38 special issues / quirks
 

Well I picked up my new to me 38 special this weekend for the get together and poker run at LOTO and I had a blast.

It does have some issues that I hope to resolve and I hope so of you can help me out :)

Electrical, the shore power does not work, whenever I plug the shore power cord into the inlet 9 times out of 10 it will trip the breaker at the box (on the dock) and that is with zero load on the panel. I am guessing that somewhere there is a neutral and ground touching, but wanted to run it by you all see if you had seen anything like it before. Everything works just fine on the genny.

The port battery is not grounded to anything and I cannot see where it comes out of the back into the engine compartment. How do I remove the tray under the backseat to access that wiring so I can trace it out? I jumpered a ground over the backseat and it takes a charge fine and work perfect, but the fix is ugly

The ladder, for some reason my ladder in mounted about 6 inches forward from the back of the transom and it is almost impossible to use. The bump out that it is screwed into, is that area a through bolted config and can I access it from the engine compartment, or it is just lag bolted into the bottom of the transom?

The circuit breaker on the genny (quicksilver 5.0) is very touchy and will pop out and it acts like it is just "loose" inside, could I replace it with a standard CB and I think it is 15AMP but wanted to verify

Thanks in advance for the help :ernaehrung004:

Christian

Well after a long afternoon and into the evening I got it figured out (except for the ladder ) I will figure that out tonight

When the previous owners shop pulled the motors and rebuilt them they neglected to attach one of the 1/0 ground wires that feed the port batteries, they connected the genny ground but not the battery ground. Once I traced that out and figured out the wiring runs, everyhting started working fine. Apparently the shore power is also grounded to the block and once the circuit was completed everything now works like a champ.

Now onto the ladder and stereo has anyone ever done a big stereo in a 38, or am I treading into virgin territory

There are some guys on here with .38 that will jump in. Good luck and get us some pics! :ernaehrung004:

So, mamma let you spend some of her $$........
You gonna have that thing at TR this weekend or are you even comming?

Yes I got to spend a little $$$ and after she rode in it during the poker run she likes it even more, hard to believe 9 feet can make that much difference :drink:

We are not going to make it down, we thought we would make it but the summer got away from us

i think your ladder problem is the norm for the performance series Baja's. Our ladder on the 232 was same way & damn near impossible for R & kids to use it. Thats the main reason when looking for a new boat we wanted a bolt on platform. Course the one we bought doesnt even have a ladder.

If the genset is working ok, sounds like the problem has to be somewhere between the shore power outlet and the breaker panel. I would pull out the shore power outlet first and check the connections, then if needed, pull the breaker panel. If nothing is found at either the outlet or the breaker panel, take a look at the galvanic isolator located somewhere between the outlet and panel.

Not sure about the circuit breaker on the genset. We can get in touch with some of the past electrical engineers from Baja Marine that can help you track things down? Contact "[email protected]" for some help.:cool-smiley-011:

XT

Just remeber to pull it up before you take off as we have now lost the lower section of 2 ladders on our 272 and now on our 38 special:hitfan: On other issues we have (knock on wood) never had any electrical issues but have had a few mechanical issues along the way. Let me know if I can ever help out. As long as you remeber not to try and set any new speed records the boat should be a lot of fun, tons of room and a mighty wave crusher. Good luck with it.

John