[alberg30] #$%&$#! Electrics

[Doug Stevens]

From: "Doug Stevens" <doug.stevens at sympatico.ca>

Bob. I would try the main ground at your motor mount before you get too
involved. i had a similar problem and changed the location (to another
mount)
and everything has been great since, 2 years.
Doug Stevens
Candy Cane
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Johns [mailto:bobjns at nais.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 1999 5:28 PM
To: alberg30 at onelist.com
Subject: Re: [alberg30] #$%&$#! Electrics


From: Bob Johns <bobjns at nais.com>

>From: "Forhan, Thomas" <Thomas.Forhan at mail.house.gov>

>. As dusk fell, I put on the running lights, and
>found that only the stern light lit up. At more or less the same time,
>complaints from down below that the cabin lights were not working.
********************
>Once we were rafted up I checked all fuses, no problems. Turned off the
>running lights, and noticed -as it got darker- that when the cabin light
>switch was on, all the running lights were on- but very, very dim. The
cabin
>lights themselves still did not work, at all.
********************
>In the morning, turned it on, and all was back to normal. Running lights
>were on when switched on, cabin lights were operating.

Tom,

Intermittents are difficult to find.

My first guess is that you have a common return for the running lights and
cabin lights. There also was some other load on when the lights were on
dimly, and this load has a separate return.

If this was the case, the problem is an intermittent connection in the
common return of the running lights and the cabin lights. The fact that
things returned to normal means that it will be difficult to find. You will
probably have to physically trace the return wire looking for a corroded
connection.

If the conditions were as I was guessing, the running lights were getting
their return through the cabin lights in series with that other load. This
caused the dim running lights. If the running lights draw less current than
the cabin lights under normal conditions they might not light up at all,
even though the running light current is running through them.

I'm doing a lot of guessing here and may be way off track, but if you have
that common return I would check that first.

When we first got our A30 I turned on the spreader lights one night and
they came on at about half normal brillance. It turned out that all of the
lights on the mast used the mast as a common return and the return wire
that was attached to the base of the mast had broken. The sneak path that
let the spreader lights lights was through the engine ground, propeller
shaft and propeller, through the salt water to a 2 square foot ground plate
(on the hull under the head area) that was attached to the port upper
shroud and then to the mast!

Good luck with the troubleshooting.

Bob Johns, Wind Call #397

PS: I also rewired our boat. Every load has its own return. If you turn on
the 25 watt light in the head, the cabin lights don't even flicker now.
They did with the common returns. I also led almost everything through
terminal boards so if I have to troubleshoot the electrical system I can
disable or crossconnect any circuits. (One night the steaming light shorted
and killed my running lights. I was not only able to remove the shorted
light from the system, but I  was able to jumper the anchor light onto the
steaming light circuit as a temporary steaming light.) The argument against
all of those terminal boards is that the extra connections could be a
source of trouble themselves.  Good luck.

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