Please excuse what I am sure will turn out to be a ridiculous problem/question with a simple fix. My problem is that my battery keeps draining. My boat is an aluminum flat (jon boat) with a 40hp Yamaha with electric start. The battery issue started after I recently made a few electrical "improvements." I added a terminal block to the console to make it a little easier to distribute battery power. All that is connected is running lights, bilge pump and a 12 volt receptacle (cig. lighter). Anyway, I'm hoping for some troubleshooting help, if possible. My electrical "layout" is as follows:<br /><br />1. Terminal block -- 6 gang, connected directly to battery (one side to pos., one side to neg.) with 10 ga. marine wire.<br />2. Switch Panel -- fused, Perko type with 3 switches and a fuse for each; the "hot" wire leading from this is connected to the pos. side of the terminal block.<br />3. Running lights -- the ground (black) wire is connected to the neg. side of the terminal block; the hot (red) wire from the lights runs to the switch panel.<br />4. Bilge Pump -- is close to the battery, so ground (black) wire is connected directly to neg. side of battery; hot (brown) wire is connected to the switch panel.<br />5. 12 Volt Receptacle -- cigarette lighter type plug for accessories; neg. connected directly to neg. side of terminal block; pos. connected directly to pos. side of terminal block. <br /><br />Okay, so everything works great, but my battery is draining. Have I done something really bone-headed here? The terminal block is something new that I haven't used before as is the 12 volt receptacle, but I have used the switch panel before with hot wire running to pos. battery and all grounds from accessories running directly to battery, hots from accessories to switch panel, all with no battery issues. <br /><br />Oh, I also installed a Teleflex tachometer and speedometer along with all of the above. For the tach, I connected it to the Yamaha shift control box (black to ground, red to ignition, green to send, yellow to light). The tach works great also. For the speedometer, I just connected a wire from the light terminal of the tach to the light terminal of the speedo. <br /><br />I DO NOT have a battery switch, which I'm thinking would be a good idea for turning things off when not using. I am running a single cranking battery, not trolling motor or anything. <br /><br />I know this is a long laundry list, but I would appreciate any help. Please be gentle, I realize that there is probably some glaring stupid mistake I made that is very obvious to someone who knows MUCH more about these things than I do. Thanks again.
