All I wanted was working bilge pumps

[Shrek]

So the missus and I go for a sundown booze cruise last Thursday night after work. The weather was perfect and the lake was pretty calm. Beautiful sunset.


and then I notice that the bilge pumps are not working.:head:

It's not like there was a lot of water in the boat or like we were leaking, but no bilge pump is never a good thing. Problem is the 22 year old harness is crap. Every time a crimped on end fell off, the PO just ran a red wire to the broken circuit, stripped about 3 inches of wire, and wrapped it around the batter post before "securing" it with the wingnut...stupid PO is a wingnut.

So on a beautiful Saturday morning, I sat in my super awesome boat ... in my driveway ... and started to unravel the bird nest of wire. I traced every wire and was able to eliminate most of the extraneous stuff and the broken stuff and pulled a few new wires, bought an updated fuse block and breakers, and started to wire everything back in. Started with the positive side of the battery switch. I was able to reuse the original main power leads so I crimped on the good 3M rings and shrink tubed them with a bit of dielectric grease and as I was doing the ground, I felt the black wire give a bit more than it should. :cen:

The black wire was broken under the deck, half way between the transom and console. :cen::cen::cen:

So I tore every wire out of the boat and started from scratch. I'm most of the way done now. About to go home and wire in the bait well and the :cen: bilge pumps, and then tidy up my new harness. No pictures because I probably would have hurled the camera at the neighbor kids or something else antisocial. I guess I must like this boat because I swore I was done working on boats

[reelapeelin]

Hope you and the missus enjoyed the cruise...wish I had a boat to rewire...oh well...one day...

[tsubaki]

Wife has almost stopped asking me to fix stuff.
Boats are like a pool, house, car, etc.
The more you dig and get into it the more you find. Ain't nothin' simple.
Gotta treat it like a marriage.
It's all or nothing!


At least this theory seems to keep her on her toes.

[phatdaddy]

hey, at least you know its right from now on, better find out now than when you really really need a bilge pump. the absolute 2 worst things about boating is wiring & trailers. posi-lube torsion axels, and aluminum I beams have taken care the trailer issues and tinned wire & heat shrink have helped the other.

[RidgeRunner]

I agree with Phat on that one.
I went overboard on my re-wiring of the Wellcraft. I ran duplex wire to everything except the wires in the t-top. The wires were glassed into the backside of the liner when it was upside down. Bilge pumps got the fancy 3-wire 14 ga for the auto switches, if the batteries are hooked up, they are ON, everything else is on breakers, color coded and everything terminates to distribution blocks. Just about anything 12V can be powered from the transom of the V, I ran 1/0 Marine Tinned Wire from the console to the transom. Now, I need a new switchplate, I have run out of switches, how deep do you go? Sometimes you just got to step up, sometimes you need to step back. (Not with bilge pumps) Anyone that owns a boat had better get used to the idea of having a project every now and then. If you are done working on it, may as well sell it. Modify or Die.:you:

[bradford]

"Nothing works on an old boat except it's owner."

"No such thing as a FREE boat"

[Shrek]

RidgeRunner, I did a similar thing. I ran 8 gauge to power the new fuse block (in console) with a 30 amp breaker 4 inches from the battery switch (on transom) for both the fuse block and the jack plate. Then everything got safety wire, duplex, triplex, or quadplex, depending on the application. Rather than color code, I used a sharpie to label the jackets on the safety wire; I did color code from the fuse block to each switch however.

I'm now in the process of hooking everything up and tidying up the harness and looming everything, then securing it to the boat. Tonight I wrapped up the back of the boat. Bilge pumps, float switch, bait well inlet and circulation/drain pumps, Faria fuel flow transducer, speaker wires, stern light, wash-down pumps all wired, shrinked, loomed, and secured to the boat.

Tomorrow, I have to hook up the macerator pump for the forward fish-box, the courtesy lights in the console, bow light, and if I have time, I'll install the Faria fuel flow meter and the new Mercury oil pressure and water temp gauges, rewire the fuel gauge, and install the new to me Navman chartplotter.

If I get that done, then Friday night will just be looming and tidying up and putting the console back together. Then shake down and testing for numbers for a reprop with the jack plate installed.

[smkinnan]

yeash, we ended re-wiring everything as well. Once I got started it wasn't so bad. Ran all new battery cables. I feel lots better now knowing that everything is fresh. It's amazing what ONE bad wire can do to mess up your day. The other thing is, in relative terms, wiring is much cheaper then most other things in the boat.

[RidgeRunner]

Shrek you got game. SMKINAN I agree about the cost, plus it is something that anyone can do, if they choose to take the time.

[Shrek]

So after last nights grind, I only have to wire in the chartplotter and the courtesy lights and shrink, loom, and secure my new wiring harness. I'm so glad this is almost over. I'm looking forward to running the snot out of this old girl this weekend, get the numbers for the new prop, and catching some specs and redfish. I've only put a few specs in the boat since I've had it, so I'm averaging about $2,000 per pound for fish right now. I'm fixing to drop that average this weekend.

[Stinky_Hooker]

... seems to keep her on her toes.


Will need pics of said toes as proof. :sly:

[Shrek]

Happy to say job done. I rewired the trailer while I was at it. I don't want to see another piece of shrink wrap for a really long time. I'm going to go shake her down tomorrow and she how she does with the new jack plate.

I may launch the boat without the plug in so that I can run the snot out of the bilge pumps.