Little Electric Maintenance - Breakers

[Meanwhile]

I'm going to replace some corroded breakers on the Marlin. I'm not sure why they are placed in the stern switch box but they seem to get the job done. I'll redo the weather stripping also as I think the raw water wash down gets spray inside.

It is easy to remove the screws to tilt the electric box forward as there is plenty of extra wiring to allow the movement. I found the small circuit breakers on EBay. I'll also clean up some of the switch connections as well.

 

[wspitler]

Looks pretty nasty. You will also have some wire and terminal end issues to ensure there are no high resistance connections. I've found that cutting the wires back to find shiny copper is sometimes a process. I'd also coat with serious corrosion protection compounds when you get it done. Good Luck!

 

[seasick]

In my opinion, the devices with the rust looking corrosion are needing replacement. The devices with the green oxidation on the other hand should clean up nicely. The battery and ground cables may have issues under the shrink tubing but you can't really tell without cutting off the old. If they have significant corrosion, you need to buy/make new cables or if the cable length allows, cut back to fresh conductors and install ew lugs and heat shrink. For the lugs you need an hydraulic or electric crimper with the correct die. After the rewiring is dome spray the exposed connectors. lugs etc with something like Boeshield T-9

 

[Meanwhile]

As an aside, one item I always check when I open up anything on the Marlin is the sealing applied to edge material. Here you can see that Grady sealed the edge grain of the plywood. After my transom I'm particularly sensitive to these issues.

 

[SkunkBoat]

rusty red button breakers? what a surprise! They suck. IMO replace them with Buss 187 panel mount switchable breaker.

 

[seasick]

Back to your original post as to why the breakers are at the stern.
ABYC specs require overcurrent protection and/or power switching within a specific distance to the batteries. I can't remember the distance but it is under 24 inches I think.

 

[ElyseM]

heavy coat everything with T-9 after upgrade. good luck, ron

 

[Blaugrana]

Please share if you do something other than cutting off those terminals that look to be rusted out. I’ve tried PB blaster on various rusted parts but never any luck getting them to loosen on my boat. I’ve resigned to cutting and replacing

 

[Halfhitch]

Before you cut the ends off of your battery cables, it is easy for you to check to see if they have reduced load carrying capacity. Just remove them from the switch and leave them connected to the battery. Do a battery load test by connecting to the loose ends of the cables. If any of the crimp connections are bad, they will immediately get super-hot. To the point of smoking if you keep holding the button down. If you do need to replace some ends, you don't have to buy an expensive power swager, you can buy an impact swager that only requires a 4-pound hammer to make good swages. You can buy a decent one for about 40 bucks.

 

[seasick]

I use a hydraulic crimper from Harbor Freight that I got several years ago for about $50. I don't use it often but when it's needed, it does the job. If a remember correctly it has 5 sets of dies.

 

[SkunkBoat]

These work great for occasional boat work on various House feeds and jumpers.
Better than the hammer type and sometimes you can use it while the wire is in place on the boat.
Comes out looking professional.

Lug Crimper- Amazon $25 (This one doesn't fit 2/0 wire)
Hydraulic lug crimper- $53

 

[SkunkBoat]

Please share if you do something other than cutting off those terminals that look to be rusted out. I’ve tried PB blaster on various rusted parts but never any luck getting them to loosen on my boat. I’ve resigned to cutting and replacing

for gods sake cut them off and replace the terminals and replace the red button breaker with a better breaker

 

[Meanwhile]

Ordered the hydraulic crimper. I've been wanting one anyway for boat, truck and travel trailer. If you think boat wiring is bad, don't look at travel trailers.

 

[Blaugrana]

These work great for occasional boat work on various House feeds and jumpers.
Better than the hammer type and sometimes you can use it while the wire is in place on the boat.
Comes out looking professional.

Lug Crimper- Amazon $25 (This one doesn't fit 2/0 wire)
Hydraulic lug crimper- $53

If I had to choose one, which would you recommmend?

 

[seasick]

First one is too small for many typical battery cables and can't be used in tight spots.
The second you mentioned looks identical to the Harbor Freight model which is currently hard to find and costs 70 bucks but there are usually discount coupons.

 

[Meanwhile]

Had time to try and clean up the mounting face. Yuck. I can remove the black paint and repaint but the lettering would have me stumble. The Buss breakers cleaned up OK. I'm struggling to find 3 smaller breakers and fit them in the stock space. I'll go with the replacements and rebuild the cabinet to be more waterproof.

Anyone have an old power name plate? It is fashioned for 2 Buss circuit breakers as seen by the 4 screws.

 

[blindmullet]

If I had to choose one, which would you recommmend?

The style used with the hammer has always been my go to. I have had it for a number of years without issue. I make everything up on the bench and then install.

 

[glacierbaze]

I always soldered my cable lugs. Put it in a vise, with the open end up, put pieces of solder wire in, and melt with a torch. Quickly heat the end of the cable, and stick it in, using a splatter shield.

 

[SkunkBoat]

I always soldered my cable lugs. Put it in a vise, with the open end up, put pieces of solder wire in, and melt with a torch. Quickly heat the end of the cable, and stick it in, using a splatter shield.

they should always be crimped. Especially on a high current battery wire. the solder is not sufficiant to hold the wire in the terminal.

On boats and vehicles, PROPER crimping is the preferred connection. Solder causes a stiff point in the stranded copper that can break due to vibration.. For the same reason, solid copper wire is never used on vehicles.

I know it seems like solder is better. Its only better than a bad crimp... and I've been know to solder a crimped splice on occasion because the crimp just sucked..

 

[blindmullet]

I always soldered my cable lugs. Put it in a vise, with the open end up, put pieces of solder wire in, and melt with a torch. Quickly heat the end of the cable, and stick it in, using a splatter shield.

I do something similar, but use the hammer crimper first and then followup with solder/heatshrink.