plea for schematics A43 classic

[jakevr]

Looking for schematics for my 1981 albin 43ft classic

[Despacio]

You are looking for electrical schematics? I believe I have the schematics for the 33, electrical, and plumbing.

They are pretty basic, and there is not really a color code to the electrical. I believe they didn't stick to any color code, they used what was at hand.

If they might help you are welcome to them.

[VA3MRJ]

I have a 43 and spent two days tracking a ground loop in the a/c system that kept tripping the GFI. Turned out to be a leaky wire to the front vee berth electrical outlet and there was a new wire run, just not connected. I cleaned out a pile of old dc wiring especially under the flybridge. There are no wiring diagrams but with a meter and some tracing you can usually resolve most issues. Even if you had a schematic chances are the boat has been so midified over the years the wiring will not resemble the factory drawing. I am lucky, the prvious owner drew schematics for all the changes but its still a matter of tracing wires, disconnecting one end to locate if you have the right one. All the a/c wiring has been replaced with new wiring. I have completly rewired the flybridge.

[N4QC]

David:
Please clarify "leaky wire". Was it an unconnected wire hanging in the breeze or something else?

Thanks & '73

[VA3MRJ]

The wire was an original 110 volt wire from the a/c distrubtion panel to the a/c duplex outlet in the vee berth. It was still connected. The GFI breaker was tripping and I was able to isolate the faulty wire by disconnecting each wire at the a/c panel until the breaker did not trip. Each a/c panel breaker feeds multiple outlets so it required further tracking to each string as they looped around the boat. There is no way to test the wire other than an ohm meter to see why it was causing the breaker to trip and it measured fine with the meter, no high resistance between any of the three wires.

There is test equipment to test the wire, but I do not have it. The wire probably had high capacitance between the insulation and thats what I call "leaky" because its leaking voltage. There was a new wire, marine grade a/c wire already run so I used that one instead. Took better part of a day to track the fault after pulling all the outlets and the gfi's in the heads and galley. Even with a schematic this job would not have been any faster or easier. Sometimes you just don't find the fault until you get to the last wire, or almost the last wire.

There are some good 12 volt books on troubleshoting an electrical system and Nigel Calder covers the basic in his boat maintenance book which should be in every boaters library. Having a basic knowledge of electrical systems helps and thinking like an electron. I try and explain to people think water. Its like plumbing with feeds, loads, splitters ect, except its electricity instead of water.

If you have a specific problem let me know and I will see if I can help, unless your boat is close to Jacksonville, my boat is in San Mateo on the St John River not far from Palatka and I am headed down from Canada tomorrow for a couple of weeks of maintenace. We hope to spend winters on board starting next January.

Regards

[N4QC]

David:

Thanks for the feedback (pun intended) on GFI trouble shooting. I have just finished replacing my battery charger which I believe was a victim of a lighting strike. The new battery charger kept taking out the GFI dockside. Further investigation showed evidence of a high current surge on an adjacent dockside GFI circuit, but that unit is still operational. Expect to replace both dockside GFIs when the weather improves... Also, replaced the 30A shore power inlet and added a galvanic isolator to the 120 v system. Figured that since the panels in the cabin had to be removed, access was then available to make the changes...

Trust that your maintenance projects will be minor...

Have fun,

[VA3MRJ]

Dumb< I missed your call sign and did not realize you were a ham. Sounds like you got a fix in place. 73