2002 Aquasport 215 DC Osprey electrical issues

[vacottonking]

This is a link to photo bucket - 3 pictures
http://s419.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... c%20Issue/

[RickK]

vacottonking - this last post you made, when you click on the link it takes you to PhotoBucket and when you hold your mouse over a picture there is a portion that appears below the picture.  The bottom selection there is the IMG Code - click in that row and the code needed to make pictures appear here is copied to your PC memory.  Then you paste that code into your post and that's it - you don't need to click on any of the buttons above the posting area.  When you submit the post and look at your post, pictures will appear.  Try that way to post pics.

BTW, sounds to me like something is loose or maybe a bad/ high resistance ground (wet?), like Bob said.  Lasted about an hour you say?  Definitely in the "House" side of the equation.  Bypassing the whole mess, like bdtsr said, will definitely tell you right up front which is bad.  Bypass with (+) and try it and then bypass with (-) if necessary until you find the culprit.

[seabob4]

Cotton,
Decent enough pics.  BTW, I can see who they got to replace me didn't exactly care as much about their wiring as I did!  Anyway, in your first pic, in the bundle above the horn secured to the hull/deck joint, that blue connector should be in that mess.  I really think that your issues lie with that conn.  But let's forget about that for a while.

1)  Attach about a 20' length of wire to the positive post of your battery that feeds the helm.  Strip the other end back an inch or so.
2)  Turn on any pump or light and place the bare wire to the middle terminal on the back side of the switch you just turned on.  If the pump/light/whatever works, then your not getting power to the switch panel.
3)  See that 6GA black on the right side of your ground buss?  That is the return path for all grounds originating at the helm.  It is fed from a similar buss at the transom.  Make sure you have good continuity between the batt, the transom buss, and the helm buss.

Report back, please.

[vacottonking]

Ok - I will do this:

If I touch that 20' positive wire to the back of a switch and the whatever work's, then I am assuming this indicates the ground is good and I need to go back and find that blue connector wire.  If the whatever does not work when I direct connecting the 20' wire to the back of the switch then this is a strong indication of the ground being my issue.  Is this a correct assumption?

[RickK]

Yup. Then divide and conquer or pull a new "whichever color" to the front.

[seabob4]

RickK,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is seems like our friend Cottonking  has lost power feeding the helm.  Hence, that led to my suggestion to try and power up one switch an see what that got him.  From his pics, his ground buss under the helm looks in good shape.  Btdsr, care to comment, based on what you've seen in the pics (other than there is a bit of a mess under there!)?

[bdtsr]

I wasn't going to comment about the wire routing technique. Not sure why companies are not concerned enough to spend a few extra hours to do a quality job on their products. Oh that's right, more money in their pockets! OK enough on that. The connections look ok. Though it's tough to see the back side of all the breakers. It seems that while there is a problem, it's not totaly "broken". At this point I would suggest remove all power and ground connections, wire brush all contact points then reinstall connectors and try the accessories again. If that doesn't work, move the wire harness under the dash out of the way to see the breakers and use a 10 gauge jumper wire from the + side of the battery to feed all the breakers (appears they are daisy chained with fast on connectors). Do the accessories work? Yes, trace the main power wire to it's source (should be color coded) and repair or replace as needed. If no, then remove the jumper and go from the - side and attach it to the ground bus bar (clean some of the protective coating off first). Try again. After doing this, where do you stand now?

[Capt. Bob]

This is a link to photo bucket - 3 pictures
http://s419.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... c%20Issue/

[vacottonking]

You guys have given me some great stuff here to work on.  We are getting ready for the big freeze so tonight I could not try any of these suggestions.  I will at least try the long hot wire idea tomorrow to determine if I can direct connect my stuff to the battery.  will report back tomorrow evening on what I find.  I really appreciate the interest you guys are showing in my problem.  My son wants to try the the striper one more time before he heads back to college on Sunday so I hope I make some progress tomorrow.

[seabob4]

Cotton,
Pretty chilly down here, too.  About 50.  I hate Florida in the summer but GOD I love it in the winter!  Good findings with the electrical and good luck with the stripers!

Remember, report back....

[RickK]

vacottonking, can you do us a favor please - go to your Photobucket account and click on one of the 3 pics you have there and at the top you'll see a "Resize" button.  Click that and then click on the dropdown that appears and select 640x480 and then save the picture over the existing one.  Do that for the other two also and then we can bring the pics into this topic at that scale so we can see them.  Right now they're too big to bring in from the first link you posted and the ones Bob helped to post are too small to see anything.  Let me know when you have that done or you could post them following the directions I posted earlier.

[bdtsr]

Freezing temps?! It's a balmy 20 this moring with a forecast low of 10 tonight. I feel for the people even farther north!

[Capt. Bob]

the ones Bob helped to post are too small to see anything.
 

Gettin' old sucks :cyclops:

[vacottonking]

Pictures are resized at photobucket.

[RickK]

Wow - what a difference.  Thanks

Capt. Bob, can you see it now