Cabin lighting wiring

[Duane Lorenz]

I have a 78 catalina 30 and my cabin lighting over the sette, head and V berth does not work on the original wiring. external wiring has been run but hard to make this look right. Any soluitons for solving this problem or am I stuck with whatI have.

 

[Doug T.]

Wiring

I don't know your boat, but I presume that the "internal" wiring that doesn't work is run between the headliner and the deck, correct? The only solution I know of is to use the old wiring to pull new wires though the existing space between the headliner and deck.Before you attempt that, though, you should take an ohmmeter and determine EXACTLY which wires are bad and which ones are OK. It could be that some of them are in fine shape and all you need to do is fix the connections to the fixtures and/or breaker panel.

 

[Harris]

Cabin lights

When that happened to my 1980 Cat 30 I ran the wire back from the fixture in the head and enclosed it under U-shaped teak that I bought at West Marine.

 

[Fred G]

This may help

I have never had a problem like the one you describe, but if you do end up trying to run new wires through the existing path, try using 60lb or 80lb fishing line (available at Wal-Mart or similar) as a stinger. Tie/tape the fishing line to the existing wiring first, then pull it out, then attach the new wire to the fising line and pull it back through. I did this when I replaced my throttle and clutch cables recently and it worked well.Good Luck!