Not talking moonshine here but the stress relief to keep wires from breaking. Some of you may have a similar issue with some item on your boat. Possibly where insulation on a cable breaks and exposes the wires inside. VHF microphone cable maybe?
I installed a Nexus instrument system on Touche' in 1999. I remove the knot log transducer if the boat is idle for some time. After a couple years of constant handling, the knot log transducer got a bit flakey. A Nexus tech (who now works for Garmin) told me one of the wires in the cable where it exits the transducer most likely broken and was making intermittent contact. He said it was because the cable was subject to sharp bending at that point. He told me how to modify the new one to add stress relief and prevent recurrence. Well, that fix lasted many years but during the transit to Pensacola a few weeks ago, it acted up again. I surmised the same problem had occurred. My fix may not have been robust enough. I used electrical tape to stabilize the cable and it worked fine for the remainder of the trip adding credence to my diagnosis. I received the new cable today and added beefed up stress relief as before. Here's the fix with pics. First, the transducer as received. Note that the cable is epoxied into the transducer but a small well remains. There is no stress relief. The cable is subject to sharp bending where it exits the epoxy. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_sb5TfIENvsaUlBUl9pY0xaV0k First, I applied several layers of heat shrink. Note that I tapered the layers. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_sb5TfIENvsbURlWkhPdldwYWs Next, I stood the transducer in a jar, taped it and filled the well with unthickened epoxy thus locking the heat shrink in place. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_sb5TfIENvsUTdQdi1KSm9XQjQ https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_sb5TfIENvsZnI2OGQzak1SSEE Finally I removed the tape. Final product: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_sb5TfIENvseEtLTGpKS04xT0E The heat shrink should now prevent sharp bending of the cable where it exits the transducer. (My previous fix only used one layer of heat shrink.) Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA
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