Charging again
18 April 2006 | Saint Augustine, FL
Anne
Just before Colin and Evelyn left for Minnesota yesterday morning about 0630, Colin informed me that the battery charger had failed. He had a replacement on order and all I had to do was install it. Easy as pie, he said.
Well, the one on order turned out to be out of stock, so he called from Minnesota and found one at the local West Marine, which they were willing to set aside for me. Leslie and I borrowed the courtesy car and picked it up (along with a few groceries from the Winn Dixie in the same shopping plaza).
I called Colin to make sure I had turned EVERYTHING off before embarking on what was, to me, a somewhat daunting task. It was, in fact, pretty simple. The replacement fit exactly in the same location, the wires were all color coded, and it went in smoothly. The most difficult part was dealing with the tight quarters and around-the-corner screws.
Upon turning everything back on, however, I noticed it wasn't actually charging. Another call to Colin. It seems the new charger, being a 40 amp charger, blew the fuse that was there for the old 20 amp charger. Sigh. So I turned everything off again, found the faulty fuse and the electrical box - but no appropriate fuses.
Colin (amazingly enough) remembered that there was a hunk of metal sitting on the nav station that might be the right size to fit in where the fuse belonged. It fit, and with him on the phone, I snapped it in and turned things back on one at a time. No explosions, and . . . ta da! Charging!
Colin assures me that it won't be a problem for a short time - just until we find a replacement fuse.
I'm proud of my electrical wiring project. I've done little bits here and there in the past, but it's hardly my forte.
(29 54.994'N 81 18.489'W)