For those that have re-wired their Parkers...

[SBH2OMan]

Does anyone use a wire tracker to trace wires
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000BO6Y1O
Merry Christmas to all

Pretty mixed reviews on Amazon. I've never used one, but I've heard that they can be less effective when dealing with large bundles of wires with lots of connections all close to each other (like in a boat!). My buddy has one and I may try it after the holidays and report back.

 

[TunaJoe]

I am currently using this wire tracer I got from Home Depot on my new home I'm finishing up.
I found for the money it works great!
I ran miles of cat 5 and have had to trace and tone out the wires.
I also used when I did the finish electrical.

http://www.amazon.com/Sperry-ET64220-Tr ... B00279JLBQ

 

[warthog5]

When installing stuff like I did recently with speaker wire.

Different colored electric tape works well as a marker.

 

[Brent]

Thanks Brent

My setup is different.
I have a refrigerator which works poorly and a sink with a combo faucet and hand shower.
It converts into a seat when the seat pad is over placed the sink and a molded foot rest.
I have lots of storage under the cabinet accessed from a hatch on the cockpit side.

I would like to pull the refrigerator and determine if it is repairable. If not, add shelves with the bottom one being on a slider and adding
a portable refrig/freezer (Engel or Waeco) and keep a regular chest cooler in the cockpit with ice b/c we like to overnight

Fresh water thanks is under the floor

Here is a picture on the space under 2 floor hatches
Another hijack

 

[SBH2OMan]

Well, I finally got to spend a couple of afternoons working on things after collecting all the parts. I underestimated how much time would be spent just sitting and staring at things before cutting wires and attaching them! (I also didn't buy enough AWG 16-14 x #8 ring terminals)



I'm probably about 1/3 of the way through (haven't starting rebuilding and organizing the switch panel on the left). But its starting to look a bit better organized. I'm using Dymo labels underneath non-adhesive lined heat shrink tubing for the labels, but its a bit tricky not to turn it black with the heat gun when shrinking the tubing! It also took me a while to figure out the ideal work-flow. (1) measure wire, (2) cut wire to length, (3) print label, (4) Trim label, (5) measure heat shrink against label, (6) Slide heat shrink down wire, (7) crimp terminal and heat shrink, (8) peel and stick trimmed label, (9) slide heat shrink up, (10) carefully heat the clear heatshrink to "lock" the label down, (11) attach terminal, (12) repeat.




The factory wiring had a big negative bus with a mess of connections, so I relocated it and shortened all the wires, tying it to the main fuse panel with a 6 awg cable (got to use my new crimpers and they ROCK).




I found some adhesive-based mounting pads that REALLY stick, even without prepping the surface with acetone first. I put one on the wrong spot and it took me 40 minutes of pulling and scraping to remove it! Nicer than drilling holes for hanging cable ties.

 

[Brent]

U r having fun now

Where did u purchase the mounts?

 

[SBH2OMan]

U r having fun now

Where did u purchase the mounts?

R u finding any wires that needs replacement ?

It is time-consuming, but if you have the right kind of music and the right frame of mind, it can be a very zen-like way to spend a day. Unlike changing the starter on a Ford truck, for example.

I bought the mounts along with an assortment of cable ties from Del City (P/N 9806) when I bought the crimpers. http://www.delcity.net/store/search/p_8 ... earch=9806 They can have a screw added to them, but so far I have not found that to be necessary.

Interestingly, all the factory wiring is in pretty good shape. HOWEVER - NONE (and I mean NONE) of it is tinned! So I may need to splice in some new sections for the bilge pumps where there is a bit of corrosion of the strands (though I haven't gotten there yet).

 

[Mike S]

I found some adhesive-based mounting pads that REALLY stick, even without prepping the surface with acetone first. I put one on the wrong spot and it took me 40 minutes of pulling and scraping to remove it! Nicer than drilling holes for hanging cable ties.

I tried the stick on cable mounting pads to hang the 4 AWG wire for my trolling motor under the gunwales. After a month in Baja last summer (90-100 degrees F all day), several of them got too warm and fell off under the weight of the cable. Lesson learned.

 

[SBH2OMan]

I tried the stick on cable mounting pads to hang the 4 AWG wire for my trolling motor under the gunwales. After a month in Baja last summer (90-100 degrees F all day), several of them got too warm and fell off under the weight of the cable. Lesson learned.

Yes, I had my doubts about these, since I've had similar experiences, and was planning to tack them down with screws. However, the difficulty I had in removing one convinced me that (at least for our temperate weather) it won't be a problem for guiding light loads. They are definitely much stickier than the ones I've purchased from electronics stores in the past (white ones). An AWG 4 wire hanging perpendicular would probably be a different story, however!

For heavier use (like holding the main looms up against the bulkheads, etc) I am using more traditional screw-down wire ties.

 

[SBH2OMan]

Here's a question for some of you following this thread:

I have a number of signal type wires that need to be spliced or terminated (the controls from the joystick on the spotlight, for example) but I can't seem to find adhesive lined terminals in an awg 26-22 size. Are they not available?

If not, what do you guys do? Use regular insulated terminals in a 26-22 size and then just heat shrink over it, or do you double up your strand and use a 22-18 connector?

 

[TunaJoe]

Here's a question for some of you following this thread:

I have a number of signal type wires that need to be spliced or terminated (the controls from the joystick on the spotlight, for example) but I can't seem to find adhesive lined terminals in an awg 26-22 size. Are they not available?

If not, what do you guys do? Use regular insulated terminals in a 26-22 size and then just heat shrink over it, or do you double up your strand and use a 22-18 connector?

If you can't find the insulated ones, I've used regular terminals and after crimping used liquid electrical tape and then heat shrink once dried.

 

[Brent]

I would try 3M Scotch Loks or solder with heat shrink tubing overlay

 

[BradH]

Here's a question for some of you following this thread:

I have a number of signal type wires that need to be spliced or terminated (the controls from the joystick on the spotlight, for example) but I can't seem to find adhesive lined terminals in an awg 26-22 size. Are they not available?

If not, what do you guys do? Use regular insulated terminals in a 26-22 size and then just heat shrink over it, or do you double up your strand and use a 22-18 connector?

I use regular uninsulated crimps and adhesive lined heat shrink.

On really small signal wires, like GPS, I tried the telephone wire style gel filled crimps and they've been great.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... =CT2032231

 

[SBH2OMan]

Warthog,

I have a question related to connecting my house batteries. All the power feeds to the main 12v fuse panel are coming from House Battery 1 via a Blue Sea 285 resettable thermal breaker and awg 4 cable. House battery 2 is connected to House Battery 1 by awg 4 cable. Should I have a breaker on the positive side of the House Battery 2 connection? Or is an on/off switch enough? I can't seem to find clear guidelines on this.... The battery is mounted under a cabinet (not visible and not easy to get to). If I need a breaker, should I just use one of those Blue Sea Terminal Fuses & fuse block that stacks directly on the battery post to save space and cabling hassles?

Thanks!

 

[warthog5]

These batteries are separated.....aren't they? IE: Not side by side with say.....12in to 18in cables wiring them in parallel.

The fuse / Breaker is there to protect the cable /wire.

 

[SBH2OMan]

Yes, they are separated by a 20' run of awg 4 cable. I take it from your response that there should be a fusible link/thermal breaker on the circuit that parallels the batteries. Thank you!

 

[Brent]

At one time, you stated you had 3 batteries. Two in the back and one in the cabin.

Is this correct?

 

[SBH2OMan]

At one time, you stated you had 3 batteries. Two in the back and one in the cabin.

Is this correct?

Yes. House battery 2 is behind the helm inside the cabinet.

 

[SBH2OMan]

Another question has come up...

I have a Guest remote control spotlight up on top of the pilot house. The controls for it are mounted at the helm and consist of four very small signal wires inside a PVC jacket. In order to not have this wire simply draped across the middle of my "clean up" project, I need to splice in a section of 4-strand wire so that I can extend the run up to the loom and then tie it into the rest of the wiring bundle.

1) does anyone know a good source of 4-strand jacketed signal wire by the foot? I'm assuming it is probably around 24-26 AWG. Unfortunately whoever installed this thing, was interested in a neat tidy run, nor was he thinking much about future expansion.

2) How should I splice these? I looked at the gel type connectors, but they are for solid conductor wire (like telephone) not stranded. One option would be to use a 4-gang terminal block at both ends of the spliced-in section and just use ring terminals.

Thoughts?

 

[warthog5]

What you need is some NEMA wire.


http://shop.genuinedealz.com/Items/9119 ... %2025%20ft


It's 20ga and 8 different colors in it.