wiring

[cboham30]

i got my boat with out any wiring int he boat. i have never done any wiring in a boat before , just wanted to know if the was some way to find out how the wiring runs from the battery to switches the out to pumps lights etc. it does not look to complicated. i will get pics up soon (69 flat back

[JimCt]

Congrats. on the flatback.   To me that design is truly "The Classic Aquasport"!

The link below will give you some ideas as to how to do it right and some pitfalls to avoid.  Some of the items in the article don't apply but it's still a good read.

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/ElectricalSystems.htm

[cboham30]

thanks for the info

[steved]

I am in the middle of having my 1982 22.2 completely re-wired (I could probably have done it myself but I was never going to find the time and I want to get out in the boat).  One interesting thing that has cropped up is that the original wiring seems to have been fixed inside the hull at a number of inaccessible points.  That is, trying to pull the new wire via the old wire is proving to be a ^&%$#.  Can anyone who has done a complete re-build and has therefore opened things up to see clearly shed some light on this?  

JimCT - what about you? Can you see any evidence of this in your 240?

Thanks, Steve

[JimCt]

Steved,

Pulling apart the 240 has been like doing an archelogical dig.  The original wiring, or what's left of it was done well.  Later wiring was not quite so good and the most recent (dated by the condition of the crimp-ons) was slipshod; twisted wire/electrical tape connections and yellow wire nuts.  I will be placing plastic conduit runs where I can and adding terminal blocks at various locations.  Have yet to draw out a schematic.  Have pulled out quite a bit of unused/abandoned wiring, a varied mix of zip cord, romex & #22 hook-up wire.

[DEFIANT]

Steved

My 1983 222 had foam poured into the starboard stern area where the rigging tube ended. This secured the wiring to the tube making it very difficult to pull any wires. Once I pryed out the foam it was much easier to replace and pull new wires! I do not know if the foam was installed by the previous owner or the factory.

By the way, I tried to email the decal files to you but they were too large and your server blocked them.

[Keith Knecht]

Hi cboham39,

Here's a few pointers.  Use tinned marine wire.  Say 14-16 gauge for most of the devices.  Remember that each device needs only a negative and a positive to opperate.  The negative should be run to the device uninterrupted.  Each positive should be fused with the appropriate size fuse and this is the leg that you should switch. This is very important on a boat since the alternative of switching negative has a major drawback.  Things get wet on a boat and if a positive is sitting on the device all of the time and it's waiting for a negative, the first rainny day when you're taking a lot of spray over the bow, you will have all kinds of things working without even being turned on.  It doesn't really matter too much if the fuse is before or after your switch.  Use crimp connectors with built in heat shrink or solder and heat shrink.  Some folks like overkill and will tape over the heatshrink and use liquid electrical tape as well.  That's your call but at least use the connectors with the built in heat shrink.  If you want to be exact there are some specific colors to be used for each device.  Grounds are yellow or black.  The hot side of cabin and instrument lights are dark blue.  Pumps are brown.  Navigation lights are grey.  Water temp -tan.  Instrument feed or igniton switch -purple.  Accessory- orange.  Bonding wires-green.  Fuel gauge -pink.  Etc.  Use a battery switch and feed a separate pannel with a fused positive supply in the 30-50 amp range.  Be sure to use at least 8-10 gauge wire for this.  There's a million other things too but maybe this will help to start.

Keith

[Ben87]

Keith, thanks for the color rundown, those were the exact colors for the electrics in my 87 although I wouldn't have had a clue if someone had asked me, I only know because I wrote with permanent marker and white electrical tape what each wire went to.  Thank you for that again.  This site has been really helpful.

[John Jones]

Good info Keith.

I must have the only AQ that didn't need a deck.  My port rigging tube is fine but full now.  The starboard side I have never been able to get anything through.  It is pretty full as that is where most of the original wiring, control cables, and steering hoses are.

[JimCt]

Some of the jumble pulled out of my 240:



Keith, based on the wiring color info., my boat is one big violation.  I'd guess roughly half of the circuits were not fused.  It's a wonder the whole rig didn't burn up.

That color coding is great!  Never knew there was any standardization.  Please keep the info. coming :!:  It will be put to use on this end...

[steved]

JimCT,  any idea what of that pile of spaghetti represents the original wiring?  Just curious to see what Aquasport used - hopefully not bits and pieces of leftover wire the way they did with your decking.

[JimCt]

The panel wiring seems to be original but nearly all the other circuits are a conglomeration of bits & pieces.  The wiring (un-fised) to the fwd. running lights was a combo. of white zip cord, #18 AWG and some lighter hook-up wire.  The bit of the original wiring I found for the lights is glassed-in and runs along the overhead on the stbd. side through the cabin then festooned under the rail back about half way to the console.

The popular "terminal block" for pulling 12V was one of the posts on the water temp gauge.  Please excuse the photo quality but you can see the rats nest connecting to the back of the gauge:

[John Jones]

Here you go.  More than you want to know about color code, ampacity, and a bunch more.

http://www.ancorproducts.com

Hold the cursor over "Technical Information" and pick what you want to know.

[JimCt]

Lots of good stuff in there... Thanks John.

[riverratjr]

Ampacity, there's a new term for this hillbilly.  JimCt's pix remind me of my rewire situation. There's a LOT of good info here for me,considering what has to be done.