Hylas 44 electrical short help

[sanjuan24racer]

I've been trying to track down a 12v short in our 1986 Hylas 44. The galley and cabinet lights have no power, we've isolated the panel area to be ok. The problem is the wires lead down from each fixture into the starboard side hull. I'm hoping someone has a diagram or is familiar with where these wires join together.

Thanks, Steve SV Wiki Wiki SJ24

[mike dryver]

why don't just get a-hold of Hylas and ask for wiring schematic

[sanjuan24racer]

I've sent them an email. Hope to hear something soon thanks.

[St Anna]

I would probably suggest you have to trace it and then to send a new wire from the switch board to the buzz bar/s for the main cabin. Wiring can and will corrode within their insulation and this needs to be replaced. It may have been altered in the 25 years since the boat was built.

With respect to boats, I have found it is best to replace things like wiring with new, rather than let old stuff evolve. You will get to know your boat and know what to fix when next it becomes a drama.

Good luck with it. Great boat by the way.

[GaryHLucas]

Steve,
If you have no power and a fuse or breaker is not blowing then you don't have a short, you have an open circuit. The positive or the negative wire can be open. All you need to troubleshoot this is a $10 voltmeter. I'd get a piece of wire and hook it directly to the main ground bar, and connect one lead of the voltmeter to it. Then I'd use the other lead to go looking for positive voltage at the affected light fixtures. A voltmeter is extremely sensitive compared to a light bulb. So if you find a plus voltage at a fixture that isn't working you have probably found a poor connection. Test at each fixture, if they are wired in series you will probably find a bad connection at one of them. You will also want to test the ground side of the fixtures as well, by connecting the wire and meter to the plus terminal on battery.

Gary H. Lucas

[scottyt]

okay here is a trick for finding a short

wire a lightbulb ( 12 volt in this case) in line with the fuse, and i mean in series. what this does is it stops it from blowing the fuse as soon as you turn it on. then start tracing and disconnecting the circuit. start in the middle and if the bulb goes from full brightness to dim the problem is in the second half of the circuit, if it stays bright it is in the first half. keep deviding the circuit in half until you find the problem.

this stops you from blowing 20 fuses, and speeds up the search, as it is no longer trial and error.

goodluck

[LakeSuperiorGeezer]

Consider a wire tracker kit sometimes also called a wire tracer kit. These consist of a radio signal generator you clip to the wire you are trying to trace which sends a radio signal down that wire . You then take a radio receiver that is also part of the kit and move along the various wires following the wire that contains the transmitted signal. The signal ends where the problem is. Sometimes a wire splits into several so you have to follow more than one, but most likely in your situation, there is only one wire.

Also consider the return ground wire. Since a fiberglass boat does not conduct electricity, a wire has to be run back to the panel to complete the electrical circuit. My assumption is the Hylas 44 is not a steel hull boat.

[sanjuan24racer]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I know how to trouble shoot and have found all grounds are fine and no hot lead to the fixtures. They are ran in parallel so I'm looking to hopefully find a block terminal where the main run supply branches out to all the lights, if the builders were consistant the wiring in the boat is grouped off terminal blocks so there must be one hidden somewhere, its been hard to trace these wires with all the joinery work in the interior.

[LakeSuperiorGeezer]

With a wire tracer, you can detect the radio signal through wood and fiberglass

[GaryHLucas]

I was just thinking the same thing, a tone tracer would make this a snap.

Gary H. Lucas