Electrical questions???????????

[waterman]

Hi
I have a 98 215 explorer
a little late this year just gettin started
I installed the batteries got the motor going and checked my helm area bilge lights horn wiper etc.. And I have no power at the switches.  I used a tester at the fuse box red on power in to fuse box  and black on the neutral bus I have over 12 volts but nothing works.  When I use the tester at the same spots and turn the switches or cabin light switch on I lose all voltage on the tester any ideas??
Thankyou

[seabob4]

Your main accessory harness has a large blue plug, 6GA going in from aft, 10GA coming out feeding the helm.  Check for voltage on the output side.  If you have voltage there, then check for voltage on the first breaker the 10GA is terminated to, and voltage subsequently down the line to the next breakers...

[waterman]

is This harness is in the helm area ??
And the breakers?  In the battery compartment?

[seabob4]

is This harness is in the helm area ??
And the breakers?  In the battery compartment?

In the aft starboard compartment, there should be a 40A pushbutton breaker.  This breaker protects the helm.  There is a 6GA cable coming off it that runs forward, where, under the helm, it plugs into a blue connector, about 2" long.  It is easier to see of you have voltage at this plug by sticking the probe in from a multimeter rather than pull the box down in the aft compartment that holds the 40A main breaker.  If you have voltage at this plug, then continue on down to the next breaker in line under the helm, finally to the point where voltage disappears...

Keep in mind, check voltage on both sides of the blue connector.  That connector is a notorious piece of crap that has been the culprit of many an electrical problem ever since AS/WC started using it...

[waterman]

is This harness is in the helm area ??
And the breakers?  In the battery compartment?

In the aft starboard compartment, there should be a 40A pushbutton breaker.  This breaker protects the helm.  There is a 6GA cable coming off it that runs forward, where, under the helm, it plugs into a blue connector, about 2" long.  It is easier to see of you have voltage at this plug by sticking the probe in from a multimeter rather than pull the box down in the aft compartment that holds the 40A main breaker.  If you have voltage at this plug, then continue on down to the next breaker in line under the helm, finally to the point where voltage disappears...

Keep in mind, check voltage on both sides of the blue connector.  That connector is a notorious piece of crap that has been the culprit of many an electrical problem ever since AS/WC started using it...

Thanks for all the help seabob. I found the problem turned out to be a neutral bus with a loose ground wire seems ok now   So far.  
I do have another question if anything just to learn. For future reference
You talked about the blue connector on the red positive wire I did find that but mine is in the aft starboard battery compartment  then the red wire runs all the way to the fuse box at the helm. Is that the connector your talking about
And also the only breakers I found are also in the battery compartment 4 of them including  the 40 amp. Are there more?
And last question in the fuse box there is a 10 amp fuse for the stereo and a pink wire that seems to go aft with the other wires where does that go? I am lookin to put a stereo in the boat
thankyou for all your help  the knowledge you have on these boats is amazing and a huge help for us nubees  

[flounderpounder225]

is This harness is in the helm area ??
And the breakers?  In the battery compartment?

In the aft starboard compartment, there should be a 40A pushbutton breaker.  This breaker protects the helm.  There is a 6GA cable coming off it that runs forward, where, under the helm, it plugs into a blue connector, about 2" long.  It is easier to see of you have voltage at this plug by sticking the probe in from a multimeter rather than pull the box down in the aft compartment that holds the 40A main breaker.  If you have voltage at this plug, then continue on down to the next breaker in line under the helm, finally to the point where voltage disappears...

Keep in mind, check voltage on both sides of the blue connector.  That connector is a notorious piece of crap that has been the culprit of many an electrical problem ever since AS/WC started using it...

Thanks for all the help seabob. I found the problem turned out to be a neutral bus with a loose ground wire seems ok now   So far.  
I do have another question if anything just to learn. For future reference
You talked about the blue connector on the red positive wire I did find that but mine is in the aft starboard battery compartment  then the red wire runs all the way to the fuse box at the helm. Is that the connector your talking about
And also the only breakers I found are also in the battery compartment 4 of them including  the 40 amp. Are there more?
And last question in the fuse box there is a 10 amp fuse for the stereo and a pink wire that seems to go aft with the other wires where does that go? I am lookin to put a stereo in the boat
thankyou for all your help  the knowledge you have on these boats is amazing and a huge help for us nubees  

The pink wire running aft should be your fuel tank sending wire, should go to one side of the fuel gauge, and connect to the sending unit, you should have a "pie plate" pop out hatch over the sending unit in the deck, pop it out and you'll probably see the pink wire.

[waterman]

Ok thanks. I will check that out. But I also do have a solid pink wire coming off the fuse box it's marked at the fuse  "stereo" and I follow it to a harness and lose it. Does that go aft to the fuse box where there is a fuse marked 5 amp stereo? I also found wiring on the port side at the factory Stereo location is that wire hot already to tie into ?  I seem to be finding both ends of wiring but can't seem to find the middle ha ha.

[seabob4]

Thanks for all the help seabob. I found the problem turned out to be a neutral bus with a loose ground wire seems ok now So far.
I do have another question if anything just to learn. For future reference
You talked about the blue connector on the red positive wire I did find that but mine is in the aft starboard battery compartment then the red wire runs all the way to the fuse box at the helm. Is that the connector your talking about
And also the only breakers I found are also in the battery compartment 4 of them including the 40 amp. Are there more?
And last question in the fuse box there is a 10 amp fuse for the stereo and a pink wire that seems to go aft with the other wires where does that go? I am lookin to put a stereo in the boat
thankyou for all your help the knowledge you have on these boats is amazing and a huge help for us nubees...

Waterman,
I looked at a number of '98 215 Explorers on the net to take a look at the switch panel at the helm, it appears there are no corresponding breakers to protect the switches, so I am assuming all the circuits are protected by a fuse block.  Soooo, since the functions controlled by the switches at the helm don't work, it basically the same concept as breakers, whereas a main feed powers up the fuse block via a positive bus  and then each circuit is fed through each individual fuse.

If some equipment is functioning and some is not, then your problem has to do with each individual "fused" circuit.  Older fuse blocks get nasty and corroded, the fuse holders get corroded, it's best to take a good look at that thing and do some voltage checks and some resistance readings across each end of the fuse holders.  High resistance across the fuse holder ends can create a voltage drop such that the piece of equipment, be it a light, a pump, whatever, won't work.

Now, as far as the stereo wiring, the wire protected by the 10A fuse should be for the stereo "constant hot".  This saves your presets and clock, and although you may not care about that, that wire has to be hooked up for the stereo to operate.  The 5A is for stereo power, the red wire off the stereo.  To determine which is which, if you have a battery switch, check for voltage on both wires with the switch OFF.  The one that has voltage is the stereo memory, this terminates to the yellow wire coming off whatever stereo you decide to install, they are all the same...