cockpit light

[realslimshady]

The cockpit light and anchor light have stopped working-they were fine up until a couple of weeks ago. The large red wire

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which I'm assuming is the power feed is dead, but I'm struggling to find where it originates-and neither light is featured in the wiring diagram!

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The wires seem to run along the cockpit roof and down the starboard windscreen pillar and thence into the spaghetti that is the electrical box, but I can't find any obvious problems there, or identify the actual wire.....
Can anybody help?

[WillieC]

I also have trouble with wiring in the path from the panel in the head to the cockpit roof. Mine is complicated by the BC hardtop which is atop the standard Albin lid. It, too has a wiring chase in it for more lighting above the cabin seating. I made the mistake of tugging on these wires where they are accessible at the center of the cockpit roof. In my zeal, one wire gave up the ghost completely. Oops. (How difficult would the installation of a real raceway have been at time of construction?) Apparently, the wiring was simply lain in place, perhaps in some kind of sheath, then glassed in. Beautiful.

I am done with it, though mine is not completely kaput, and will redo the whole thing in an exposed pvc raceway, when the snow melts and I am happy with the engine work I am doing. The wiring to the wipers is also in this mess and will be redone as well. Who knows what kind of shape it is in. I have already installed a terminal strip and cover plate over the hole shown in your picture.

You should be able to see where the existing cable pops out from the starboard pillar in the head enclosure, then trace where each wire goes.

When I get around to my replacement update, I will take plenty of pictures. In the meantime, you could easily run multi-conductor jacketed marine cable exposed from point A to B and make it work. Another hole in the dashboard deck can easily be patched later, or incorporated into a real fix.

[dkirsop]

When I rewired my boat I was able to replace the cockpit and some of the running light wires in the pilot house. I had to solder the new wire to the old to avoid increasing the wire diameter at the joint. Then using lots of lubricant, careful pulling (both back and forth), probing with a stiff wire and the patience of Job I was able to pull the wire through.

I also very carefully drilled an access hole at the upper left and right corners of the windshield into the cable conduit allowing me to "hook" the wire I was working on and ease it through. This takes a real light touch in order to avoid drilling into a wire. I might have also use a rotary rasp to enlarge the hole but can't remember. The advantage is it halves the distance of the pull and allows you to work in stages.

Some wires, such as the starboard, wiper were just too inter-twined to pull through and were left in place.

Good luck.

[realslimshady]

do you guys have a light and/or switch arrangement as I have like this? It's at the base of the mast with switch for the anchor light incorporated.

[WillieC]

No switch like yours. When we got the boat, the wiring included the wipers, two wires for the mast lights, a horn wire and a hot for wiring to lights in the BC hardtop. Plus ground return.

The wiring to the mast was all wrong, no two pole-double throw switch so the anchor light would work properly. That only took two days of the goggle to figure out. I now use a Davis LED anchor light I plug into the socket on the dash, freeing at least one wire for me to damage. I also gave up on the horn wiring and ran a new circuit exposed.

The wipers have a hot wire for parking the blades, which could be tapped for other uses.

Your switch box serves as a cover to the gaping wound mess. Not bad. I went ahead and pulled all the wiring out of the hole and installed a terminal strip just so I could more easily remove the mast. That is another whole project needing attention.

There really isn't a reason for the wiring to go bad in the chases, unless it got wet, so rethinking this...it is all shot...HA! Stock wiring on the A25s appears to have all been untinned copper, much of which is still fine on the WillieC. Have you found where the wiring enters the starboard pillar in the head enclosure yet? With nothing but patience, a meter, and an open appointment at your local chiropractor, you should be able to sort out what's what. Bottle of rum and forgiving neighbors will also go a long way. Now Mr. Kirsop says he was able to fish new wires, if I understand correctly. The bar, once again, has been raised, the gauntlet thrown, with an added incentive...replace the wiper wiring while you're at it! (Hear ye him...he does nice work and and has a lovely vessel, AD21 and all.)

[realslimshady]

well, there are live wires at the stbd pillar, for the radio, spotlight, horn, so I guess I can piggyback into one of them....