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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Shambala Update + two questions *PIC*
Posted By: JohnV8r
Date: Saturday, 7 January 2006, at 1:40 a.m.
I was down on Shambala today trying to unravel the dead bilge pump wire mystery. I looked all over for the cartridge fuses on the bulkhead, but there were none. So, I tried working it from the other end by tracing the reddish orange wire back from the toggle switches. After a lot of contorting, I actually found the wires. What they led to was AMAZING. A previous owner had decided to rewire to eliminate the cartridge fuses by replacing them with 30 amp "AWG" style fuses...and used AUTOMOTIVE style fuse connectors wrapped in black electrical tape. These are the ones where the body is white and you push one end in and twist to get it to lock into place. I couldn't believe it when I realized what had been done. When I pealed back the black electrical tape on each connection, I found extremely corroded and rusted connector parts. It was a miracle that these had worked at all.
They were replaced with marine grade waterproof connectors and the hotwire immediately had power again. Unbelieveable to me that someone would be stupid enough to risk a Bertram 31 by using automotive style connections TO THE BILGE PUMPS.
Question #1: I have purchased another Rule 2000 bilge pump and Rule-A-Matic float switch that I will install in the v-berth bilge area. I have a question about the safest way to wire the bilge pump. Option 1 would be to use heat shrink butt connectors to connect the pump, float switch, ground, and hot wires. Yes, I will put a fuse in the positive wire near the battery. Option 2 would be to mount one of the rib insulated connector strips on the bulk head and connect everything up with ringed terminal connectors. What's the better choice?
Question #2: I'm beginning to suffer from "sometimers" (you know...sometimes I can remember things and sometimes I can't). Today when I rewired the forward bilge pump toggle switch, I was able to remember exactly how it was wired. Black/violet/white wire went on one side of the toggle; violet/white wire went in the other; reddish-orange hotwire in the middle. Same for the transom toggle except the hotwire was jumped from the forward bilge switch(which I left disabled until I can run a wire that will eliminate the jumper wire from one toggle to the other). The problem is there is an all white wire that I absolutely cannot remember where to put. The all white wire on the connector strip down in the bilge is the ground (and the ground in the bilge IS grounded and the circuit IS working). Where in the world does this white wire go? It's the wire on the far right in the photo below. Somebody please tell me before I go completely insane.
Thanks in advance.
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