Battery Wires - battery wires?

N

night moves

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Before I start taking things apart! I removed my batteries for the winter, now can't remember what goes where. I thought I would ask - why do I have two extra black cables to my batteries? They are just as thick as the ground cables to each engine. They seem to head for my power panel and if so would they be ground wires for the panel?

Thanks!
 
Yes, the probably are ground wires for the panel. Basically, yuo shoudl have a positive (red) and ground (black) form your engines, and your DC panelhouse loads to a battery. Also all batteries grounds should be tied together for a common ground. You usually will have several connections on a battery.

Read or search for other electrical threads or look at teh sticky in this forum about checking for electrical issues.
 
Yes, your right about the common ground. I have a ground wire from each engine and they are connected together. I think I have a positive from the battery switch to the panel, but maybe two grounds from the panel to the batteries(?) I wouldn't think Carver would run a black wire for the positive to the panel. I check the other forum. My DC panel is a little involved to get open.

Thanks!
 
OK, from the battery switch you shoud have two positives. One goes to the panel, the other to the battery. On DC power you install the switch on the positive line, so no negative lines shoudl some fomr the switches.

It is possible to have a black wire be ground. Apparently the rules allow for it but the wire has to be clearly marked as a positive wire. I had one on my boat and went ahead and replaced it to avoid confusion.

I woud label each wire once you have it figured out. Also when I pull batteries, I use a zip tie to keep the positive and negative leads together for easy assembly later.
 
Cant you just do an OHM check from the 2 black wires to the engine block???
Wouldnt this prove they are grounded??
 
Cant you just do an OHM check from the 2 black wires to the engine block???
Wouldnt this prove they are grounded??
 
Thanks Guys! I just bought this boat last year so I'm not sure about every thing yet. I tried the ohm meter and every thing ohmed out even the positive cables to the switch with the switch off(?) One of those black cables does have a little red paint on the connector. If that's a positive lead then Carver must have got a buy on black cable. LIke gardnersf stated there must be a cable from the B-switch to the panel. In fact if you switch from battery 1 or 2, there maybe two cables to the panel(?) Then two grounds, one for each battery. "boy I wish I had a wiring diagram". I need to open the panel in order to know for sure. Its behind glass panels that need to be removed first. "O well"
 
I 'm not sure what year your boat is, but if you didn't buy it new, there has been ample time from someone else to screw up the wiring.

How many batteries do you have, how many engines? Do you have a separate house bank?
 
Ok, the boat is a 1990 and the wires go like this.
At the Batteries (2)
I have 4 black cables: one from each engine(2) & two from (??)
I have 2 red cables one from each battery that go to the switch.
My two engine grounds are bridged at the engines with a jumper wire across.

Tomorrow I going to see if I have at least one red cable from the switch to the panel, if so it should need a ground. But I think I'm just going to open the panel and see. I'll let you know what I find.
 
" And the Answer is"

Ground wires to the panel! In fact both of the wires go to one ground lug at the panel. It must have to ground each battery to the panel directly. So I hooked them up and switched on the battery switch and... Every thing worked.
 
Excellent, It's good to know. I would label the wires now that they are connected properly.
 
While you are in there with the wire ties, you might label all of the wires with a paint pen.

I looked at a boat this weekend that I may purchase and found that most regular maintanance parts were clearly lableled with a paint pen. I had never seen that before, but it sure was useful to see the battery cables labeled so you couldn't mix them up, hoses labeled with direction of flow, what type of fluid they carried (FW, SW, Fuel, Sewage, H20), and the date they were last changed, engine risers labeled with last replacement date, zinc pencil marked with installation date, etc.
 
It's common to have four wires. There's one wire to each engine, one to the panel and another to a combiner switch. This lets you bridge the batteries together temporarily for extra starting amps (usually because one or the other battery has gotten too low).

While heat shrink wrap works great for labeling wires. Trick is write on it FIRST, then shrink it to the wire. But that'll only work if the wrap is wide enough to get over the connector, it usually is for spade/lug connectors. Otherwise some white or other light colored electrical tape and a sharpie work. Marking them with last date is one idea, keeping an accurate service log is another; both work.
 
That's nice having every thing labeled! It's hard to guess what the other guy did. The paint pen is a good idea or just plain paint on the wires. Use touchup car paints with the little brush, I did that on my son's tools when he went to school.
 
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