Bow light wiring

[jorgefife]

Hello you good people!
Thought you got rid of me, but it is not so.
Been busy with all kinds of things, but here is my question: my bow light (green/red ) does not work, so I wanted to know 2 things: Does it matter which wire goes where at the back of the unit? There are only 2 wires
The second question, I see the wire disappear behind the anchor locker, but cannot find it inside the boat: I am assuming it goes all the way behind the panelling, butcannot find it; when I removed the smelly & moldy carpets I replaced with cedar panels, but does it run at the top? not being much of an electrician ( not much of anything, come to think of it!), how do you guide a wire through? With a stiff wire?
Remember, it's a H33 (1982) so if some of you out there with similar boats, how did you do yours?
Jorge

 

[MrUnix]

It doesn't matter which wire goes where unless you are using led lights. As for running the wire, don't have an H33, but most Hunters (and most others) I've seen run along either the top of the cabin under the carpet (or whatever is there), or along the upper side of the hull where the topside meets with the hull (and behind whatever fabric/material you have there). The easiest way to run a new wire is to fasten it onto the old one and pull it through.. but if your wiring is already there, I'm not sure why you would want to run a new one.

Cheers,
Brad

 

[JoeWhite]

Regarding which wire is which - to be correct you should connect the negative wire to the side that connects to the pulpit and the positive to the other side of the bulb. On my hunter 25.5 the wires were run on the top side of the carpet just where the deck met with the hull. Then exited to the top side of the deck and ran through the pulpit pipes and into the light.

 

[Jim Legere]

Regarding which wire is which - to be correct you should connect the negative wire to the side that connects to the pulpit and the positive to the other side of the bulb. On my hunter 25.5 the wires were run on the top side of the carpet just where the deck met with the hull. Then exited to the top side of the deck and ran through the pulpit pipes and into the light.

All the running lights (bow or otherwise) I have seen use a "DC" or "double contact" bulb - there are two small contacts on the bottom of the bulb that feed power to the filament rather than one contact and the metal case, as in automotive bulbs. It really doesn't matter which wire goes where. The bulbs are also "indexed" with one of the side pins higher than the other so that the bulb can only go in the socket one way.

On my H37C, the wiring goes between the inside overhead liner and the deck. The wires were installed at the factory before the deck and overhead liner were assembled to the hull. I would not attempt to "pull" a new wire through here - if a replacement wire was necessary, it would be easier to run it along the joint between the hull and deck...

 

[SailH37]

Yep, it doesn't matter to the bulb which wire is connect, it will light up. BUT, if you don't connect them correctly and you're light is say, bolted to the mast, and let's say, the case for the light is screwed to the mast, then you have just created a loop of current that will eat up metal like crazy. I BLEW OFF the brand new bottom paint off the the ENTIRE KEEL when this happened to me. Take the time to buy a 20 dollar multi-meter and do it right the first time. That's my lesson learned.
Kb

 

[Ed Schenck]

On my H37C the bow light wiring goes through the pulpit and down through the toerail. It is visible and could be spliced in the very forward part of the boat before it goes under the liner. There is probably 18" of wire exposed. You can see it in the picture. Not sure if I could use the old wire to drag a new one out to the light but maybe.

 

[jorgefife]

On my H37C the bow light wiring goes through the pulpit and down through the toerail. It is visible and could be spliced in the very forward part of the boat before it goes under the liner. There is probably 18" of wire exposed. You can see it in the picture. Not sure if I could use the old wire to drag a new one out to the light but maybe.

Forgot to mention: the wire goes from the port side, to the front of the anchor locker, then goes up inside the stainless steel pipe on starboard side of the bow rail, and it comes off at the very front. The light assembly is the kind that is mounted onm a plastic unit, which then slides down at the very front of the boat; so it could be that there is a problem with the wire that is inside the pipe, heaven knows how I can feed that through!
And no, to one of you good people, it is not connected to the mast

 

[Jim Legere]

Yep, it doesn't matter to the bulb which wire is connect, it will light up. BUT, if you don't connect them correctly and you're light is say, bolted to the mast, and let's say, the case for the light is screwed to the mast, then you have just created a loop of current that will eat up metal like crazy. I BLEW OFF the brand new bottom paint off the the ENTIRE KEEL when this happened to me. Take the time to buy a 20 dollar multi-meter and do it right the first time. That's my lesson learned.
Kb

Just like to emphasize that on any double contact bulb nav light - e.g. AquaSignal, Hella, Perko, etc. - no part of the bulb, socket or fixure will pass DC current to ground through the mast, pulpt or anything else on the boat. So, no worries about galvanic corrosion in this instance. HOWEVER, there are plenty of other powered things on a boat that will do just as Renasci says. A multi meter and time spent learning how to use it are good investments.

And Ed S: yes, I have fished a new wire through the pulpit using the old wire - wasn't that difficult except that you need one person inside feeding and one outside pulling.