Bilge Ground Bus - Connection

[Togntime]

Are these factory connections??? Anyone know what accessories are grounded here? This bus is located on starboard side of bilge. Shouldn't this bus be grounded directly to meg at battery as well?

 

[Bodick93]

Man, I tried to get a pic in my bilge just now but my hatch is frozen down. I'll catch you tomorrow. That looks pretty legit. A few pumps (live well, washdown, bilge), trim tabs, lights maybe even the fuel tank, all grounded to a common point. I would expect a larger cable to the batteries from the block, but I will post a pic of my mostly unmolested '19 2320.

 

[warthog5]

What Bodick93 said.......But this is Classic!

Note the open barrel connectors......They have allowed moisture to wick into the wiring....Guarantee the wiring is Black.

That GND buss needs a good slavering of diaelectric grease on the terminals when it's anll cleaned up.

 

[Bodick93]

My fuel tank ground is going to one of the batteries.
The positive and negative bus bars under my dash have a monstrous cable connected on one of the bolts. I am surprised this one doesn't, just the same size as the rest.. I am going to add one and lay on some dielectric grease like Warthog suggested when it warms up and dries out a little. I honestly think the power wires get a bad rap when the grounds are to blame, but I am no professional. We tend to not take the grounds as seriously.

 

[pelagic2530]

The tags on the wires suggest to me that it’s factory. As does the terrible quality of connectors and labeling, which are pretty much Parker standard.

There should definitely be a larger cable acting as a common negative and running back to either the main ground bus or a negative battery terminal.

Warthog’s comments on the wire corrosion are likely true. I’d try to figure out which circuits those are; any gremlins that arise in those systems can probably be traced to right here. If the wires are black (or worse, green) on the inside then they’ll probably need replace

Unfortunately Parker liked to make it exceptionally difficult to replace wires in their harnesses by electrical taping the whole bundle every so often before running them.

Shoddy rigging is super fun to troubleshoot and even better to fix. There’s a plethora of total rewire projects on here that’ll attest to that. Looks like one may be in your future.

 

[Andy]

The tags on the wires suggest to me that it’s factory. As does the terrible quality of connectors and labeling, which are pretty much Parker standard.

There should definitely be a larger cable acting as a common negative and running back to either the main ground bus or a negative battery terminal.

Warthog’s comments on the wire corrosion are likely true. I’d try to figure out which circuits those are; any gremlins that arise in those systems can probably be traced to right here. If the wires are black (or worse, green) on the inside then they’ll probably need replace

Unfortunately Parker liked to make it exceptionally difficult to replace wires in their harnesses by electrical taping the whole bundle every so often before running them.

Shoddy rigging is super fun to troubleshoot and even better to fix. There’s a plethora of total rewire projects on here that’ll attest to that. Looks like one may be in your future.

Again, just nosing around, and learning from CP folks....

 

[Togntime]

At least in Bodick's pic he has a common ground. Strange that mine doesn't. My boat isn't equipped me with livewell or washdown pumps. And everything else functions as it should. I can't believe the crappy connectors they used!

 

[Bodick93]

At least in Bodick's pic he has a common ground. Strange that mine doesn't. My boat isn't equipped me with livewell or washdown pumps. And everything else functions as it should. I can't believe the crappy connectors they used!

Truly, any of yours could be a common ground in retrospect. That big lug would just serve to physically connect a cable big enough to carry the load from all the smaller ones combined. I do wonder why they put the same size wire under the big lug on mine unless it was just a means of designating it as the common ground.

 

[HOTPURSUIT]

Mine was hidden, I could not see it I could only feel around to find it. I relocated it next to the battery’s where I could keep an eye on it. Most wires were long enough

 

[sailmaster]

Along time ago in a galaxy far far away when dielectric grease was un common we would use anhydrous lanolin if that was not readily available regular grease would do. Any thing to seal it up. I always pot my crimps in silicone caulk

What Bodick93 said.......But this is Classic!

Note the open barrel connectors......They have allowed moisture to wick into the wiring....Guarantee the wiring is Black.

That GND buss needs a good slavering of diaelectric grease on the terminals when it's anll cleaned up.

 

[fishin fool]

hi gang. i'm a newby. ive been around a few months originally posting trying to buy a 2510.
im happy to say i found my boat a 2015 last month and am happy with the physical condition and engines and just now got it in the water yesterday. sad to say one battery is totally dead but the other has some life left. frankly im not surprised but we ran a sea trial last month and it started right up so like i said caught me off guard. actually i have a question. the system has two battery switches which confuses me a little. my other twin ob i have has only one battery switch. i have also discovered that their aft bilge pump which has a float switch is not wired correctly. without activating the console switch and lifting the float activator it doesnt work. when i activate the console switch the pump comes on so the float switch is maybe history. actually on my other boat my switch is a rocker so i can do manual or automatic. any comments appreciated

 

[Bodick93]

Alright! Glad you found one.
Hmmm. Two battery switches, I am no help. You can trace the wires and figure that one out.
A bilge pump should have two power wires, one to the dash switch, and a full time hot that should be straight to the battery via the float switch. Lifting the float switch should activate the pump regardless of the dash switch position (though the dash switch light comes on, I believe). I keep an arrow shaft (archery) in the bilge to test the float switch from time to time. The dash switch should activate the bilge pump independent of the float switch.

 

[pelagic2530]

hi gang. i'm a newby. ive been around a few months originally posting trying to buy a 2510.
im happy to say i found my boat a 2015 last month and am happy with the physical condition and engines and just now got it in the water yesterday. sad to say one battery is totally dead but the other has some life left. frankly im not surprised but we ran a sea trial last month and it started right up so like i said caught me off guard. actually i have a question. the system has two battery switches which confuses me a little. my other twin ob i have has only one battery switch. i have also discovered that their aft bilge pump which has a float switch is not wired correctly. without activating the console switch and lifting the float activator it doesnt work. when i activate the console switch the pump comes on so the float switch is maybe history. actually on my other boat my switch is a rocker so i can do manual or automatic. any comments appreciated

Welcome! You may want to start a new thread, as opposed to jumping onto this one. More likely to get better, more targeted responses that way.

 

[shawnee83]

It’s stock. I agree with all the comments about the connectors and the grease. I redid mine on a major project and ended up putting on a larger new bus. One of those grounds goes to your starboard start battery. One is likely the ground for the bilge pump, one is fuel tank, I think one is the ground for the sending unit, I can’t remember the rest? If you are going to clean it up, strip the wire back and put new heat shrink ring terminals on the(use the proper size) and grease them up after you put them back on as Wart advises. I’ll look for pics from my old project.