Electrical Short???

[dcogaming]

Hi everyone I have a 1987 340 Sundancer. I have been doing a total resto on her. I now have her in the water and all battery powered systems seem to be operating perfectly. What I am finding though is I am unable to plug in my shore power without popping the breaker on the dock. I have purchased a new Marinco cord along with a new AY splitter. When I look at the breaker panel below deck I notice that the polarity lights are not registering at all (neither reversed or normal). My AC voltmeter is showing 120-150 (when it will stay on). Initially I was able to at least turn on the AC/Main and even get the charger/converter on with the outlets sometimes. Now as soon as I turn on the AC/Main the the docks main breaker pops. I have tried plugging in to other plugs at the dock on different breakers and still get the same response. This has become a real pain since I cannot leave any of my dc circuits on without worrying I will have dead batteries in a day or 2 without the charger. :smt089:smt100:huh::smt101

 

[Old Vet]

If those breakers are immediately popping I'd say something is certainly going to ground. I would think it's time to make sure the boat is unplugged and start doing continuity checks with your ohm meter on every circuit to track down the culprit.

Good luck.

 

[Mike Blake]

I would first check the inlet fitting on the boat. Either take it off or if you can pull the panel down and look in there.

 

[dcogaming]

First I want to say thank you to those who gave me some good advice!!! Then I want to tell you about my doh moment when I solved the problem. Well I took my good ole multi-meter and began a continuity test. I hunded and eventually found a couple of corroded and lose grounds. I tried the breaker and pop off it goes. Hmmmm...well I am not sure how many of you are familiar with the horrible arrangement See Ray did in deck design in the late 80's, they put the rear seat across 3 of the 4 engine/bilge covers, you need to take the whole back seat out and manuever it around like playing Tetris to access the covers. Well long story short I finally got the covers opened and noticed some moron (me) forgot to connect the neutral (green) wire on the charger/converter, DOH:smt021. Now I am sure you are wondering why I had this disconnected, well for those who may remember I own the boat that was stranded at the Peace Bridge in Lake Erie back in 2010. The restoration is finally complete and I am just working out electrical bugs here and there. I will post some pictures of the finished product if anyone is interested in seeing. Just let me know.

Thanks again everyone as always the CSR community is the best for anything and everything Sea Ray!!!