232 Electrical issue

[Jpbb03]

So, 2005 Gulfstream 232, have an electrical issue somewhere (rather green with electrical, but just installed new dome light with spreader lights, nav lights, checked connections/ 3 fuses in hardtop).


Worth noting, previous owner installed new motor, throttle controls, stereo system, and underwater lights (separate switch by cupholder). All motor work done professionally, not sure about lights and radio.

Here's what I know:
Cockpit lights, dome/spreader, reading light in cabin, wash down pump, vhf radio all work.


This started knowing the red nav light was out (green worked). Swapped bulb, it temp worked, now both nav lights gone. Horn, wipers, macerator do not work.

Things I don't know:
Is there only one actual fuse panel onboard? The 'Aux Fuse Panel' in the hardtop?

What's the best way to inspect switches? From behind looks like a difficult mess, can I remove the entire switch panel and pull it out towards the stern carefully or is this asking for trouble?

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. I'm located in CT. May have to get a true professional involved, but I'm sure I can check some simple items before going down that road. Thanks in advance

 

[Blaugrana]

I’m having a similar issue with my nav lights but it’s not consistent

Best place to start is to remove the switch panel and see if you are getting volts going to the switch and then leaving it when it’s engaged. If all good there, check at light.

After saying all that, you have more problems than just the nav lights. Do any of your switches work? Do they stop working after a specific switch?

If all switches or a group aren’t working, check the fuse panel under the helm and the common bus. Find the wire for the switch panel and make sure it isn’t loose or corroded.

Make sure your battery is fully charged as well.

 

[SkunkBoat]

The red and green are fed by the same "Nav Light" circuit. One gray wire goes forward to feed both light fixtures. So the problem with them(one works one doesn't) is the wiring up fwd or the bulb holders in the fixture.
there is another fuse panel and there are breakers on the switches.
Look in your owner's manual for diagram. You can get a pdf of manual for your model/year on www.gradywhite.com

 

[seasick]

Get yourself a 12v test lamp, the kind with an ice pick type of pin and a ground wire with an alligator clip. Now learn how to use. I prefer these test lamps over a digital multimeter since they can detect some bad connections that a multimeter won't.
For the other things that don't work, the procedure is the same, check for voltage at the load and work backwards towards the fuse panel. If the main ground on the panel bus is bad, just about all devices wont work. Since you nav lights work now, the ground from the battery to the help is good. Save the horn for last after you have some comfort using the test lamp. If you want, you can have someone press the horn button while you rap the horn with something solid like a small hammer. It may start working or vibrating, If so the horn is bad,
The horn feed and the wipers probably are the same circuit but the macerator probably isn't.
There is a main fuse block usually under the helm. Look for bad fuses,and most importantly bad connections, both 12v and grounds.

 

[Fishtales]

You may be able to get the wiring diagram from GW cust service or see if somewhere here has the same boat.

 

[Blaugrana]

Btw - Don’t be nervous about not knowing what you are doing. Listen to the feedback above and give yourself extra time to figure it out. Then each time after that, it will get much quicker

 

[PointedRose]

Electrical systems on boats always seem to have some issues. Get a multimeter and/or load tester and start digging in and you’ll get more and more comfortable with it. Not enough voltage from a battery to shock you, shore power on the other hand would. Lots of things can foul over the years so it’s worth having somewhat routine inspections. Plenty of YouTube vids will help you as well as seeking guidance from GW although many boats are modified over time.

 

[Jpbb03]

So I can pull the switch board out towards me carefully and not have to worry about doing further damage?

Doing all work from cabin below will be a nightmare. That's the first thing I want to verify. Thanks.

 

[Blaugrana]

Assume it’s the same as my 228, about 6-8 screws and then you can pull it out...a bit depending on how much play in the wires. Enough to see what’s going on.

 

[PointedRose]

So I can pull the switch board out towards me carefully and not have to worry about doing further damage?

Doing all work from cabin below will be a nightmare. That's the first thing I want to verify. Thanks.

yes if you have a switch to the battery you can just switch off (or disconnect red) and unscrew and pull the panel out. Each wire should have a few inches of play at least so you can work on any electrical issues, check fuses, replace switches, add accessories. Check for any signs of corrosion or questionable connections. Many boat fires start as electrical issues that are undiagnosed. I got a textbook that was helpful but kind of dense

Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual: How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boat's Essential Systems: Calder, Nigel, Calder Nigel: 9780071432382: Amazon.com: Books

Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual: How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boat's Essential Systems [Calder, Nigel, Calder Nigel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual: How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boat's...

www.amazon.com

 

[Hookup1]

May be a few unrelated tie-wraps that need cut. Because of the age of my boat I have had several failures that I thought were the switch but were the slip on connectors or the doubling clip. Grab with a pair if pliers and work them on and off. The wire is usually ok its the connection surface that gets smutzed up.

 

[seasick]

Assume it’s the same as my 228, about 6-8 screws and then you can pull it out...a bit depending on how much play in the wires. Enough to see what’s going on.

It is common some screw holes to strip. It's no big deal. You can reassemble with a slightly wider screw or you can fill the loose holes with some MarineTex, let it dry and drill a small pilot hole before installing the screws

 

[SkunkBoat]

Depending on your model, you might get access from the top by removing a dash panel.

One drawback to loosening the fuse block is that wires can break off or pull out of connectors.
Make sure you have a good picture/drawing of it...label wires...
Once you do that you can remove all wires and remove the fuse block.
You might want to inspect that front and back for signs of melted or cooked plastic.

 

[Jpbb03]

So this is strange, pulled out switch board, basically everything worked except for the horn. that needs to be replaced.

Put switch board back in, problem came back. Pulled board out again, everything worked again.

Would this be a lose ground or something like that? Not sure how to identify what's what (what color is ground? How many are there? Where are they located in the panel?) and if not lose ground, what else could cause this?

Fwiw, two huge vacant mud wasp nests in back of switch board when I pulled it out. Crazy.

Thanks for help

 

[PointedRose]

So this is strange, pulled out switch board, basically everything worked except for the horn. that needs to be replaced.

Put switch board back in, problem came back. Pulled board out again, everything worked again.

Would this be a lose ground or something like that? Not sure how to identify what's what (what color is ground? How many are there? Where are they located in the panel?) and if not lose ground, what else could cause this?

Fwiw, two huge vacant mud wasp nests in back of switch board when I pulled it out. Crazy.

Thanks for help

Don’t mean to state the obvious but I’d clean the area out as best you can. Next time you’re there take some pictures of what you’re looking at - might help in getting accurate feedback. Get a multimeter from a hardware store and watch some videos on YouTube about how it works, then can start diagnosing where your problem is. 12v dc settings on the multimeter. Could be a loose connection somewhere in the chain that when you put the switch board back in, creates a little pressure on a connection enough to disengage. If any wires or connections look corroded they probably are. The wire casing will tell you the exact wire gauge to replace - depends on far the current needs to travel. Sometimes there’s a ‘bus bar’ to connect negative wires and feed one connection from the bus bar to the battery negative terminal. Fuses can get a small cheap fuse tester, but since it works sometimes, it might be a lose connection somewhere. The horn is a good place to start if that isn’t working. As seasick mentioned, if it’s the same circuit, the horn not working could be the broken link in the chain.

 

[seasick]

Other than a ground for any lamps that might be in the switches, the grounds for the devices that the panel controls are probably not on the panel itself.
If when you reinstall the panel , everything stops working, it has to be the main feed to the panel or a ground connection that the harness is pushing against when you put the panel back.
I would try yanking on wire harnesses with the panel in and not working to see if things get powered intermittently.
One other area to check is the common feed for the 12 volts to the panel. Assuming the panel has switches and also breakers, there will be one main feed that daisy chains from breaker to breaker. That connection at the panel might be bad or the other end of that cable might have issues.

 

[glacierbaze]

There are probably at least 2 fuse blocks, one in the overhead, and one under the helm. And one or more switch panels, on the dash, and maybe to the right of the driver, under the side window. It would help answering your questions if we knew which block or panel each question refers to.
I was going to suggest that you know whether your overboard discharge was open or closed, before messing with the macerator switch, but I guess you found out when you got the switches working intermittently.
If you identify grounds that are not connected to the same panel as the power, as Seasick suggested might be the case, it would be helpful in tracing gremlins in the future if you went ahead and put an ID tag, of the grounded device, on those grounds.
A device can have more than one ground, so for troubleshooting, I often connect a good clean wire to a ground terminal, and use the free end to ground any troublesome devices.

 

[SkunkBoat]

IMO.. for guys with "new to them" 10-15-20 year old boats it makes sense to get your hands and eyes in there and redo your fuse panels & terminals & switches & bilge pump connections & battery connections. Serves the purpose of fixing things that are going to screw you sooner or later and secondly, you learn how everything is connected. You might find something the PO did halfassed. You can label things while you are at it.


fyi, horns are stainless on the outside but not on the inside. They have contacts inside that corrode. They all do that. "Smacking it with a BFW" is a time honored way of fixing it ....for awhile.

 

[Hookup1]

So this is strange, pulled out switch board, basically everything worked except for the horn. that needs to be replaced.

Put switch board back in, problem came back. Pulled board out again, everything worked again.

Would this be a lose ground or something like that? Not sure how to identify what's what (what color is ground? How many are there? Where are they located in the panel?) and if not lose ground, what else could cause this?

Fwiw, two huge vacant mud wasp nests in back of switch board when I pulled it out. Crazy.

Thanks for help

My problem may be your problem...Because of the age of my boat I have had several failures that I thought were the switch but were the slip on connectors or the doubling clip. Grab with a pair if pliers and work them on and off. The wire is usually ok its the connection surface that gets smutzed up.

Probably not the ground because they don't come to the panel on my boat. The positive 12VDC common via a doubling clip jumpers to the horn circuit breaker, other side jumpers to the horn switch, other side connect to the horn. Work these connections hard with a pliers to remove/install the clips a few times. Could be the connector to the horn too.

Wiring color codes are in the back of your owners manual.

 

[Denko]

yes if you have a switch to the battery you can just switch off (or disconnect red) and unscrew and pull the panel out. Each wire should have a few inches of play at least so you can work on any electrical issues, check fuses, replace switches, add accessories. Check for any signs of corrosion or questionable connections. Many boat fires start as electrical issues that are undiagnosed. I got a textbook that was helpful but kind of dense

Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual: How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boat's Essential Systems: Calder, Nigel, Calder Nigel: 9780071432382: Amazon.com: Books

Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual: How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boat's Essential Systems [Calder, Nigel, Calder Nigel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual: How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boat's...

www.amazon.com

Just wanted to chime in about the suggested electrical manual from Nigel Calder, it's an excellent resource.