1974 Rewire
 

Well I dove off into the electrical a little today, just to see what I was up against.. and it looks like it's going to be a project all in itself. I'm pretty sure that it has the original wiring still in it, since it's embedded in the fiberglass..

I've looked over a couple of the wiring diagrams to try to get everything straight in my mind.. but can't find anything that matches. I may be crazy, but it looks like the White wire is the ground...

White ?? (Only common color on all the fixtures, and it's split 3 ways behind the seat, so it makes me think it connects to everything.
Blue (Cabin Lights)
Red (Running Lights)
Black ?? (doesn't seem to go to anything...)

Anybody got any ideas or links I can research? Starting to look like it may be easier just to pull some new wires...

Thanks
Paul

How's this?

C22 Electrical Schematics

Here's the rest of the search results:

http://www.google.ca/#sclient=psy-ab...w=1696&bih=847

Closest I'd say is that white is the neutral/return in AC wiring, and sometimes in a 2-wire setup that would be the "ground". Maybe an AC electrician did your boat?

If you're not going to save much of the old wiring, why not just pick a new scheme, standard that makes sense to you, and go with it? There are standards and standards, a lot depends on how complicated you need to get and how many spools of colors you are willing to buy.

In industrial DC ccts white is positive and black is negative. In AC black is hot and white neutral. Plenty of confusion out there when electricians wire DC.

For 12Vdc I'd stick with white positive and black negative/common/ground

Not sure about who wired it. It really looks like it's original. Just never seen schematics with those colors. Will def have to rewire, most of the wire in it is corroded and won't work anyways, unless there is a break in the wire I'm just not seeing.

Probably will be easier just to start from scratch and use some colors that make sense. Adding a mast/deck light and radio anyways, so whats another couple of wires...

I'm a fossil. ergh, traditionalist. I like red and black for DC wiring, although I appreciate the reason for using red and yellow so that black can't be confused with AC hot. But unless you are mail ordering, odds are at least one color that you want, won't be in stock. Put your order in well before you plan to use it.

I'm with you on that one. I'm not an electrician by any stretch of the imagination. But I can do 12v. I'm used to black or black stripe being ground, and whatever other color being the positive side. I'll post some pics of the redo.

I was really just curious if this color pattern that i have in there now was posted anywhere else. I had never seen the schematics colored that way.

Back then even American cars came with whatever color wire was in stock. Literally, if they ran out of the right color, they grabbed the next spool and kept the produciton line going. So I wouldn't be surprised if some boat builder had the same idea: Keep it moving, just use four different colors.

Ha, that's exactly what I was thinking happened. Going to be easier to rewire totally and scrap the original I'm afraid. Already picked up the new wire.. just got to find some free time now. Story of my life.

Hope it's red + and black - so the next guy can figure it out.