Lost Electrical Power

[RioRat]

Over the Memorial Day weekend I noticed that my heater and ballasts don't work.  I have checked the fuses on the fuse board under the dash for the heater, shower (which I don't have) and both of the ballast fuses and they all appear to be fine.  Is there a main fuse between the fuse board under the dash and the battery?  I have done all the checking I can without taring the boat apart.  Does anyone know what might be the issue?  Thanks for the help.

Todd

[bt]

I had kind of the same issue with my boat and there is a little gray electrical connection plug alongside the black box under the dash, I unplugged it and plugged it back in and everything started working again. I couldn't tell you why I was just happy to have it working. I did end up doing it about three times last year.

[RioRat]

I checked every fuse possible, even reconnecting the gray connection.  I have no clue as to why my ballast and heater arent working.  Has anyone else had this problem and determined what was causing it?

[westtx]

Mine has an in-line fuse on the power lead coming out of the battery on/off switch.

[RioRat]

Westtx,  are you saying that there is a fuse between the battery switch and the fuse board under the dash?  I guess that makes sense.  I am assuming the purpose of that switch is to cut power from the battery to the dash, being that the dash controls the rest of the electrical peripherals on the boat.  About how far from the battery switch is the in-line fuse?  Thanks for all the help by the way.

Todd

[cyclone]

With a heater and shower, that fuse can be overloaded. There is an upgrade in the docs on the maintenance page, swapping out the fuse holder. It is better to parallel the red/black stripe wire coming off the battery switch (where the aforementioned fuseholder is) and it's black partner coming off the battery. These two wires provide power to the dash, gauge computer, audio system, heater, shower, ballast etc. 20 amp 10 ga is not big enough. Put an 8 gau pair and appropriate sized fuse in there. There may be more that needs to be done on a V drive, I'm getting ready to do it on my SX, I will document it. I just got the sound system done though, and got the carpet truly clean. The last thing I want to do is tear it apart right now! I probably will do it after the season is over.

For now, you could put in a 30 amp fuseholder, that should fix the blowing of the fuse problem. Gauges being screwy, esp. the voltage gauge/alarm and temp gauge need bigger supply wires to the dash to fix. For now, I ignore.

[Capt Rick]

FYI on 2000 and later .
There are 1-2 in line ground fuses connected within 6 inchs of the main circuit board Left side if I remember.
The cheap in line fuse holder is an automotive style.
Good luck opening and closing it under dash...
Capt.

Also on 2000 and later the battery switch with green removable key, if it goes bad, or it gets wet will only allow a surface flow of electrons by the contacts.
To test it bypass switch by connecting both red wires to one connector...

[RioRat]

I think what happened was being that the amp for my sub was getting power from the red wire coming off of the panel with the shower and ballast fuse, an inline fuse blew because I changed the configuration on the amp.  Before everyting on that particular panel stopped working I had the sub powered off of a single channel on the two channel 800W amp.  For what reason I don't know, but I accidently bridged the sub when I put it back into the compartment when summer rolled back around.  When I turned the stereo on for the first time this summer and really cranked it up that is when it blew.  So instead of pulling enough power through the fuse to accomodate ~400 Watts it had to pull enough to produce ~ 800 Watts peak.  Am I correct in assuming that is what happened?

I think what I am going to do this weekend is run a seperate power supply cable to the battery for the second amp and run my remote continuous and ground off of my stock amp.  That way I won't have to worry about blowing any more fuses between the battery switch and the panel, nor do I have to worry about blowing the inline fuse that powers the stock amp when I have the second amp receiving power through the stock amp, like I do now as a temporary fix.  Anyways, installing the new setup won't be a problem, I am more worried about finding the fuse and replacing it so that my fuse panel under the dash can begin receiving power again for my ballasts.

[cyclone]

follow the red and black wire from your battery switch, you'll find the fuse.

[RioRat]

Thanks Cyclone.  I will give that a try this weekend.

Todd