Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

[fireplayer95]

I have a 1995 Mariah 2350Z and I brought her out of storage after 3 months, never winterized because I live in San Diego. Went to start her up and everything went fine, except none of my rocker switches worked and by that I mean none of the components worked, ie bilge pump, defogger, windshield wiper, etc. All the rocker lights were illuminated as if they were switched on. Is there a short somewhere, if so how would I go about troubleshooting. I have included a photo of what the cockpit looked like when I barely turned the key. One other thing I noticed my tach going crazy while the engine was running.

 

[oops!]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

hi fireplayer

welcome to iboats !

Lets get you to the electrical forum where our gurus can help you with this little problem, doesn't sound too serious.

Is your rocker panel fused?

 

[rbh]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

As oops said this should head to the electrical forum.

As for the rocker switches not doing their jobs, I am inclined to think you have a power lead or ground wire that has come off or has a bad conection either at the key switch or the battery as most of the stuff you have described probably comes off the same circuit.
Trace wires back and ensure they are properly terminated and clean.

 

[oops!]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

+1 ^^^^^^^

However im a little concerned that the bilge pump is not on a separate circuit......

If you have a auto float switch.....that should be wired directly to the battery....so the bilge pump will work all by it self....

I would start by checking any fuse on the rocker system. then......do the search as described above.

Remember....just because a wire looks connected.....does not mean it is working properly.

the majority of electrical issues are caused by bad grounds !

Any how......Our electrical aces will be along soon.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Sounds definately like either a ground short (which is why the lamps are on...they are activated by a ground connection) or a wire that's on the - side of the battery should be on the +.

Just because he has a bilge pump switch doesnt mean it isn't directly wired to the battery. All mine are direct thru the float but you can also manually trigger them from the helm.

 

[NetDoc]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Many boats have a main circuit breaker near the batteries as well as a battery selector switch. Murphy's law states that things work better when they are turned on and even better if they are plugged in first. With that many circuits inoperable, I would check the obvious like if the battery has even a little bit of charge. One item left on could have drained the battery completely. Attach a battery charger and see if things come to life for you.

 

[barbosam]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

the power for the back lighting is likely coming off of your ignition switch and the actual power for the accesories on the switches has its own power source. Usually there is one large awg wire coming from the battery to the panel. There should be a circuit breaker somewhere (wild guess is its probably a 70A, its usually black with a yellow lever) on that main feed wire. Find that and check to see if its tripped. If it is than that is your why you have no power but there is likely a short somewhere that caused it to trip and you need to do the checks mentioned by the other users. It is unlikey that the breaker could be switched accidentally as these usually take considerable effort to turn.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Below is a diagram showing how illuminated switches are typically wired and it should help sort this out. The diagram shows only three switches but the concept is the same regardless how many are used. +12 volts is daisy chained (jumped) from one switch to the next. The grounds for the internal lights should also be daisy chained and finally connected to ground. The only way a +12 volt feed can reach the internal light on each switch would be if the ground connection for the light system had come loose and was touching a positive lead somewhere. The light draws very little current so the device for any of those circuits completes the circuit even though the device does not operate. The internal light does not have an external source of power. The switch has only three terminals. +12 volts in, +12 volts out, and ground for the light. It is highly unlikely any of the swtiches are the issue nor is the ignition switch. Check the ground connection from each of the switches and follow them to where they come together at a ground point. I think you will find the issue at that point or in the vicinity. A +12 volt backfeed could happen but it would have to happen on the "load" side of every switch and that would be very unlikely -- but stranger things have happened.

The next issue is to figure out why none of the accessories works. You need to check for presence of +12 volts at the "line" side of each switch. If not, follow that wire back to it's origin. Many boats have a separate feed directly from the battery to the fuse panel at the helm. Verify whether each switch is wired separately to the fuse panel or if there is one single connection that feeds all switches simultaneously. Loss of +12 volts into the switches points to an open fuse or breaker. You then check the "load" (output) side of each switch +12 volts with one switch turned on at a time and then check again with the switch off. If you find 12 volts on that terminal whether the switch is on or not, that explains the indicator lites being on all the time and if you fix that, everything should come back to life.

 

[sasto]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Sounds definately like either a ground short (which is why the lamps are on...they are activated by a ground connection) or a wire that's on the - side of the battery should be on the +.

Just because he has a bilge pump switch doesnt mean it isn't directly wired to the battery. All mine are direct thru the float but you can also manually trigger them from the helm.

KISS........"keep it simple s..."

Good advice!

 

[kmarine]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

I would begin looking in the bilge to see if you have a loose/ detached accessory cable. Some manufacturers have these as seperate cables that need to be seprately attached to the battery along with the positive engine cable. Also look for fusable links circuit breakes or corroded connectors. and battery switches. If you do not have a multimeter a test light will do. It is possible that you have a loose ground cable also. Happy hunting.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Was the battery out or disconnected during layup? If so, start disconnecting again at the battery terminals and watch the lights on the switches until they go out. I'm still betting on either a direct short at the ground connection, or a wire on the 12v- terminal thats supposed to be on the 12v+. If that's the case, switching terminals should eliminate the light and bring your devices back. If the battery has never been disconnected during lay up, I'd have to back to tracing wires.

A simple test would be to take a test light to the back of the switches and test the terminal that provides the light for the switch. It should have 12v- to it. If it has 12v+, you can be sure you have something crossed.

 

[series60]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

You live in San Diego - salt air will build corrosion on every electrical or medal part in the boat no matter where it's stored. Start by spraying some silicon spray in the crack between the rocker and it's housing, work the switch a few times. Move the wire connection on the back of the switch to loosen the corrosion initially before tearing into everything. If you have a volt/ohm meter do some checking for power to the switches.

 

[fireplayer95]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Hey there guys, sorry to keep you all hanging as I have been on the boat trying to trace this issue. I checked all the connections first and everything seemed to be fine. Here is a little brief history, aside from regular maintenance I have not touched anything electrical and everything worked fine before. I am really new to boats, but I am a problem solver so I am inclined to figure it out for myself. I went out and bought a digital multimeter, probably overkill, but I need to know how to test and on what setting. Batts were never disconnected and the engine starts right up. I definitely agree that its a ground somewhere, but tracing the ground wire seems almost impossible because the ground wire runs all over. My rocker switches look like they are fused with the little white push buttons to the left of the steering wheel. I did find a ver small fuse block that has a ground wire and a red power wire going into it.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Fuse blocks do not have ground wires on them unless it is servicing as a ground buss. There should be one hot wire going into it, and one wire for each fuse going out of it. Grounds (one or more) from the accessories would connect to that buss. The little white buttons you mention are circuit breakers, not fuses (although they perform the same function). The fact that none of the switches operates the accessory each controls tells me you do not have +12 volts into the switches. Sort that out first.

 

[NetDoc]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Fuse blocks do not have ground wires on them unless it is servicing as a ground buss.

Mine does. There is indeed a ground bus at the bottom of the fuse block.

A corroded ground will often cause a litany of issues. The best ones are the turn signals. I remember a Chrysler that would flash one side brightly, and then the other would go on dimly. It was one of those where you just had to **** your head and laugh. I traced all the body grounds (which we don't have on boats) and simply broke them free and re-tightened them. It was a simple fix. It's not such a bad idea on older wiring to unplug all the spade connectors and then plug them back in. There's a good chance you'll repair an "open" circuit doing this.

 

[fireplayer95]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

Well I figured out what the problem was, I had a small pocket of water in the bilge, so I decided to use the wet vac to get it dry, sure enough once I did. I flipped on my batt switch and could you believe it, everything worked like it should. Lesson learned for me before you start going crazy on an electrical issue, make sure your bilge is dry.

 

[Don S]

Re: Weird electrical issue. PLEASE HELP

You need to find out why things didn't work. Just vac'ing up the water is NOT a fix, you still have the problem, just masked right now.