Hi Kevin,
I just bought a 1986 19.5 foot Bayliner Capri, and am loving it. One of my first priorities is to get the navigation lights working so I can use it at night.
Here’s what I know:
- The switch at the dashboard is missing.
- The wires coming out from the front light are solid black and solid white. But I don’t see them back at the dashboard.
Assuming that I can find or pull wires, I’m guessing, based on what I have read on your site, that I need to be able to turn on just the light in back (on a pole) or just the red/green light (in front).
If I get all the wires fished through to the dashboard, I’m going to tie the grounds together to a good known ground, and then get a two-way switch that will switch power into one or both of the positive wires to the light?
Any thoughts or advice would be great.
Thanks very much.
Evan
Evan,
You will want to use a dual pole, dual throw switch to control your anchor and navigation lights. When the switch is in the navigation position, you want the red/green light and the white stern light to be on. When the switch is in the anchor position, you want only the white stern light to be on.
From the front, this will be a three position switch, ON-OFF-ON. From the rear, this switch will have six terminals. (It may have seven if there are any lights in the switch)
From the back, this switch will appear to have three rows of terminals with two terminals on each row.
From the back, here are your electrical connections
- Top row left - no connection
- Top row right - white stern light and short jumper wire
- Middle row left - 12 + power
- Middle row right - 12 + power
- Bottom row left - red/green bow light
- Bottom row right - short jumper wire that is connected to the top row right terminal
If your new switch has a 7th terminal on the top right, connect a ground wire to this to activate the lights in the switch.
Hope this helps,
Kevin
Hi Kevin-
I finally got around to wiring in the nav lights, and everything worked perfectly when I bought the switch and wired it up as you described. (Although I’d love to find the guy who mounted the fusebox in that impossible to see location…)
However, the fuse kept blowing… the ones I had handy were 2 amp and 1.5 amp (both blew). That seemed small, so I checked the owner’s manual, which didn’t specify a fuse size.
I have read that you calculate the fuse size by the load, so I’ve got the stern light bulb, the anchor light bulb and 5 small instrument lights, and the wire is 16 gauge I think, but I’m not sure of the total watt load.
Anyway, short version of the question is: what size fuse should I use?
Thanks very much for your help on this… (The boat is a 1985 bayliner capri bowrider)…
Evan
Evan,
The 2 amp may have been adequate for the navigation lights only. The instrument lights caused the fuse to blow.
You can certainly use a 5 amp fuse for your navigation light circuit. If needed, 16 AWG can easily handle 10 amps.
Glad to help,
Kevin