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Post by popeye on Nov 26, 2018 22:09:59 GMT -5
I've had just about all I can take from the rat's nest wiring, faulty switches and phantom voltage drops and decided to make this my winter project. I started the day marking and documenting and then got to ripping out the old wire. I was surprised to so much disconnected wire in transom area; unbelievable. I really wonder what was going through the previous owners minds. I started with the mains - Removing all 4 batteries, switches, and wires. Attachment DeletedAnd.... Here is the rats nest. I pulled back as much of the Yamaha factory wire as I could. There is so much of it there; I'm half-way considering cutting it down and re-crimping new terminal ends. I could probably eliminate 6' of wire on each motor. I'm not planning on messing with the Yamaha wiring too much, but it may be inevitable to get it tidied up. Attachment DeletedThen I moved onto the switch panel. The PC bard underneath is green and covered with corrosion. _ Attachment DeletedAttachment DeletedI moved on to the main termination box. That was a mess as well. I disconnected all the duplex cable that runs from the transom to the console. There was probably an extra 5 feet of it coiled up in-between the console. I thought all that duplex was a real waste... i seems like there was a complete home run for every piece of equipment... A home run all the way from the console to the bilge switch, then back to the switch panel, then back again to the bilge pump. I'm headed back to clean up the bilge area and console trimming back what I can (and what I dare). After that, I will power-wash the bilge area and start working on the wire runs between the console and bilge. Attachments:
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Post by popeye on Nov 26, 2018 22:10:31 GMT -5
Someone deleted all my "Placeholder" posts (Thanks MOD!!!). I was hoping to post updates of my project and have the entire history in the first several posts. Oh well. Anyway, I took inventory of all that wiring that I yanked out. I came up with nearly 400' of duplex and triplex wire. No wonder why I was having voltage drop issues as I think all the pumps were traversing nearly 100' of wire between the power source and the load. It cleaned up nicely and it's all Ancor marine. I don't see any reason why I can't reclaim some of it for this project. I have been working out my wiring diagrams and I think I am 95% there. This is the transom layout. I will be using an on/off switch for the house mains and an on/off/parallel switch for the engine mains. I will use the Yamaha isolator circuits to recharge the house batteries. The bilge pumps and electrical outlets for deep drop rods will be powered directly from the house mains through a fuse block. The exception is one bilge pump will go to one of the engine batteries for redundancy. I am sending a set of 4 or 6 AWG (have not decided) up to the console as a main run from the house batteries. They will go to a bus bar to feed the everything else in the boat and routed to the breaker panel and fuse blocks. The live-well, wash-down, and freshwater pumps will be fed by primaries and the negatives will be terminated in the transom. Here is my console switch set up for the terminal block. There is not a lot of space on the dash and I don't want to have a ton of switches, so i decided to condense the switch panel and using DPDT switches for the horns, Nav/Anc, Bilge pumps, and Spreaders. The Spreaders will work like the Nav/Anc where the rears will only be on in the down position, and all the lights will be on in the forward position. The Horn will be a momentary switch controlling two separate horns. There will be 2 more distributions to the console fuse panel, which will house most of the electronics, and to the radio box, which will house the radios and some other electronics. I am half temped to run 1 of the VHF radios to one of the engine mains for redundancy in the event I loose my entire house system. I am still gathering parts and the Amazon truck is here on almost a daily basis. I'm making plans to head down to the boat this weekend to clean up the bilge area with the power washer, finalize my prep work, and finalize some measurements for my cable order.
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Post by outtadblue on Nov 26, 2018 22:22:43 GMT -5
Good luck with this project. You will be glad you did it when good weather rolls around this summer and everything is working.
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Post by Team Ruby on Nov 26, 2018 23:04:48 GMT -5
I've never seen anything like that. The previous owners appear to have committed a multitude of electrical sins. Is the heavy white wires that there seems to be a ton of solid core wiring like you would find in your home?
Best wishes with this project, I have no doubts once completed you'll be much happier with the boat.
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Post by popeye on Nov 27, 2018 6:34:31 GMT -5
I've never seen anything like that. The previous owners appear to have committed a multitude of electrical sins. Is the heavy white wires that there seems to be a ton of solid core wiring like you would find in your home? Best wishes with this project, I have no doubts once completed you'll be much happier with the boat. It's all Ancor marine and looks to be in pretty good shape (albeit dirty). I'm going to clean it up and reclaim what I can. But I will not be running duplex home-runs for everything. I plan on running only primaries from the switch panel terminal block and terminating the negatives on a bus in the transom. I will also run a single 8ga or 6ga pair up to the console as a "main" to feed everything. I'm also putting in a fuse block in the transom for the bilge pumps and secondary charging wires from the motors.
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Post by ragtop409 on Nov 27, 2018 7:10:06 GMT -5
Man we all talk about the condition of the wiring on our boats and use the turm “rats nest” but yikes that is bad. Glad you took the time to post the pictures and it will be nice to know everything works as it should when you need or want it to. Rag’s
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Post by hookedup on Nov 27, 2018 7:23:21 GMT -5
Hard to believe someone would put that much excess wire in the boat. I know some of it is unavoidable, but your pictures make me much happier with my wiring. And, by rewiring you'll have excellent first hand knowledge of how it's wired.
Looking forward to the 'after' pictures.
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Post by mikey111k on Nov 27, 2018 21:06:20 GMT -5
Man....that brings back some memories. I was amazed by how much random wire was in there when I pulled it all out. I started with the concept of ‘organizing’ the wiring and quickly gave up on that and knew the only option was to rip it all out. Good luck and have patience. Assuming you have time, work on it until it gets annoying then stop for the day. I found when I got tired and annoyed and continued to work I would come back the next day and not be happy with what I did and redo it. Keep us posted.
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Post by finatic on Nov 27, 2018 21:11:02 GMT -5
Dam what a mess, that just make mine look better.
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Post by popeye on Dec 10, 2018 18:44:01 GMT -5
I haven't made it to the boat in two weeks.... Starting to get withdrawal. Busy with the kid's activities. Parts have been streaming in however and I promise I'm NOT a Blue Seas fanboy, but they do make some nice quality stuff at a decent price point that spells "value" to me. Iv'e had this slab of UHMW laying around and I think it will make a perfect backing plate. I will mount this to the transom to keep drilling into the hull at a minimum and make servicing easier. I'll also mount the fuel flow sensors and fuel filters on here as well and mount it up as high in that pocket where the rod holders are are possible. I do admit, I'm not too crazy about all this electrical gear and fuel supply in close proximity.
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Post by ragtop409 on Dec 10, 2018 19:23:47 GMT -5
My 04 has a starboard mounted just like you are talking about. It has a circuit breaker and a fuse mounted to it along with the Parker fuel water separatetor and works great. My battery switch is surface mounted on the inside of the transom and it works great. Might be an idea to think about. Rag’s
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Post by mikey111k on Dec 10, 2018 20:43:36 GMT -5
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Post by popeye on Dec 10, 2018 21:30:27 GMT -5
That's an awesome project! Thanks for sharing. I must say that I like what you did with that console wall... You really got me thinking right now. The problem I face is there is a lot of electronic "black boxes" mounted on there now and that is not really a project I want to tackle at this time. But I might just go ahead and cut a panel out on the bottom like that. It's a real bitch getting in there. Also, I like the way you mounted your switches and ran the wiring behind the backing board. I've been considering it, but wasn't sure about how I felt about exposed positive leads back there. Any issue thus far?
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Post by mikey111k on Dec 11, 2018 9:13:32 GMT -5
I will warn you that easy access to everything makes a HUGE difference. Every time i have to get in that area for something i am happy i made that big access door. Getting good access will make your project much easier.
No issues with the leads on the back of the panel. Just make sure you have drain hoses on all the rod holders/cup holders above it so they don't get wet. Also make sure that your livewell is sealed to the underside of the cap. Mine originally had a gap there and i would get saltwater all over the batteries and the wiring.
The only thing i don't like about my setup is that the fuel filter is right above the saltwater/livewell pumps. If i had to do it again i would mount the fuel filter somewhere else. I will probably end up moving it soon.
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Post by popeye on Dec 11, 2018 21:53:57 GMT -5
That little space is the vein of my existence. It's mostly all the slack from the Yamaha factory cables. You've sold me. Now I have to decide if I want to cut it like you did, or just enough along the bottom. I'm really hoping I don't have to pull out all that Garmin gear....
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