I am working on a rewiring project for my Universal M4-30 and ran into some questions I am hoping someone can help clarify.
1. I took the alternator off last fall to have it checked (it was fine). My pictures and recollection is that I disconnected two wires from the back- heavy orange from the + and white with red stripe from the AC tap. I was starting to put things back together the other day and found two wires with small ring terminals and I can’t figure out if they were not connected to anything, or if I screwed up in my notes as to what I did. One is purple and runs to the rear of the boat (start panel I presume but have not yet confirmed). From the wiring diagram, this appears to be fuel pump so should be connected to the Exc terminal of the alternator The other is orange/red and is short and connected to the starter and would seem to be the Sense wire from the alternator in the diagram. This would make sense from the writing diagram, but I have no indication of disconnecting them from the alternator, so I want to make sure there is no reason these would have been disconnected. What do these wires wire do? 2. When I removed the bolt on the starter last weekend I found 4 wires already connected to the bolt and the wiring manual only shows 2 (http://l-36.com/read_pdf.php?file=manuals11/200157_M12-M50_Operator_Man.pdf&title=Universal+Diesel++M4+30+++++Operator%27s+Manual). They are going to be challenging to trace: a. Heavy and reddish/orange going to rotary battery switch. This is power to the starter and the one I expected to find. b. Black (about 1G) and runs into a fuse holder and then goes rearward? c. red/Orange (about 14G) running to rear? I think this is the one to the ammeter that I expected to find- that ends up at the battery for charging and will be removed as I am wiring alternator + directly to battery. d. Smaller (16g?) orange running to rear? Any guesses as to what these extra wires on the starter bolt might be? If I understand the switch wiring, that position will be hot all the time and the other starter input will activate the solenoid when you press the start switch. So you could use that bolt as a connection point for something in the rear you wanted to power, but why would you do that rather than using the electrical panel which is set up to handle it? 3. Trying to install the new battery switch, I found that the existing switch has 1/4” terminals and the new one is 3/8” so none of the wires are going to fit without replacing the terminals. On the smaller wires, I can easily do that with the crimper I have, but the heavy battery cables are another matter. I have two choices: a. Buy new cables with the right ring terminals, pull up the flooring to get the the path and run new cables from the battery. b. Cut the ends off the existing cables (how do you do that?), buy a Harbor Freight hydraulic crimper and new lugs and crimp them on. I am sure that either is going to be a PITA with unexpected difficulties (as this entire project has been- what else is new), but I wonder if someone has enough experience to suggest that one choice is going to be easier than the other in terms of the things I am not expecting. I have not yet pulled the flooring out, so don’t know how hard that will be and how hard it is going to be to get to the cable path. I also don’t know how easy removing the old lugs and replacing will be. Suggestions? Thanks as always. Dave Aries 1990 C&C 34+ New London, CT
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