C30 1987 mkii wiring question

[Jethro411]

Hopefully these images upload. I'm having trouble figuring how the AC should have been wired if done properly.

Bottom of the screen is the main AC breaker. Above that is water heater breaker. Besides the tape job, I'm concerned how the source is Teed off from water heater to main breaker.

Pulling water heater breaker keeps shore power from being established. Pulling main AC doesn't do anything. Does anyone have a picture of how it should look? Thanks.

And I'm on yahoo catalina mail group but have no idea how to sort through that "forum". I just have thousands of emails and no easy way to read topics.

 

[weinie]

The line side wire (probably coming from those taped wires) should go to the line side of the main breaker. The other side of the main breaker (the load side) should have 2 wires on the post. One wire should go to the yellow bus bar to feed the AC outlets. The other should go to the line side of the water heater breaker. The other side of the water heater breaker (load side) should go to the water heater.
That taped wire may be two insulated wires just taped together and not a splice, hopefully.

ETA: It looks like your reverse polarity LED is lit! That would explain why the killing the water heater kills the main power.
Have someone check the polarity at the dock that you are plugging into or buy a simple polarity tester at a hardware store and check it yourself.

 

[Stu Jackson]

I agree with weinie. You should also trace the incoming shorepower wiring from your connection. Draw a wiring diagram before you do anything else. Make sure YOU understand what weinie meant by line and load. Understand what the three wires in AC do and how they work. (Unless you do already and you're just asking about your picture.) FWIW, helping out on the internet with just pictures of wiring is usually useless without a wiring diagram.

Do you have a C30 manual? There was just a post about this yesterday. http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=156518

See reply #5, if you don't have a C30 manual, use our C34 manual, it shows how the AC is supposed to be wired. Catalina did it pretty much the same on all their boats.

 

[Jethro411]

Thanks y'all. I will dig into that deeper. Reverse polarity light is just a result of camera flash. I noticed how that looked and should have brought it up. I am not located by the boat and have only had a few moments to look at things. There is a manual on board, but I figured this was a non standard setup. The extent of the AC system is a battery charger, water heater and outlets.

 

[Jethro411]

It seems to me that the breaker in the top of the photo (water heater) should not have the line spliced to it. I will unravel that tape and see. It should only have one line from main AC and a load to water heater. Not sure why the two black wires are taped together and possible spliced.