Electricians or wiring experts

I just replaced the base of my anchor light in the rear of the boat and the anchor light did not turn on. I know I am getting power because the two wire touched and I blew a fuse. So I went an bought another light. Still did not work. So I took the small light in the front and plugged it into the rear slot……Guess what it worked like a charm…….What am I doing wrong Its making me nuts….

The long lights that will not work in my boat were tested at a dealership and worked just fine, they are in the slot as tight as they will go. I jiggled them around…..Any thoughts

Hey Tom, I do house wiring, wire my boat when its needed etc. and do you have a test light, thier about $5 to $10 bucks and buy a cheap one if you need one, you don’t need an expensive one. First Is the base attached to your boat your using to hold the tube grounded? The two wires that are coming from the bottom of the tube are they both hot wires or are they a ground and a hot wire? The way to tell is does the bulb have two light filaments in it or just one. If the bulb has two filaments both wires are hot and the tube is the ground, if the bulb has one filament then one wire is a ground and the other a hotwire. First take the tube with the two wires coming out of it and if thier not long enough to reach both terminals on your battery then put on a 6″ extension on them and touch them both to your posts on your battery. It will light up. If it dosent then eigther the bulb is bad and looks good or the contacts at the bottom, there will be one or two contacts at the bottom of the bulbholder are out of elighnment. If your shure that the contacts in the bulb holder are in line with the contacts on the bottom of the bulb then it will lite when touched to the battery posts. Next if it does lite up then put it in the rod holder and touch the two wires hot and ground to the two wires you are using to run this light and it should light. If theres two filaments in the bulb then twist both of them together and wrap a wire around the tube and touch the twisted wires to one post and the wire thats wrapped around the tube to the other post, it should light up. If it does then theres two hot wires in the tube and the tube is the ground. Is the base of the rod holder anchored to wood or fibreglass? If it is your base that holds the rod needs to be grounded to the negative on the battery. Check for current flow in the bulb holder where the contact of the bulb meets with the contact of the bulb holder. Take the little aligator clip on the tester and ground it to a wire coming from the negative of the battery. Take the other end and touch it to the contact inside the bulb holder and the test light will light if theres power. Check your wiring to see if everythings grounded like it should be and the connections are right for the power wires. Send me a message and i’ll help you solve the problem. Later

mossydan,

Thanks for the reply . I will head to Home Depot and pick up a test light. At least I will have something to do on a nice afternoon.

Why did you replace the base?

From your description, if I were a betting man…I would say that the pins aren’t making contact to your anchor light pole.
Did you replace the base with the exact same base?
Are the pins shorter than the originals? Thinner or thicker?

You would think they would all be standard…but they’re not.

I would focus on the base connection to the anchor light pole…for some reason power isn’t getting up to the light and since that’s the area you changed…it would be a good bet that’s where the problem is.

Brian,

I think you nailed it. I spoke to the dealer and he seemed to think your idea is right on. Anyway the boat is still under warranty so they can mess with it.

Thanks againg for your help…..I knew someone on IDA would have the answer.

Under Warrenty!

I forgot to ask that question! But I know what you were thinking…it’s just a little thing…I’ll avoid the hassle of bringing it in…

Been there…done that…glad it’s working out for ya…and a great time of year to have warrenty work done on a boat!

Hey brian, we found out that the lights arent standard they may look it but are not lol
that was quite a night of mishaps

later,

Cattin_Addict

gloves? we dont need no stinkin gloves!!!

CA and I were fishing the Redwing area when we realize his lights where in Anoka. It was getting dark and we had just been “screwing around” most of the afternoon… looking for new spots and seeing how little of water a River Pro can actually go through…(let me tell you, they don’t need much…but they do need SOME!)

To save the night..we devised a plan…we would drive up to Prescott, he would get the boat ready to launch there and I would go home and get my lights….All lights are standard on boats…right?

Nope…but with the light switch in the “off” (I think) position, they were all on…so we made it over that hurdle…

When the fuel pump went out on his truck in the middle of the launch ramp…we called ‘er quits for the night…

I have to say CA…we were persistant until the very end. Someone was trying to tell us not to fish that night.

Did you ever get that parking ticket cleared up?

having to trade my old 311f bottom line for a 5100 bottom line now has me increasing rpms causes my 5100 to shut down. idle speeds are fine. factory rep things maybe i need to install a 12v voltage regulator on my power cords. the ones he found me at radio shack are cheap but, one end has a spade hook-up and the other end has 3 tiny tiny prongs. almost like there should be a another half to them. well anyways i see no way of tying into my power cords with them. another suggestion might be my motor regulator is giving out toooo many amps??? i have a 12/24 system that the depthfinder is on and the motor has its own start battery. also they are all hooked into my 15/3 on board charger. has anyone had this problem any info would be a help on which direction to go here………….thanks

Outboard voltage regulators are notoriously crappy. Your stator is generating more power at the higher RPM’s and the regulator isn’t dumping it all, so the voltage is going up, up, up with RPM until your unit self-protects by shutting down. In a way you’re lucky… 10 years ago the unit would have just fried.

If you have a voltage display on the FF screen, bring it up and insure that you’re seeing it climb with RPM, it probably shuts down somewhere between 16 and 18V. The best answer might just be to connect it to your TM batteries instead; most units draw less than 100 milliamps and won’t cause any noticeable drain.

All the answers are within IN-DEPTH ANGLING….

Thanks Gianni!

No problem Brian, we hitting the ice this year?

One more thing worth mentioning is that a new regulator might solve the problem. I fried mine a couple of years back and picked up a new one for $35. At idle, my motor’s putting out about 13 volts (per the Lowrance screen), climbs to about 14.5 at about 2k revs, and levels off from there to WOT.

If your regulator is putting out 16+ volts all the time, it’s not doing your batteries any good either.

You Betcha!! Save a hole for me!

thanks guy for the info, i will be sure to print that out and show my marine tech. now today we were out and there were no problems, course most of the time was spent using the trolling motor and kicker motor. didn’t have time today to worry about the voltage shutdown, too busy catching those nice fat saugers. most fun i’ve had in several days. back on the river tomorrow, not much for the bumper boats, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do while ya can. at least the floating grass was no opponent today. thanks again for the help. there’s so much knowledge on this web site its scary