A way to find out if your wire is good is to try and solder it, if solder doesn't stick, your wire is bad. Black copper is no good or getting there.
Another Bildge Pump Stuck Help! Question
- Thread starter jellyfish
- Start date
yep, working on old boats will teach you things you could never learn in school. Anyway heres what we found, Float was bad, and the wires that go from the switch in the rocker panel was shot, good thing that Grady did was run an extra wire from the aux switch back to the pump, so we used that and hooked it up to the switch and it now works. The switch was fine and the extra wire for the aux was not being used for anything. So everything is now a go. I need a replace a few bad wires that are looking bad. So thats my next project. Check your floats!! Thanks for all the great advice everyone gave me, it made the job go by faster. Now I can get back on the water.
Congrats!jellyfish said:
Yes, the dreaded black wire is the sign of corrosion, inherent in all older boats, GW or whatever. It occurs simply from the environment boats exist in. What the result is is that the resistance in the circuit increases, thus the current flow decrease, resulting in a drop in voltage/amps, as well as an increase in heat. All these negative factors result in the appliance, whether it be a pump or a light, work less efficiently, or at higher temperatures, resulting in shortened lifespan.
Trust me, take any lead off your helm switch panel, cut the terminal off, strip back some insulation, and tell me what you see...it will be black, as once corrosion starts wicking up your harness, it will go everywhere.
I used to work on a '98 Proline 2950 that had corrosion so bad, I had breakers that checked 12V on the input side and 9V on the output side! 3V in less than an inch!
I think what a lot of owners here on GreatGrady are seeing in regards to the electrical system problems on their boats is due to corrosion. But they shouldn't feel alone...
I want to re-wire my entire boat now. Bad wires scare me tho. So I will ask my buddy to help me out.
jellyfish said:
It is not a cheap, nor easy task to undertake. Good wire, especially as you get into the 10GA and up size, is quite pricey. Then you want to use uninsulated connectors with adhesive lined shrink sleeving. Genuinedealz is a great place to buy this material. But the hardest part is getting a new main accessory harness run forward from the bilge to the helm, then getting all your wiring run neatly and securely.
All your wiring that feeds the helm switch panels, the jumpers between the breakers and the switches, the ground jumpers, the bus bars...it all needs to be replaced.
Just keep that in mind as you proceed...
