No wonder my battery wont charge

[kenn]

I think it may have been the original rectifier. Don't know what blew the wire in two. I may have hooked my charger up backwards once.

If the charging rectifier in the outboard shorted out, the battery would dump into it, melting the wire as MS pointed out. The reversed charger probably wouldn't have caused that.

As another small-boat guy (19'), and not having any high-draw loads like starters or big inverters, I've protected our battery with an automotive 40A thermal cut-out in the +ve lead.

 

[Bob Camarena]

I always use my multimeter before connecting anything that is in the least bit questionable (ie. tape) and, almost always, use it before making any connection. You can't be sure that someone (even yourself) didn't just use whatever tape was handy at the time. This goes for AC wiring as well.

Having learned DC as a kid, red = pos, black = neg is second nature but I've never been comfortable with the AC convention of black = hot. I always need to think twice with AC.

I know that my my 1981 Catalina 30 has breakers and fuses in the panel but I don't know if my batteries are protected as others have described. I'll have to check that out.