, but no change. As soon as I power the breaker, the compressor is running. The fan does stop based on temp or power settings on the panel. But not the compressor or pump.
 
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