Electric issue

[Pasteur]

In my 28 TE FD 06 there's a positive terminal strip in the panel behind the helm. The strip has an upper half and a lower half. The two are not directly connected and there is no jumper between the two.

The upper half is fed by a large cable - battery cable size. Everything on that bus is working.

The lower half seems to be fed by a large wire...10 AWG? There is no power on that bus.

Does anybody know where that strip is powered from? I don't see a similar wire on either side of the guest switch. And I have checked all of the direct connections on the battery.

The only thing that doesn't seem to work is the FM radio. But there are three other wires powered by this strip. I haven't figured out what the others are...yet.

I'm guessing there is a loose connection, tripped breaker, etc. somewhere... But thus far my volt meter an I are clueless.

UPDATE: lower half is connected to ignition. The issue is that the radio is dead. Probably a fuse...

[Serenity]

Is it possible that the larger "battery size" wire powers the windlass and the smaller 10 guage provides power to the bow thruster and is connected to an isolated terminal block which is fed from the battery.

[craw_daddy]

I believe that strip is fed & protected by a two terminal breaker mounted on the bulkhead just behind your large house battery (a 4D size on Grace Full). The breaker is covered by a red plastic cover to prevent accidental shorting to +12VDC & prevents saltwater from getting to the ring connectors crimped to the wire. Mine just looked corroded, but they were so corroded my radio stopped powwering up. I just re-terminated mine using 8AWG ring terminals purchased from West Marine this past weekend. I also put a dab of silicone sealant on teh exposed crimped end to slow down that corrosion.

When I finished, my radio started working normally as did my autmatic bilge operation (manual worked, not auto by float switch). That is probably your issue too..

[Pasteur]

craw_daddy

Your explanation fits the symptoms well. In fact I have cleaning up the wire terminations on that bulkhead on my list for the upcoming off season.

I will be out of town for a couple of days. When I return I wiil post a follow-up.

Gotta love this forum. Thanks.

[Pasteur]

Craw_daddy,

Based on your comment from last year I did some cleaning up of the terminals on the bulkhead and the problem went way. That is, it went away until I splashed her again this year. Darn radio wasn't working again.

In addition, I recently noticed that the forward bilge had water above the level that should have turned it on automatically. And, oddly enough, my windlass will pull the anchor up but it won't go down. It really does sound like the same issue. Of course it could be that it's the same issue and the windlass control is fried and the switch on the bilge pump is broken. I'll hope that the issues can all be solved by repairing the wiring.

In any case I won't put a band aid on it this year.

Thanks again.

[Sandiegowildcat]

Regarding the windlass, while the problem could be a bad solenoid it may be as simple as the spade connectors on the top of the solenoid. I had exactly the same issue. Found that one of the spade connectors what's just not making good contact to the terminal. It is only a friction fit so I removed the female part of the spade, cleaned both sides then just squeezed the female side a bit before reinserting onto the male spade. Good as new!

[Serenity]

On my 98, 28 TE, the ground buss behind the helm was a split buss. The left side was grounded the right was not. I ran a separate #6 wire from the right side of the buss and I grounded it to a bronze thru hull with a water pipe ground. When I was "cleaning" up the wires on the overhead where the windshield wiper motors are installed, there were five wires that did nothing. A black, white, pink, purple, and yellow. All the wires wind up behind the helm After some testing, the black and white are open, the pink is hot and the purple and yellow are grounded. Albin thinks ahead. Hope this might help with the wiring issues.

[Pasteur]

SDWildCat - Once I get through this terminal block issue I'm going to circle back to the issue with the windlass.

Max - Based on your description I did some looking at the wiring on the bulkhead behind the engine. I opened the cover on a small distribution point and found corrosion. I'm betting that's my problem - the wire gauge seems to the be the right size and it's in the same location that you described.

My issue now is that I'm not sure what the thing actually is - why have a distribution point when you could run the wire directly from the battery? So I am betting that it's a fuse. it's red, it has two posts, and it's about the size of a lego cube. I've done some searches and haven't found a similar part online or at the local stores thus far. I'll call Standish tomorrow to see if they have one. But in the meantime if anybody knows what this any information would be greatly appreciated. Additional info - there are several more (3?) installed in the wiring panel behind the helm and this is a 2006 28 TE.

[DougSea]

If its a fuse block there's a decent chance it's from BlueSea. Take a look at their site:

http://www.bluesea.com/products/category/Fuse_Blocks

There is an ABYC spec that a primary line should be protected within 7" of the battery, so you may well be correct.

I have several of the MAXI fuse blocks aboard, is that what you're looking at?

[Pasteur]

Doug, Max, Ken,

Thanks for the guidance.

1. It is a 15A block with a trip/reset switch (not a MAXI) which feeds the second terminal strip in the wiring box behind the helm. The strip is connected to the floats on the bilge pumps.

The rubber boot that covers it doesn't offer much protection. I would say that its not well suited for this location and that the cover tends to hide the condition of the wiring from plain view. I'm going to fashion some sort of clear cover to put over it so that this doesn't happen again anytime soon.

BTW Ken at Standish had the fuse in stock. Since I was in the compartment and had all of the tools in hand I decided to replace the bulb fuse holder that protects the common wire on the battery charger at the same time. Ken had a spare one of those in a parts bin that he cleaned up while I waited. If you ever need a part for your Albin and can't find it, call Standish.

2. As far as the radio goes, it's probably the constant power (memory) wire from the radio that should be on the strip with bilge pumps. I have feeling it got reversed on Zero PSI during one wiring project or another in the last couple of off seasons.

3. The windlass issue was unrelated - exactly as sdwildcat described. The hard part of the repair was getting eyes on the wiring inside the locker. Spades are cleaned up and squeezed and everything is good to go.

Thanks again.