Author Topic: Electrical Troubleshooting  (Read 2761 times)

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Offline RonnieB

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Electrical Troubleshooting
« on: March 30, 2016, 11:42:04 PM »
Just thought this might be helpful to someone.

I recently bought a used boat and had installed the best electronics and equipment. New GPS, Talon, 360, and new trolling motor.

The first problem was GPS quit which was the result of a bad switch. I wired it to a spare switch only to result in a corroded (new) wire where it was crimped onto a new connector. Got a new rocker switch and all good except when I crank outboard. I checked my switches and they have a lot of resistance. One test i get Resistance next test I don't. Switches are very inconsistent and unreliable. I will be running a dedicated wire straight to a battery.

New Ulterra trolling motor kept quitting on high speed. Per spec motor draws 50 or so amps. Now I know why the 30 amp re-settable breaker that was installed kept tripping. Also discovered that this boat came wired for 12-24 VDC. To run 24v trolling motor, the plug has a bridge across lugs that send one of the 12v legs back to 2nd battery and from this battery 24v back to plug.(4 prong plug) I guess-timated it is 12ft on each run of wire which is 36ft of #8 wire. I will be wiring it for 24v at the batteries and eliminate 24ft of wire. Also have a Humminbird 60A breaker for it.

Now my last problem, my 360 worked like a charm for about 4 months and got worse very quickly to the point it finally would not even come on. I just now have had time to troubleshoot it. What I found was that the power cable that came with 360 is only 6ft long and a splice was made right at the transom. It was butt connected siliconed, heat shrunk and taped adequately. All of the 360 wiring was then ran in a small piece of rubber tubing that was ran across transom to batteries. This piece of tubing held water (salt). When I pulled wire out of tubing, about 12 inches up from splice, the wire had a knot under the insulation. The insulation was cracked open and the wire had totally crumbled. It was also probably not best to run both of the data and power cables tightly in this tubing which could cause interference. Does anybody actually ground the shielding and extra ground that comes with factory wiring?

As I was troubleshooting wiring issues all the way back to the batteries, I noticed severe corrosion on nearly all of the brand new connectors. All the copper wiring was black and connectors green. All of this was installed less than a year ago!

Upon researching all these connection issues, I have discovered that they make a marine grade wire (type 3, I think) whereas the copper wires are tinned with a higher heat value. The also make marine grade battery connectors that are not bare copper and there are also better butt connectors. Half of the connectors were inadequately. A good pair of quality (and expensive) crimpers do a much better crimp.

So if you are having electrical issues of any sorts, invest in quality wiring, connectors, crimpers, heat shrink tubing and di-electric grease. Delete as many connectors as possible by running new full length wiring. Separate data and power wiring. And last but not least label wiring. White tape and a sharpie works great for labels. Trust me, one day you will say: "I wonder what this wire goes to?"

I work offshore and I can attest to the battles we have with corrosion. Even on stainless steel! Yes.. SS can and does rust.

Anyway, hope it helps.


Offline newkid4si

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Re: Electrical Troubleshooting
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2016, 03:46:04 PM »
Thanks for the share. It may save someone a lot of time, money and aggravation.

        Mike

Offline RonnieB

  • RonnieB
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  • Accessories: Ethernet, MinnKota Ulterra,Talon
Re: Electrical Troubleshooting
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2016, 08:52:02 PM »
I'm not going to say there are not mfg issues with some devices, but do feel that a lot of the issues are owner induced. For the most part these devices are not a simple plug and play. If you do not have the deligence in researching and learning devices and even learning alittle about electrical, electronics and computer use, you will be lucky at best in getting devices installed and operating.  I've even seen professionally installed equipment not so professionally installed.

A friend of mine let his cranking battery go dead and used jumper cables to jump it off. Ironically his Lowrance unit quit shortly thereafter. Of course, it was the dang manufactor's fault! I've even caught myself  doing alittle mfg bashing, only to find out it was my own stupidity. So my advice for anyone wanting to learn or troubleshoot is to spend a lot of time on this site and have a lot of patience!

This site is a community effort in helping each other. Thanks to all!!


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