Magnetic switches

[mjmason1]

Does anyone know what these magnetic switches actually do. One of my port side ones are burnt.

IMG_8267.jpg

[km1125]

What engines do you have?

Could they (or one of them) be for the glow plugs?

[Sgodfrey]

Looks like you have Cummins 6cta engines. Sbmar.com seaboard marine is the place to get help on the engines. They have the electrical diagram on their site.

[KyleR]

I'm guess you have three switches per engine? Two are for the aftercooler air heaters and one is for the main engine starter, if I remember correctly.

My aftercooler ones were burnt up also so I pulled the aftercooler heater fuse to disable the whole system - it looked like it was a fire waiting to happen! After running the boat for 6 months with no discernable difference, I removed the entire system (mag switches, wiring harness, etc) which just cleaned up the whole area of the engine a lot!

Now if you are up north and routinely run the boat in the winter, that heater definitely helps with starts! But an oil pan heater will do the same with a lot less wiring. Since we stay away from the cold I have found no impact removing the system.

As mentioned, a lot about this can be found on the SeaBoard Marine website which is where I found out about disabling/removing the system if it is unnecessary. YMMV.