Little Electric Maintenance - Breakers

[SkunkBoat]

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.

I guess you'll get 10 years out of those red buttons before they rust. Those three circiuts have ATO blade fuses on smaller models.
Would not make sense to put the Bus 187s in their place

At least the house MAIN is a real breaker. My 265 had a 40A red button. the rust was hidden behind a white cover. Rusty terminal fell apart on my first canyon trip 90 miles out in the dark. Good thing I know what I'm doing...

 

[seasick]

The ABYC code states that the code states that solder may not be used as the sole form of connection. But it may still be used..
So a crimped connector that is then soldered is OK but slipping a lug on a cable and then soldering it would not meet the code.

 

[blindmullet]

The ABYC code states that the code states that solder may not be used as the sole form of connection. But it may still be used..
So a crimped connector that is then soldered is OK but slipping a lug on a cable and then soldering it would not meet the code.

A solder joint always requires a mechanical connection IMO. I like to sweat a little solder as the the crimping process disturbes the tinned wire. Probably not needed, but bad battery cables scare me.

 

[Meanwhile]

This is my first time using copper connection bars. The inside of the bolt holes were shiny copper but the surface shows some green.

Should I try to put some solder around the bolts holes to "tin" it? Or just wire brush it, install and spray with HD Corrosion X?

 

[Holokai]

Clean up and spray with corrosion-X HD/Boshield/etc. I personally prefer NO-OX-ID grease as it seems to stay on better than the sprays but any coating is better than none.

 

[Meanwhile]

Had some time to try out the little hydraulic press. It works OK, kinda fun doing the small steps. The only deadline I have is the Columbia River springer return (Chinook with lots of fat stored to make it all the way to Idaho).

 

[seasick]

A solder joint always requires a mechanical connection IMO. I like to sweat a little solder as the the crimping process disturbes the tinned wire. Probably not needed, but bad battery cables scare me.

One of the reasons that soldered connections are not recommended is that the solder tends to creep (wick) into the cable past the intended solder joint. That makes normally flexible stranded cable act like solid conductor cable which when flexed can fracture.
The only conductors I would solder are those that are really too small to crimp.

 

[blindmullet]

One of the reasons that soldered connections are not recommended is that the solder tends to creep (wick) into the cable past the intended solder joint. That makes normally flexible stranded cable act like solid conductor cable which when flexed can fracture.
The only conductors I would solder are those that are really too small to crimp.

On a recreational boat that's probably a fair assessment. On a work boat we tried everything to protect the joint's from the elements, but in the end mother nature would always win.

 

[Meanwhile]

I switched the open white plastic connection to a DEUTSCH type. It should last a long time.


I'm switching from metal spacers on the plastic shield to threaded nylon. One less thing to corrode.

 

[Fishtales]

Not top tier. Wiring isn't one of their strengths.

 

[Meanwhile]

Not top tier. Wiring isn't one of their strengths.

Not using tinned wire kinda gets me grumpy.

 

[Meanwhile]

I had the aluminum plate powder coated. It turns out Pacific Stainless is a mile from my house and they do great powder coating. They put it with a large job today.
Here is before and after. I still need to get lettering done.

 

[Meanwhile]

Almost done with my panel. I'm waiting on a product to apply with an attempt to evade corrosion as long as possible. After I apply the spray I can install the plastic shield.

I took some extra steps to better spray proof the box. I used some butyl tape on the outside and put new neoprene gasket on the door. I'll tighten the hatch screws for a couple of days then trim off the butyl. The 3/8" gasket came with useless adhesive. I had to tape off the box and use a 3M spray adhesive to get the seal to stick. I used some heavy plastic tape around the copper bars as the original plastic coating was flaking off.

The lettering is a bit different. My spouse used a cricut machine to cut out vinyl letters but they couldn't match the size of the original.

I wish I could tame all the battery runs, they come in from all directions.

Power applied and no smoke or flame.


Now about those drains ....