Kevin,

I need to change out the pump on my shower sump. I will need your help to rewire it.

The pump has two wires. What is the best way to stop the power to the pump? I do not see any breakers,fuses etc.

Thank you for any help.

Dan

Hi Dan,

If you cannot find the breaker, go back to boat wiring basics and disconnect the battery.

Kevin

Kevin

Thank you for your reply and patience.

This is my first cruiser. I have two “house” batteries and one for the motors. If I disconnect their grounds will I screw up any of the marine electrical system when I reconnect and need to reset any systems? (i.e.. motors,generator,computers,gps etc)

Dan

Hi Dan,

The pump runs on 12 volt DC and there is no real danger if you short out the wires.

Make the connection one wire at a time. The worst thing that will happen is you find out where the shower sump circuit protection is.

Kevin

Kevin,

We have three AFI wiper motors on our boat wiring. We have three switches and three fuses for the motors but they are all connected to the same circuit breaker.

Two of the wipers do not work at all and the third will come on sometimes but won’t stay on. The circuit breaker light stays on and the fuses are not burned out.

Are the motors getting the right amperage or any idea of what the problem might be?

Maureen

Hi Maureen,

Each wiper motor will three wires: Ground, On, and Park. If you are missing any of these wires, your wiper will not function properly.

1. I would inspect the wiper motor grounds first. This is the only wire that all three motors have in common. The metal case AFI wiper motors are grounded to one of the motor housing bolts. The plastic case AFI motors have an internal ground.
2. Next, check for constant 12v power to the park terminal on each wiper motor.
3. Finally, check for switched 12v power to the On termianl on each wiper motor.

If all the wiring is correct, then you wiper motors may be dead. Before replacing, I would do one last bench test with separate leads to the wiper motor.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Hello Kevin,

My marine electrical system currently includes one maintenance free starting battery (Group 24) and one AGM maintenance free deep cycle battery (also Group 24). I have the Guest 2611A battery charger attached to these two batteries for charging at the dock.

I was considering putting in a second deep cycle battery to provide more accessory time while out on the water and my plan would be to configure the boat wiring to connect it to the other deep cycle battery ‘in parallel’.

Would my 2611A charger be capable to charging these three batteries?

Thank-you
John

Hi John,

YES, but it will take a very long time to completely recharge.

The 2611 only puts out five amps max on each leg. Two dead batteries connected to one of the legs will take close to 2 days to recharge. Guest makes excellent products, but you may want to consider one of their larger units for your marine electrical system.

Kevin

Kevin,

Thank you for your response.

Generally when our charger is on it has a couple of days between uses so I’m not as concerned about the time it would take to recharge. And I would think that making the 5-6 mile run back to the marina with the Switch in the “All” setting would give the batteries a bit of a charge from the alternator as well.

I just wanted to make sure there were no safety issues. So if I put a third battery (a deep cycle) in the boat and connect its positive to the other deep cycle’s positive with a jumper and similarly connect up their negative terminals – when I put the switch on “2” the accessories would pull from both deep cycles and, in theory, I would get more accessory time?

I guess I just want to see if I can get by with my current switch and charger or do I need a more robust switch and charger to have three batteries.

Thanks again (and I will make a contribution via PayPal)

John

Hi John,

Adding a third battery in parallel to your second is a very common boat wiring practice.

When you do this, make sure that you use cables that are at least as large as the largest cables that are currently used on the battery switch system.

Kevin

Kevin,

Thanks again.

I was hoping to get the cables this week and won’t have access to the boat before then so I may have to guess. Do you think four AWG would be safe for a basic speedboat (24’ Malibu Wakesetter)?

John

John,

It’s really funny that you should ask that!

I’m just finishing a downloadable Battery Cable Calculator. I’ll post it in the next day or two for all of our readers.

Kevin