power to helm

[bud37]

Generally safety switches like the trans one just make a complete circuit in neutral and break the circuit when the lever is moved off neutral ( the simple version ) .....its is easy to just ground them but then the engine will start when in gear.

I see you have diesels ( I am no diesel guy ), so maybe the wiring has a different path....my guess here is it is probably something simple ( hopefully ), maybe you have recently been around the engines and disturbed a harness coupler etc....have a real good look for corrosion and loose connections.

[km1125]

Source of the post Don't know what brand of engines you have but there should be a breaker mounted on the engine.

Yea. I'm not sure on the Cummins, but on my Crusader gas engines there is a big breaker right on the motor and one output from it feeds a fuse at the helm that goes to the ignition switch. If that big breaker on the engine was popped or defective I would have the exact same symptoms as the OP.

[aloysius]

Source of the post Don't know what brand of engines you have but there should be a breaker mounted on the engine.

The guy I talked to at Carver mentioned a breaker on the Cummins engine but I have no idea where on the engine. Any ideas?

[mjk1040]

Main electrical harness at the engine? Lose or corroded?

[km1125]

Just poking around on the 'net and looking for "Cummins engine circuit breaker and ran across these two pics. Have no idea what your engines are, but looking at some of the wiring diagrams are very similar to the Crusader I have, with regard to this main breaker.

Got anything that looks like these?

cummins_breaker1.jpg

cummins_breaker2.png

[km1125]

Here's another one. Looks like they all seem to be "near the lifting ring", although I don't know if that really applies to all of them.

I'm really surprised that the terminals below are exposed and not covered with a boot or something. I'd at least tape them up or put some of that flex wire coaming around them so they would not be exposed to an inadvertent short.

cummins_breaker3.jpg

[Viper]

Good pics/finds KM. Ya they can be anywhere, and look at the inboard sides of both engines because you may see it on one engine and not the other because it'll be on the other engine's far side.

[Johnnykey]

I'll take an mildly educated stab at it.

Do You have the Cummins owners manual? If you do, there will be a schematic in it, thats the one you need. It should show a molded 8 wire plug in your helm pod. In that molded plug, there should be a 10ga power wire that has no power at the helm.

The matching wire molded plug will be at the engine, with a power feed and circucit breaker, feeding off the starter lug.

[aloysius]

Thank you ALL for your help! It was the breaker located atop my Cummins engine.

cummins-mechanical-engine-fuse-breaker-location.png

[Viper]

Now, why did it trip??