Any electrical whizzes?

[Cancatchbass]

Are any members electrical whizzes?

I have an electrical problem with my boat and need advice.

CCB

[Mr.J.]

Have multimeter will travel.

Can be hard to diagnose without doing hands on but shoot, lets see if we can do a diagnosise for you.

[Jale]

CCB,

can you desribe the priblem a little more and we'll give it our best shot

Joe

[Cancatchbass]

Here's the deal.

When I turn on the main power switch on the driver's side panel it trips the main breaker located in the battery compartment:



I have power to the motor, and to the guages on the dash and to my fishfinders only. No pumps, lights, etc.

Here's what I see behind the panel:





Each circuit at this panel is protected by breakers, none of which have tripped...

If you look at the photo of the battery compartment, the line with the breaker is not even hooked up to the battery, yet it trips when the power switch on the console is turned on. When I touch the connector to the positive battery terminal, it heats up (glows).

Ideas???

CCB

[grumpy7790]

CCB, if its still blows when that black wire is off, then it means you still have another source of ground (-) somewhere. The breaker probably is fusing the Positive side of the battery?

I see a small thin black wire under the terminals???

What is that for?

Disconnect that black wire and try turning on the main power again.

If all is well, then re-hookup the original black wire back up and try again while leaving that thin black wire off.

G

[grumpy7790]

After another look, I guess that smaller black wire is not hooked up, just looks like that in the picture.

It still means there is another ground providing a source for current draw.

Tha leads me to believe its getting that ground (-) source through the ground wire still hooked up to the motor? What else uses the motors ground wire? Starter, tilt/trim? Maybe these aux power (-) and the motor's (-) are commoned under the dash somewhere.

Ensure all the aux switches (livewell pumps, interior lights, nav lights, etc) are off.

I would not think your problem would be under the dash however I know each switch on my proCraft is backlit and could be a potential source for a short.

g

[Cancatchbass]

Grump-

The thin black wire is actually just a transducer wire.

The black wire in the photo that is not hooked up (dangling above the negative terminal, I believe actually connects to the + terminal, since it's alwayd the + side that is fused, no?

The starter/TNT works fine, obviously drawing from the heavy guage wire circuit. All guages on the dash work. Nothing at the bow panel or the driver's side panel works.

I have every switch in the off position. No breakers on the side panel have tripped.

CCB

[firepro]

Well, my first post here. Although I am not an expert onboat wiring I do deal with DC voltage wiring every day in the fire alrm industry. You have a dead short to groung some where. Either a wire has shorted (touching with no insulation) to your boat (which I would doubt is the problem since it appears your boat is fiberclass) or a positive wire has directly contacted a negative wire. So how do you fix it? Since it is only happening when you turn on the main dash panel I would start by checking the supply wires from the battery to the main dash panel (both the positive and the negative). If you have a multi meter set it to the ohms setting 2k or 20k should work fine. Disconnect all wires from the battery. Meter the wiring supplying the dash panel with the dash panel switch in the off position, probe the positive wire with one lead and the negative wire with the other lead. You should see OL on the meter or nothing. If you get a reading of zero ohms your positive and negative wire are touching some where. If every thing is fine you should only get a reading of 0 ohms when the switch is turned on. If you do not find the problem here, check each positive wire to the negative wire until you find the wires that are shorted together. It could be the wiring or a faulty switcc that you find to be causing the problem. In order to identify witch set of wires the problem is in you will have to disconnect all positive wires from each other so you can test each one one at a time.

Hope this helps, and isn't to technical.

pm me if you with with any direct questions.

[Cancatchbass]

Thanks, guys.

firepro: I'll dig up my multimeter (where did I leave it? ) and give your instructions a try in the morning. Thanks for giving me a starting point.

Wish me luck...

CCB

[Jale]

Firepro..that's a hech of a first post..

Welcome to the site and keep the great info coming.

joe

[Wall-I-Guy]

Hey firepro,

Welcome aboard

As Jale said, great first post...jump right in helping, that's what it's all about

[firepro]

Thanks Guys,

I went through a similar thing last fall when I bought a princecraft pro 170 with a 60hp johnson as a project boat. The side console had been smashed and all the wires had been disconnected to every gauge and switch with no indication were it was originally located. Took me about 30 hrs and alot of tracing but finally put everything back were it belonged, plus added a few more options . This springs project is under way with all the floors being replaced and recarpeted in the boat, and a fresh paint job inside and out. Then I will finally have my fishing boat with no more than 4k invested.

Cancatchbass, I had another thought that could help speed things up in finding the problem, but you may go through a few fuses doing this. On your consol panel make sure all switches are off before you turn the main switch on. If the fuse still blows then it should be in the wires leading from the battery to the panel or the main switch, if it does not blow then turn one switch on at a time untill the fuse blows. If it blows with one of the switches is turned on then it will be between that switch and what ever
that switch controls. Then do the same as above bost using the meter to check wiring and switches.

[grumpy7790]

CCB,

The black wire in the photo that is not hooked up (dangling above the negative terminal, I believe actually connects to the + terminal, since it's alwayd the + side that is fused, no?

Almost never is a "Black Wire" hooked to the (+) Positive terminal. This may just be your problem. The only way a "Black wire" would be (+) positive is if you had after market wiring and someone just ran out of another color.

As far as fusing, you can fuse either side (+) or (-) of a circuit.

You could try to verify that wire's (disconnected wire) proper termination by using your Ohm meter.

You may need a bit of wire for this, but go from your (-) Negative terminal or black wire at the fish finder with on lead and then take the other lead to the Black disconnected wire. If you read close to zero ohms then the disconnected wire goes on the (-) Negative terminal.

Good Luck,

G

[grumpy7790]

Hey FirePro,

Welcome aboard!

We work in the same Industry, we might even work for the same employer? I'm with SG @ Tyco F&S as an Operations Mgr.

G

[Cancatchbass]

While getting the side console to a point where I could work on the connections behind it I discovered a black wire that had bubbled and fused itself to other wires and has several bare areas.

This wire goes to a connector (of course you have to stand on your head and squeeze under the console to see it) :



And the wire obviously heated up right at the connector (note bubbly wire at left with green showing), and seems to have melted the connector internally, as it will not come apart- note vise grip marks (the other similar connectors pop apart easily).

So- I've got to replace some wires and it looks like I'll have to cut everything both sides of the connector.

Any problem re-connecting each wire individually?- I doubt I'll find a connector that handles 9 wires locally and I want to be on the water within a few days if at all possible.

CCB