Nav lights?

[fishinwrench]

  On 9/1/2022 at 8:51 PM, Carl1969 said:

 

 

Side question- what is this jack? Looks kinda like a cigarette lighter or 12v outlet of some sort

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You got it 👍  phone charger, spot light, or other accessory power source.   It's unfused....so use with caution (common sense).  

It needs to be mounted facing DOWN, or at least horizontal, so as not to collect water.  And don't allow the contacts to get rusty or otherwise dirty/nasty.... because poor connections cause excess heat in the circuit. 

If you never plan to use it.....then eliminate it.  (Snip-Snip) 🙂

 

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

The center contact looks to be corroded right now.  You can try a pencil eraser to clean it up.  Theynwork great and being on top of a pencil,  you can get into narrow areas.   

[bfishn]

As rusty as the front plates on those switches are, looks like they 'been wet long time'. Not likely to look any better inside. 

Shameless plug... DeOxIt. IME the hands down best contact cleaner. You have to get it online (Parts Express), and it ain't cheap. Intended for electronics with sliding or rotary potentiometers. Works on switches too. Find a hole to spray inside the switch, then soak it and work the switch thru all positions while it's wet. About the price of a 12 pack to fix it if it works, worth a shot. OTOH, you can buy a whole switch gang pretty cheap (Ebay). You can do the whole thing for the price and effort of messing with a single.

Added... Oooops, just reread and realized you're way ahead of me. Sorry, Friday night on Labor Day weekend and all that,,,🥴

[Carl1969]

Switch quandary-

Nav light/anchor light switch as currently wired (Nav up, center off, anchor down). The middle left terminal is a double spade. Grey wires from middle terminals run to the fuse, but I have no idea whatsoever what function that blue wire serves. Currently I have forward nav lights only in the up position, nothing in the center & anchor light down.

 

 

And the new switch. Carling DPDT switch. What am I missing? Is the old switch wired correctly? And if so, what do I do about that blue wire? Just run both the blue & the gray wire into a new female connector? 

[fishinwrench]

The blue wire is for illuminated switches, or for little lights next to the switch (indicating that the switch closest to the light is ON).   

Not to confuse you with technicalities.....but the purple stripe on the RED (12v+) wire tells me that you also have a MASTER POWER switch (or should have) that powers up/down the entire switch panel.      

 

 

 

The rule is....., any wire with a stripe on it....is a wire that is only hot (or grounded) when SOMETHING activates it (switch, button, sensor, ect.) and that circuit is always fused or has a breaker associated with it.

Solid colored wires are always hot (or grounded) and often unfused.   

[Carl1969]

  On 9/13/2022 at 4:30 AM, fishinwrench said:

The blue wire is for illuminated switches, or for little lights next to the switch (indicating that the switch closest to the light is ON).   

Not to confuse you with technicalities.....but the purple stripe on the RED (12v+) wire tells me that you also have a MASTER POWER switch (or should have) that powers up/down the entire switch panel.      

The rule is....., any wire with a stripe on it....is a wire that is only hot (or grounded) when SOMETHING activates it (switch, button, sensor, ect.) and that circuit is always fused or has a breaker associated with it.

Solid colored wires are always hot (or grounded) and often unfused.   

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Hmm. No master switch, just lights, bilge pump & livewell. No other lights anwhere. Default wiring harness & the blue wire's not used in my application? '98 Lowe, if that matters. Each fuse has the red/purple running to it, with the striped grey wires running from each fuse to the switch. Based on the diagram you'd posted earlier for non-illuminated switches, it almost looks like it's wired backwards to me. I've tried looking online for Lowe wiring diagrams, but no luck.

[fishinwrench]

No surprise.   They don't have to be wired ABYC coded (and many aren't)......but it sure makes things easier when they are.  

 

https://www.boatingmag.com/abyc-color-codes-boat-wiring/ 

 

Yours is at least partially coded, as GRAY and GRAY/BLUE STRIPE is coded to running lights. 

[fshndoug]

It's a good thing you aren't colorblind 

[fishinwrench]

  On 9/13/2022 at 2:24 PM, fshndoug said:

It's a good thing you aren't colorblind 

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It sucks that you are.   

Otherwise you could make decent cornbread.

[Carl1969]

Problem solved. Figured I'd start with the simplest solution & wired the new switch exactly like the old. Turns out that blue/white & grey/blue used some kinda goofy female connector on the blue/white into the female connector on the grey/blue to connect them to the same spade. Replaced the switch & voila, nav lights are good to go. The switch still looks like it's wired "wrong" to me, in comparison with the online diagrams, but my lights are fixed & that's all that matters.

Thanks, guys. I feel silly asking stupid questions, but electrical crap is my kryptonite & to me, jerry-rigged solutions on a boat are an even bigger no-go than on a motorcycle.