electrical help?

[brs517]

I have a 1986 Chaparral 178XL.

It's been a great boat, until we moved a few months ago and I could no longer store it in my driveway. To make a long story short, it got critters in it (a mouse, some frogs, some ants & wasps. Good times). I've gotten rid of them, and found a new place to store the boat.

Now...I have electrical problems. The boat runs fine, but all of my electrical accessories are messed up in odd ways. For example the lights don't operate as they should. When I turn on the navigation lights, only the dashboard lights up. When I turn on the anchor lighting, only the front red/green lights up, etc. Also, the horn doesn't work, the bilge pump sounds like it's running but SO weakly I can barely hear it. The electrical blower doesn't turn on at all.

I've checked fuses and looked at all of the wiring I can find, and I haven't found anything obvious. Is there some common thread among these electrical accessories? Something that might be causing ALL of them to act funny? By the way, I've owned the boat for 5 years and have never had any problems with any of them.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. We're going away to the lake this weekend and I really need to get her goin.

Thanks!

 

[tgissel]

Re: electrical help?

check for areas having been chewed on by the "critters". Also check for corrosion on the connectors.

 

[calwldlif]

Re: electrical help?

All have the battery in common.
Meaning grounds, bat cables, fuse bus

 

[brs517]

Re: electrical help?

OK, thanks I'll check into those. But, if it was the battery, grounds, bat cables, wouldn't it also be difficult or impossible to start? It starts without a problem.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: electrical help?

You should have one main hot wire and a ground going to the fuse block. I would trace that down and look for breaks from the critters... Check voltage where these connect to the fuse block...

 

[brs517]

Re: electrical help?

thanks RIck. I don't really have a fuse block. There are several in-line fuses, and also a 50a circuit breaker with a wire loom coming off. That is not tripped, but do you think the circuit breaker is there instead of a fuse block?

 

[vipzach]

Re: electrical help?

[colour=red]its not that uncommon to only have a main breaker and no fuse panel on older boats. Your situation kinda stinks because of the odd things it does. You could get a pair of wires and do a quick check of each part that does not work correctly. For example, run a +/- directly from the battery to the blower and see if it runs correctly. Unfortunately, I think you will have some rewiring to do on your boat. It will be a good time to install a fuse block though![/colour]

 

[brs517]

Re: electrical help?

Thanks everyone. It ended up being simple...just a loose ground wire. I appreciate the help!