House and Starter battery hookup

[gmenrule]

Newbie to crusing boats. Been a lightning sailor for years but there's a "lot" more stuff on these big boats. I have a San Juan 28 that I just picked up yesterday. Batteries were dead so I have 2 New. The house battery was not hooked up so I'm a bit Puzzled as to how to do this properly.

I have a switch inside the cabin allowing for Bat 1, Bat 2 or All. There is a red Wire that leads directly from the switch to the starter on the engine. There is another Red coming off the switch that I have connected to the starter battery. The Black connection on this battery goes to a ground point on the engine block. Hooked those up to the starter batttery and the engine (Atomic 4 gas) fired and ran. Now I have another set of cables Red/black for the house battery, but am unsure as to how to wire these in with the other battery. Do these jump to the starter battery or switch or a combo?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[capn_dave]

There should be three terminals on the battery selector switch. The markings are usually 1,2 and C. I and 2 go to the batteries. It really won't matter which battery goes to which terminal 1 or 2, and these sould have the red wire (positive) from the battery attached. The black wires go to the ground bus. Which in this case is the engine block. The C terminal goes to to your power bus. A bus is a bar of metal which combines the inputs. This can be your starter or an actual bar might be found in the electrical panel etc.
This info is very general and could differ with your boats wiring. Without actually looking at your system this is an educated guess.

Fair Winds

Cap'n Dave

[gmenrule]

Bus Bar - Hmmmmmmm, there was also a weird looking metal bracket down in the battery compartment. 2 pieces of chromed stainless welded perpendicular to each other and bent to almost look like a basket with the ends also bent and holes drilled in these ends almost like they were supposed to attach to something.

and thks - info was very helpful. So it sounds like both reds come off the switch and blacks go to ground. Can I safely jump from ground of 1 battery to the other then to engine ground?

Thanks Cap,n Dave

[DeepFrz]

gmenrule;
Take a look at the blue sea catalog. The first sections have information on the DC system.
http://www.bluesea.com/sections.asp

hth, Deep

[Irwin32]

Wires confuse me so no advice on this from me. On your A4, if no one has told you, get familiar with Moyer Marine. Do a search and find them on the web. The A4 is a fine engine, but it does need attention from time to time.

[gmenrule]

ok - my Perko switch did have a terminal 1, terminal 2 and common. Hooked everything up per cap'n dave and it seemed to go pretty well, Except..............

I have a wire that leads off to an electrical panel. Basically a panel to cut on and off various house items. Running lights, cabin lights, etc. My assumption is that his terminal should go on the same switch terminal as teh house battery. Would this be correct?

Thanks

[capn_dave]

Sorry I did not get back to you sooner. I have been on a delevery and we dicided to spend the night in a marina and head out early tomorrow to beat the storm.

The wire from your electrical panel also goes to the C terminal. What you end up doing is selecting which battery bank to run your boat from. Also I have provided a link to show you the bus bar. What you describe could be a bus bar, but I dont think so. I would have to see it.

Fair Winds

Cap'n Dave http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...ingsystems.htm

[capn_dave]

While I was at it I found this also. If I can be of anymore help please let me know.

Good Luck and Fair Winds

Cap'n Dave

www.yandina.com/acrobats/C70Manual.pdf