No Electrical?

[Adam Henrich]

We Recently purchased a 91' Hunter 30. During the off season I had upgraded the electronics adding an autopilot, gps, chartplotter/radar, new vhf and a stereo. After the installation I tested all units for proper powering on and tested functions of the systems and all worked. The dealer put her in the water on monday and today I went out for my first sail. The engine started right up, but now anything connected to the DC panel flickers and will not power on. The vhf says low battery. The batteries are brand new. With the DC main off I read 13.6 volts. When the DC main is turned on I get a small voltage drop down to 12.3. As soon as I turn on an accessorie the sytem goes haywire. Any one have any sugeestions what I should look for?

 

[R. Young]

Check connections from battery to panel

Sounds like a bad/loose connection somewhere between the battery and the panel. Check/tighten/clean connection from battery to battery switch, from battery switch to panel and within the panel at any distribution bars etc. You may be able to simplify this process, if your VHF radio says low voltage, then , with all panel switches set to off except for the VHF radio switch, touch/shake the various connections and with luck at some point the low voltage will go away - that will point to where the bad connection is.Also, did you say a "small voltage drop" from 13.6 to 12.3? That is not small - but may be consistent with your problem & the above diagnostic.RogerHunter 37Destiny