Hunter 410 Refrigerator Light Wiring

Feb 20, 2021
2
Hunter 410 Channel Islands
Hi all! I've been perusing this site since around February soaking up some great info. I purchased my boat at the start of the year and have been upgrading and fixing it ever since lol.

Almost done with all I wanted to get done for now and this time I seem to be stuck. I can find threads about converting spillover systems and removing refrigerators etc., but none that seem to cover fixing the existing light that is supposed to come on when you open the doors.

The short story is I'm wondering how the refrigerator lights are routed wiring wise from power and ground to help trace the issue?

Since the wires are encased in foam on the fridge side it's hard to see where they go or come from. There's a set of blue and black wires (same color as the cabin lights) from under the back corner of the freezer that dissappear under the sink/edge of the table seats but I can't be sure those are the correct wires or if they're tied into the cabin lights? Where do the refrigerator lights tap into power at to maybe check for a connection not there? If I were to just replace the wiring I don't want to pull on the wrong wire and have my regular lights go out lol.

My refrigerator lights were pretty corroded and after no luck finding a replacement fixture for the new bulbs I bought, I opted to switch them out with new led lights I picked up from West Marine. Those lights work fine tested off a 9 volt. The refrigerator works fine. The problem is I seem to have no power to any of the wires related to the refrigerator lights in there. I've tested the door switches with a multimeter and they seem to work fine.

I've tried turning on various unlabeled breakers on the power panel just in case and no luck. I used a circuit tester with a wand and was able to trace connection of at least a portion of the wires to the "cabin 1 lights" breaker which on my boat are the forward cabin lights that start about halfway in the galley. This is confirmed with the led on the breaker panel dimly glowing when the tester is turned to tone while connected to the wires that used to connect to the old refrigerator light. However I'm not sure if they're grounding into it on a possible short somewhere I can't see, or if they're actually supposed to go to that breaker? Seems to me it would either be separate or direct to battery with a fuse not tied into the cabin lights which when on make a refrigerator light less of an issue. If I flip the tester from tone to continuity with that switch off it's green like everything is ok. If I flip the switch on which turns on the cabin lights then it goes red like the circuit's open? All my cabin lights work just fine. This is where I'm stuck. I'd throw a few pictures in here just to show all the wires I'm fiddling with so far but it keeps saying "failed to upload" so for now there's no visual aid. The most voltage I've seen has been once bouncing between .56 and .65 volts which is not enough to power anything. Usually there's no reaction on the multimeter.

Any ideas, thoughts, solutions would be appreciated. If you know the route those wires take that would be amazing if you could share. Thanks!
 
Jun 4, 2004
1,071
Hunter 410 Punta Gorda
The frig lights are connected to the Courtesy Lights 1. If your lights are not working its either the lights or the switch triggered by the lid.
I replaced my lights with LEDs. Much brighter.
 
Jan 4, 2006
6,444
Hunter 310 West Vancouver, B.C.
If you have proven power to the interior light receptacle, the problem is most likely the wrong polarity to the LED bulb.
 
Feb 20, 2021
2
Hunter 410 Channel Islands
@ Sailgunner
So they should get power from the courtesy light breaker from the manufacture? Currently when I test the circuit on the wires behind the light receptacle it shows connectivity to the cabin 1 lights breaker but there's no voltage difference whether the breaker is on or not.

I did purchase leds for it and I agree probably brighter. They weren't working when I bought the boat so I'll go off your experience and mine when tested off a 9 volt battery. The red courtesy lights and the white one under the galley panel by the sink work but still no power to the fridge light. The only switch I haven't checked is the one on the side door to the fridge. I checked both switches on the verticle doors and they both work just no power to work with. I suppose I could yank the 3rd switch but I figure I should at least have power to the wires behind the switches and the lights.

@ Ralph Kohnstone
There is no power to fridge light receptacle wires or to the wires that connect to the switch triggered by the lid. I did check polarity with the 9 volt battery first on the led to make sure I knew which was positive.
 
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