I just bought a 1984 Catalina 22 with an old electical panel and lots of jury rigged wiring. Fortunately, the nav lights worked, but there was only a steaming light on the mast. I wanted to have an anchor light, a deck light, as well as the steaming light. I ordered a wiring harness from Catalina Direct, and wired the mast without a lot of difficulty. Next I ran a 4-wire bundle through the deck, through and cabin, and into the bilge behing the electical panel.
Unfortunatly, I lost my footing while I was putting down some white duct tape on the wire to hide itel, and my foot caught on the elecrical panel, which was open and hanging on its wires. I actually broke the main switch and pulled a wire out of the cabin light switch. I was worried that I would not be able to replace the 37 year old switch, but that was the last of my worries. The switches are pretty standard. After replacing the switch and putting the wire back on cabin light switch, the mystery began. Now the nav lights don't work and furthermore seem to have a short in the system. When I put on the nav lights, the cabin lights go out.
I tried switching the leads coming out of the nav and cabin light switches, and the cabin lights work fine with the nav light switch, and the short appears to remain in the nav lights, even using the cabin light switch. At this point, I conclude that there is probably a short somewhere in the old wiring, and decide to run a new set of wires to the fore and aft lights. The lights work fine when attached to the battery. Furthermore, when I cut the red lead coming from the nav light switch, I get 12 volts of clean power coming out of the nav light wire. So it should be a simple matter of attaching the new wires to the old lead and I'd be done, right? No. The short persists. Amazingly, no fuses were blown during this whole exercise.
Does anybody have any ideas on what might be going on?
Unfortunatly, I lost my footing while I was putting down some white duct tape on the wire to hide itel, and my foot caught on the elecrical panel, which was open and hanging on its wires. I actually broke the main switch and pulled a wire out of the cabin light switch. I was worried that I would not be able to replace the 37 year old switch, but that was the last of my worries. The switches are pretty standard. After replacing the switch and putting the wire back on cabin light switch, the mystery began. Now the nav lights don't work and furthermore seem to have a short in the system. When I put on the nav lights, the cabin lights go out.
I tried switching the leads coming out of the nav and cabin light switches, and the cabin lights work fine with the nav light switch, and the short appears to remain in the nav lights, even using the cabin light switch. At this point, I conclude that there is probably a short somewhere in the old wiring, and decide to run a new set of wires to the fore and aft lights. The lights work fine when attached to the battery. Furthermore, when I cut the red lead coming from the nav light switch, I get 12 volts of clean power coming out of the nav light wire. So it should be a simple matter of attaching the new wires to the old lead and I'd be done, right? No. The short persists. Amazingly, no fuses were blown during this whole exercise.
Does anybody have any ideas on what might be going on?
