I have replaced the wiring harness on the mast of my 1986 Catalina 22 with one from Catalina Direct. Now I need to connect the mast wiring to the boat. I have a new chrome deck connector, also from Catalina Direct. The wiring in the mast has different colors, while the old connector in the boat has all red wiring. I have a basic understanding of the wire colors (green for ground, red for "hot", black for ?) but wondering how best to determine how to match the wiring up. Is this a "trial and error" job, meaning install the boat's wires in the female connector, then insert wires into the male connector until I get the right lights to work with the control panel switches in the cabin? Or..........is there a helpful diagram somewhere or instructions someone has produced???
Mast wiring
- Thread starter srreality
- Start date
Might not be factory though, now that I look at it. Sorry. I have a feeling someone will have it in a manual or something.
Connect and verify, after all there aren't that many connections are there? Now if there is a wind transducer up there then it will have a multi conductor cable, do not connect that unless you know what you are connecting to.
Thanks very much for that. I can start with that drawing of the female connector and work from there by trial and error.
Thanks.........no transducer, just the mast head light and the anchor light. As you say, only 3 wires and a ground.............how hard can it be??
My mast wiring colours did not match the diagram in the manual i found online, so i just used a meter to confirm what was what. If i remember correctly the circuits for the lights used a common ground which was a larger gauge wire and connected to a larger pin at the deck connector.
I need to take this task on myself pretty soon ... again. The first time I rewired our mast, I didn't know any better than to use plain old Home Depot wire. It's only been two or three years ago, and the wire is deteriorating badly at the deck connector. Which is another thing I need to find a better species of.
I bought from Catalina Direct...........it seems to be good quality. Pulling it through the mast was tricky as the one wiring harness contains the wire "branch" for the anchor light as well as the wire for the mast light at the top of the mast. It took awhile but I finally was able to fish the anchor light wire through the hole that winds up underneath the anchor light. I took the mast off the boat and laid it down on saw horses. The chrome connector, again from Catalina Direct, seems a sturdier connector that the plastic one that was there (original??). I tested all the lights to see if they worked before I raised the mast, but now we'll see if I can get them to work attached to the boat's wiring! More fun working on a boat sitting on the lake than "social distancing" at home!
Maybe I missed between the lines, but did anybody have to mess with a missing wire that came loose at the deck-side connector. the wire must be somewhere in the tiny hole where the connector is screwed into. The wires in general are very short and they hardly reach the connector screws. Imagine when one of the wires is floating around underneath the deck. I only have a two pole connector for the light at half mast. Did anybody change already that harness running through the fiberglass walls and could shoot me a good advice how to do this best?
08/12/2020 update: Never mind, I found the wire and soldered a little extension to it (imagine the space I had for that in that tiny hole); I insulated it with a heat shrink wrap and will now put the Aqua Signal connector on to have a safe and longer-lasting connection to the mast.
08/12/2020 update: Never mind, I found the wire and soldered a little extension to it (imagine the space I had for that in that tiny hole); I insulated it with a heat shrink wrap and will now put the Aqua Signal connector on to have a safe and longer-lasting connection to the mast.
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