Mystery Battery Connection

[nigel]

On my '98 270DA the port engine battery has two cables (one each of +ve and -ve) in addition to the main power cables and battery charger (+ve) cable.

Anyone know what these extra cables are for? - I'm trying to trace everything to get to the bottom of an inconsistent battery discharge problem.

The boat has twin 4.3 Alphas and mercathodes... All the stuff connected through the main breaker panel appears to run off one of the starboard batteries.

By the way - anyone know how much current each mercathode unit would use in fresh water?

Thanks in advance for any help...

Nige.

 

[capz]

It's something that needs continuous power even with battery switches off. Basically bilge pumps, mercathode, stereo memory, and I believe CO monitor. Do you have the owners manual supplements? There's a decent wiring diagram in the Specific Information sheet.