Electrical Problem

[Mike2043]

HELP! :?

Hi Guys. Big problem here.

I am in the process of installing the new LED Nav. lights. I took the old light off yesterday and left the rest for today. I went out to work on her and figured I could start by identifying the positive wire. Grabbed the test light and got nothing. I figured it was grounding issue with the test light so I tried a few different spots and nothing. I then plugged the old light back in and got nothing. I checked to make sure the switch was on and it was. I checked the back of the switch and everything seems ok. I checked the breaker and that was all good.

After playing with for a while I needed a break so I drilled for the new lights and added the necessary wire and did a few other errands. I went back to the electrical problem I noticed that nothing that operates off the switches is working. I checked with a test light and have power on both sides of all the breakers. I have power in to the switchs but not out for some reason. I took one other step and tried turning the forward bildge on with the switch and got nothing but when I pull the float swithch up the pump goes on.

It seems the whole panel is dead for some reason.

Any suggestions?????

 

[DaleH]

Check grounds!

 

[Bryan 2530]

Or cycle the batt switch a few times, some times the contacts get dirty. If not that the do what Dale says and clean all contacts to the battery and switches.

 

[Mike2043]

Got it. Feel like an idiot!

I spent hours behind the dash, checking everything i could think of. After I wrote it up here I went back outside and looked around for about a minute. Low and behold right there in front of me is this huge connector, hmmm.. A little more investigating and I found the other half plugged them together and everything works again. I have no idea how this came apart and how I missed after all the time looking around in there. Luckily it was a minor incident and all is well..


Thanks for the replies.

 

[big tuna]

I have a very similar issue. The bottom 4 switches on the panel work, but everything above that (washdown, wipers, bilges, nav lights) don't). The issue appeared after I removed the FM stereo antenna. Maybe the end of the antenna cable snagged something when I was pulling it through?

I will check grounds and look for obvious undone connections, but has anyone had just a portion of the switches go out?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[TomS]

Dave,

One thing I noticed when I replaced the switches on my panel a few years ago, is that there is a short jumper that connects one switch to the other (I can't remember if its power or ground) so it might be worth a quick check to make sure one of these wires didn't get disconnected in the process. Check the jumper that connects the last working switch with the first non-working one.

-- Tom

 

[big tuna]

Thanks Tom.

I'll check it out today.

Dave

 

[TopShot25]

I have two wires feeding my switch panel. One feeds the top and the other feeds the bottom. You may have a bad connection or need to reset one of the breakers feeding the switch panel.

 

[big tuna]

Learned quite a bit about the wiring in my boat yesterday. Like Topshot said, I too have 2 wires feeding the panel...1 feeds the lower 5 and one feeds the top 5. All it needed was the breaker being reset back at the battery.

Thanks for the help.

Dave