On 6/9/2012 3:25 PM, David Stanigar wrote:
I'm new to Power Boating and do not currently own a boat. However, I do
go fishing quite frequently on a Buddy's 28 MAKO. Recently he asked me
to assist him in checking his bilge pumps to see is they were working
while on a rack at the Marina. I found that one of the bilge cables had
corroded off the battery terminal. I'm fairly mechanically inclined but
no electrician although I can do basic things like splicing wires and
heat shrinking connections etc. which I did that day.Unfortunately, when
I went to reconnect the battery I inadvertently reverse connected the
battery by putting the white cable with the black cable instead of with
the red cable. As we were testing the bilge, as soon as the bilge kicked
on smoke started coming from a length of plenum on the opposite side of
the boat above the other two batteries. We were able to disconnect the
incorrect polarity very quickly thereby avoiding disaster. That was
quite a sobering experience let me tell you! I recommended my Buddy get
a real electrician to check things out. However, being a 23 year old
boat I think he's reluctant to spend much on an electrician and ask if
Id help him again. I am inclined to think that the entire length of
plenum should be replaced rather than splicing out the portion that
burned. I'm hoping that someone on this site can give some real guidance
here. How should we approach ensuring that the electrical cable in
question does not have more "hot spots"? Am I correct that the entire
cable should be replaced. From what I saw it runs to the cockpit and is
a main circuit. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.





Well, I am one of the lesser expeienced guys here so I would go with
replace the whole thing, and tell the guy it doesn't matter how frekin'
old it is. If it's a boat, and you want to use it as a boat, fix the
frekin' thing like it's gonna' be the only thing between you and the water