Not very well designed as the ignition key was postioned behind the arc of the throttle movement making it very easy to catch one's knuckles on it... Also needed the cork key-ring to be secured out of the way like this...
So... Andrew started laying plans for a new control box!
This involved a lot of time searching the internet for information about narrowboat control systems which are mostly bespoke units. Not much available off the shelf.
Then needed to try and identify what the current connections were. Can be summarised as "a bit of a mess"! For example, one of the warning bulbs in the control unit only had one connection. Now even a rudimentary grasp of electrics will tell you that one connection does not a circuit make... These shots of the wiring show what I was up against...
During the investigation work it became clear that access to any part of the engine is pretty difficult. Something else to bear in mind when looking for boat II...
One purchase that helped quite a bit was a USB endoscope! This is a long cable with a tiny camera and LED lights on the end which plugs into my netbook PC and allows me to reach most parts of the engine and take pictures. Such as this one!
With this sort of detail, I managed to identify the exact model of engine and even buy a manual on the internet!
Had a bit of a hair-raising moment on one fact-finding trip when I managed to totally dismantle the ignition switch when trying to work out the connections in each key position. Alison was due to take the boat out with our son later that week, so I was very glad when I managed to gather all the terminals and springs and work out how to reassemble it....
Found a nice range of weather-proof boxes from RS Components. and gradually gathered parts for the new control box.
Plans started to take shape...
See next post for the actual final construction which took place over the Easter break..
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