My boat has a short in the console. I need some help.

[Kochy]

Alright my boat has a short in the console and I can't tell what's going on, I connected the wires to the battery and I then attached the male and female plugs together under the console, then it started smoking and I took it apart, I have no idea what is going on in there as I tried to troubleshoot it, I can see that the 15A fuse is fried, I checked it with a meter and its reading 0.0 ohms. If you guys have any ideas or advice please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it, and it would save me a couple hundred from putting it in the shop.

The fried connector.

The fuse.

The fuse holder.


This is the mess of wires under the console.

 

[TheMaestro]

need some more info:
what are the wires you are conncecting for?
why is one wire red and one wire black at the fuse?

 

[MDCrappie]

Kochy » Fri May 24, 2013 3:45 pm[/url]"]I can see that the 15A fuse is fried, I checked it with a meter and its reading 0.0 ohms.

A reading of 0.0 ohms is GOOD on a fuse. There would be infinite ohms if it was blown.

Can't comment on the other wires without being able to see where each one goes. Your 2nd and 3rd pics do appear to be showing a red wire (usually red is reserved for HOT 12 volts) going right to your ground buse which would definitely cause the "short circuit". If someone has "re-wired" anything under there they may have just used red for the ground, which isn't good for trouble shooting. You need to trace that wire to see where it goes.

 

[Kochy]

It was hooked up like that before n it worked. Also the left side of the fuses has a wire runing all the way up connecting each fuse

 

[earl60446]

Looks like (its kinda fuzzy photo) that connector in the first photo is fried. You need to trace those
wires out that go to the fried contacts and verify they are not the problem.
I think you could be a little more specific as to what you are trying to do also.
Why was the connector apart?
Why was the battery disconnected?
Interesting fuses, almost look like breakers built to replace fuses, is that what they are?
Tim

 

[Kochy]

Connector was apart to hook up to the battery, We unplugged everything from the starter battery cause the charger was showing a red light when we hooked it up to it. We charged it in our garage with a trickle charger and now we put it back in and we were hooking everything up when it did that. I hooked it to the battery first, then connected the connector. Then it started smoking and I kicked the tire in a P.O'd state, because it was gunna be hard to find the short in the mess of wires under there.

About the fuses, some are hooked up, some aren't, some have one wire going in but one not going out. Then next to that switch panel is another one with a second fuse panel with only like 1 or 2 wires going in. It looks like someone put this in after the fact because it's jerry rigged. Oh yeah the last owner was a State Cop, so that kind of tells ya something. Shouldn't have been messing with electrical...

 

[TheMaestro]

Look, I really hate to say this, but given the work youve already put into making the boat better, If it were me, Id draw up a plan for the electronics you are running, rip the wiring out and rewire fresh so that nothing is jerry rigged. Its probably 2 weekends worth of work, but then you'll know its done right, and you'll know what all your wires do. Otherwise, who knows where the next short will be, and will it cause a fire?
I know its upsetting to hear, but I think youd feel better in the long run. There are plenty of wiring diagrams on here you could model yours on, and it be easier to help along the way!

 

[Kochy]

Crap lol. Where would I find these wiring diagrams? I was looking for em and couldn't find them. When I was remodeling my boat, I had no idea on electrical things, now that I went to a technical school for electronics technology, I have a better idea on hooking everything up. I'm going to talk this over with my dad and see about it.



Bust out another thousand.

 

[Kochy]

I fixed it, it was bridging over the Positive and negative on the Aerator switch. I put in a new switch and everything worked fine. This winter, its all getting rewired.

 

[TheMaestro]

:LOL2: Im glad you found the problem so you wont lose time fishing! And im happy to hear you have a winter project! I would definitely rewire it then.. Happy Fishin 8)

 

[Kochy]

Thanks you too!