Electrical 101 help please

[Capt. Kirk]

Well I will be a man and just step right up to the plate and admit it.......I am weak on boat electrical. I can fix a lot of electrical problems around the house, but the boat is a new playground for me. You know what they say.....I know just enough to get in trouble!

I am hooking up my s1000 autopilot (very easy so far) and I will be getting to the electrical part real soon and I need help. To those of you electrical gurus it will seem very elementary, but I am very eager to learn and the best way to learn is to "Learn by Doing" So here goes.

I apparently just need a power and ground. I do not think that I hook it up to the fuse panel, but rather here somewhere:

OK....my power line is black and red...........am I making this too difficult on myself. Seems that there are two bars here.....2 red and 2 black. Am I in the right area!!

Thanks

Kirk (apprentice boat electrician)

 

[warthog5]

Why are you using Automotive connectors on a boat?

Crimp Shrink connectors are what you want. Those are open ended and let moisture go right to the wire. It then wick's up the wire and causes resistance in the wire.

 

[grouperjim]

You've got. It IS that simple. Red of course is your power and black the ground. Crimp on the appropriate size ring connector to the red and black wires of your new gadget. Find the desired empty spot, remove the screw, put through the hole of the ring connector, screw in back in (red to red/black to black). Down the road, if you run out of empty spots, you can even double up on a spot if you have to, or add another teminal block.

jim

 

[DaleH]

Yup, that's it, choose either the top pair of the bottom. Now, why the 2 sets? Two sets are OK, that's how I rigged my boat too, but do you know how they are setup? On my boat, one is set with THICK wire so the ampacity for the load is limitied to a 3% power loss, this is for critical items like emergency and safety items. My other buss is for standard items I can do with a 10% or more power drop, e.g., house lighting, etc.

If I were you, NO WIRE should enter the buss bar from the TOP - ever (see below). If water gets onto the wire, specially the HOT leads, it will weep/wick right down onto the bar. That's a no-no.

I install all wiring leads from BELOW or add what is called in the trade a "drip loop", which is a "U"-shaped 'dip' in the wiring lead well before it reaches the buss bar.

Also get some liquid electrical tape and CLOSE off those open connectors at the rear. That's how corrosion gets in! Use dielectric grease and reconnect all connectors or spray with Boeshield T-9 after moving to bottom of bar.

 

[Capt. Kirk]

Thank you guys so much.

As far as why we are using automotive connectors on the boat. Well, we just purchased the boat used and that is what it looked like when we bought it. Remember......this is Marine Electrical 101 for me...I will definately address that ASAP!

And Dale.......thank you so much for your suggestions. As far as why the two sets..........I am not quite sure. I need to look into just exactly what is connected the each of the bars. I will attempt to do that tommorow.

I now think that I should:

1. Redo all of the connectors with the proper type...Crimp Shrink I
assume is the way to go.

2. Flip all the wires so that they enter from the bottom of the bar.

3. Dip the connections in dielectric grease before reconnecting.

4. Try to establish what is connected to each buss bar as per your
observation and find out if one lead is maybe larger that the other
for the reasons you stated. I am assuming that even if they are the
same size wire, I still need to have essentials on one bar and
standard items on the other?

Thanks so much for your suggestions. Any others will be consumed gratefully.

Kirk

 

[Outta Here]

That's way different than mine. Where is your fuse panel? I have similar pos and neg terminals with a fuse panel in between.

 

[Capt. Kirk]

Seems like they are all a bit different from what I have seen. After reading the replys I am starting to wonder if there are other flaws under there.


My fuse panel is on the upper starboard section of the helm. Only have a picture of it from underneath now.

Kinda afraid to post it after what I found out abut the bus bars. Does it look OK??

Kirk

 

[DaleH]

Looks OK, but even there the factory used open-backed connectors. If a newer boat, I'd kill your battery switch and then 'coat' both the open backend and any opening on the front end with liquid electrical tape, 2 thin coats are better than 1 thick one. Let it setup or it gets messy ...

Then as needed, carefully remove any rubber off the ring or push terminal, apply a 'dab' (do not dip) of dielectric grease, as its comes in a tube. I even put a small dab on the ends of fuses and bases of light bulbs before installing ... ANYTHING to prevent corrosion from rearing its ugly head! A buss can be sprayed carefully with CRC, Corrosio Blok, or Boeshield T9 even after terminals are affixed.

If you PM me and send me your email address, I had started a Boat Electrical Wiring 101 'How To' that while I have never finished it, you could read and see if it helps you - complete with pictures too.

 

[warthog5]

As far as why we are using automotive connectors on the boat. Well, we just purchased the boat used and that is what it looked like when we bought it.

10-4 Dale gave you some pretty good imfo.

As much as all the wiring costs and the time it takes to do it. It sure is a shame they wimped out on cheap connectors.

It's a open hole to having wiring trouble down the road.

If it was mine, I'd be in there changing all the ends out. That is if there is enough slack in the wires to do so. Yes it's a bunch of work. I am anal about wiring.

 

[dcunniff]

Two ground bus bars are not uncommon depending on what electronics and wiring is on the boat and the age. Some Parkers may have one bus and doubled up black grounds.

If you want to add wires in the future, continue to use black as 12V ground or swtich to yellow. Yellow is in case there is any 110V onboard, so someone doesn't mistake 12V black ground with 110V black hot line.

Dana