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Rewiring My 1963 Eastport
Jaspell	#1  Posted on 06/15/08 - 8:43 PM
Member Posts: 2 Comments: 0 Joined: 06/15/08	From reading these posts I sort of have a sense of what I need to do, but if anyone has any pointers I would appreciate it. The boat presently has two toggle switches on the panel. 1 turns on the nav lights and the other appears to power a terminal strip under the console. The bow and stern light appear to be wired from a terminal strip mounted on the transom. One of those toggles appears to send the power to that terminal strip. It is a very odd set up and does not work at all right now. What I want to do is run a hot and ground from the battery throught the tunnel and up into a fuse block which I will mount under the console. From there I can wire my electronics. The part I'm not sure about is the nav lights. Do I then make a run back to the stern from my new fuse block to that terminal strip (which I plan to replace with new) and just leave the wiring to those lights as it is? My other question is how does my switch panel relate to my new fuse block. Any help would be appreciated. Jim
Joe Kriz	#2  Posted on 06/15/08 - 10:06 PM
Site Owner Personal Page Personal Album Photo Albums Project Albums Posts: 11434 Comments: 452 Joined: 03/18/05	Hi Jaspell and welcome to WhalerCentral. It seems you already have power to the console. Why do you want to run another set of wires for more power? Typically, one pair of wires (ground and power) is run from the battery to the console to provide power for all your electronics and other devices including lights. It is nice to have a circuit breaker on the power wire which can be switched off if needed and protects the system from shorts or overloads. From there the wires go to a fuse/buss bar under the console. Everything is then wired to the fuse/buss bar for ground and power and fused if needed. Your light switch would get power from the fuse/buss bar and the power wire from the light switch would run to the tunnel to your stern light (also connects to the bow light in the junction block if you have one back there). You can get the ground for the lights from the fuse/buss bar and run it back with the power wire from the switch. This is fairly typical. There are other places you can get the ground from like directly from the battery but the above is typical. It makes a fairly neat and straight forward wiring scheme.
kamie	#3  Posted on 06/16/08 - 7:00 AM
Member Personal Page Project Albums Posts: 2975 Comments: 3 Joined: 11/04/05	Jim, First, welcome to Whaler Central! Do you have photo's of your setup or a diagram of how the wires are run? Are the two toggle switches only switches or are they breakers as well? When you say it doesn't work, what part 1. Getting power to the lights 2. Getting power to the terminal block under the console? 3. switches? 4. All of the above? My simplified wiring for the 18 10 gauge wire from the battery to the dash mounted circuit breaker 10 gauge from the circuit breaker to fuse panel 16/14 gauge wire from fuse panel to electronics 16 gauge wire to push pull switch and then out to lights. Edited by kamie on 06/16/08 - 7:01 AM
Davidk	#4  Posted on 06/16/08 - 1:22 PM
Member Posts: 196 Comments: 1 Joined: 12/05/07	I just finished wiring my Nauset. I ran a power and a ground wire from the battery to a fuse block under the console, then from the fuse block up to the light switch, and then from the light switch back to the transom to the aft & bow light connection. Of course, one of the wires from the fuse block (negative for me) goes directly to the lights (not through the switch).
MW	#5  Posted on 06/18/08 - 2:29 PM
Member Personal Page Posts: 1827 Comments: 10 Joined: 01/08/06	I just ran (fuse protected) power to the bow, and stern light ( 1 two position switch), then just grounded ea. to the (-) battery terminal for both lights, easier and less wire to run. switch: #1 position is "Stern" light "ON" only #2 Position is "Stern & Bow" light both "ON" I prefer to "solder" all connections, then coat with "Liquid Lectric tape" let dry, then cover with "Heat shrink tubing", and paint end's again w/ "Lectric tape", ya just buying "Time", corrosion eventually will get you, especially around salt water. mw
Jaspell	#6  Posted on 06/18/08 - 2:45 PM
Member Posts: 2 Comments: 0 Joined: 06/15/08	My set up is exactly as Joe describes with a fuse buss bar under the console and a terminal block at the stern. Is their any sense in swapping out the fuse buss bar with the fuse block (I was looking at the Bluesea). I am assuming they are basically identical in function? I also wanted to update those two toggle switches with a nicer 5 or 6 switch panel. The terminal block at the stern is basically shot and is hanging off. Jim
CapnJs	#7  Posted on 06/18/08 - 5:40 PM
Member Personal Page Posts: 135 Comments: 0 Joined: 04/21/07	I just rewired my Montauk and posted some photos and a rough diagram on my personal page. I replaced the fuses and a bus bar under the old wood panels with a Blue Seas fuse box. Then I added a positive bus bar for the instrument lighting running to the instrument switch. I left the terminal block on the stern (after cleaning it up) to connect the power and ground wires that come from the console to the stern all around light; then the power and ground run to the bow light through the rub rail. As Joe said usually there is a pair of wires running from the battery to the console. My positive wire runs from the battery, through a circuit breaker at the stern then with the ground wire through the tunnel to the Blue Seas fuse box. It was easy to get power and ground from the Blue Seas fuse box mounted in the console. I was all ready to solder all of the connections but found a couple of articles somewhere (I read too much) that indicated that the marine standard is crimped connectors. So all of my connections are crimped and almost all are shrink wrapped. I hope that's correct because I don't want to go back and do it again. I confirmed the information on wiring the two position nav light switch from a Whaler Central article "how to wire the international navigation light switch" written by Joe. Here's the article: http://www.whalercentral.com/readarti...icle_id=51 Jack (et. al.) Edited by CapnJs on 06/19/08 - 3:22 AM
dburr	#8  Posted on 06/18/08 - 9:39 PM
Member Personal Page Posts: 15 Comments: 0 Joined: 06/15/08	Jack, There is an article in latest "Practical Sailor" about marine wiring, only thing they are nuts about sealing things back up. They say crimping is fine, and environmental heat shrink is a must to seal the wire back up, just make sure the wire ends that stick out through the crimp get covered.. Regards, Dave