Shorted Bow Light in Hunter 260

J

Jeff Gray

.
Nov 26, 2017
64
Hunter 260 Mille Lacs
Hunter 260 Owners...

I have short somewhere in the bow light circuit. I can't figure out where the wire runs. When I turn on the running light switch, the voltmeter drops significantly and the breaker trips within a few seconds. I removed the panel and found 3 wires on the switch testing them one by one, I found the stern light works fine. The compass light works fine. That leaves the bow light as the one with the short. No sign of problem with the wire in the 8-10" I can follow it behind the panel. All looks fine at the fixture up front. I see no sign of chafing as the wires exit the pulpit tube. Grommet is in place and undamaged. Somewhere between those two points there must be a problem, but I don't know how to access the wire. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks,
J
 
rgranger

rgranger

.
Jan 19, 2010
12,370
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Many years ago, I restored a MacGregor 22. One of the retrofits was brand new navigation lights. The next spring when I took the boat out of storage, the bow light would not come on. I only had 3 volts in the wires at the light but 13.5 at the battery head. I tore it all out (one-year old wiring) and redid it all. Same thing. Got a new light. Same thing. Eventually I figured it out. Turned out it was a corroded lead at the battery terminal. I kicked myself for months. Anyway. Before you go nuts running this down. Check all of the places where wires connect to something else and clean those connections. You might get lucky and it is just a bit of corrosion someplace.
 
M

MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,021
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
when that happened on my old boat at various places, it was far easier to run a new sister hot suppply wire to the offending light and get a good ground some where than to chase the wire gremlins...
 
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J

JimInPB

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Aug 22, 2017
1,609
Hunter 26.5 West Palm Beach
I've seen shorts sniffed out pretty quickly using infra red imaging, but unfortunately, not everyone has a FLIR hanging around in their back pocket.
 
J

Jeff Gray

.
Nov 26, 2017
64
Hunter 260 Mille Lacs
FLIR = Forward Looking Infra-Red camera, and unfortunately I don't have one!

I agree the most likely spots are where the wires enter and exit the bow rail. I've examined the exit quite carefully and see no signs of cut insulation or any wear at all. The plastic factory grommet is intact and properly seated. Without taking the bow rail off (which I really don't want to do!), I can find a way to see the entrance. There's a tiny little panel at the forward end of the V-berth, but I can't see past the fresh water lines to where the wires would be. Kinda stumped at this point.

J
 
C

Crazy Dave Condon

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Jun 8, 2004
10,062
-na -NA Anywhere USA
Usually the wire was two lines encapsulated with one run from the bow to the panel and then connected all red for example with one wire to the panel.
Have you checked out the bow light. What about disconnecting the bow light to see if the problem still persists? Sometimes the old way does find issues by isolating wires
 
J

Jeff Gray

.
Nov 26, 2017
64
Hunter 260 Mille Lacs
Thanks for the comments guys. Yes, have done the standard basic debugging. Removing bulb from the light had no effect. Still a dead short (voltage drop and breaker trip). I do see the two wires in a white jacket as the wire leaves the fixture and enters the pulpit rail. After that, at the panel end, I have a single grey wire with a white stripe at the panel. I've read another post that mentions a conduit running from the panel area up to the access just aft of the compression post. Not sure whether my wire might run to that spot or not, but that's something I want to check. More likely, I think it is running along the starboard side of the boat. I can just run another wire as far as the freshwater tank area (under the seats). Difficulty is getting from there into the bow rail tubing and up to the light without removing the bow rail, which I really don't want to do. . . for now, it's a daytime only boat I guess!
 
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