30 amp fuse blows

[Todd Francis]

Last summer before we put our 2011 Ranger Tug 29 away I noticed the 30 amp fuse that runs the windshield wipers and things in the dash burned out. The fuse also powers the spot light and anchor light on the mast. These two items plug into a socket on the top of the boat with a 4 prong plug. When I disconnect the plug the fuse does not blow telling me there is a short in the mast. When I check the wires at the plug I do not find a short. I am at a loss. Has anyone had such a problem?

 

[knotflying]

Well, you have narrowed it down somewhat. It is either the anchor light or spotlight. Figure out which wires that are on the plug go to the anchor light and which go to the searchlight and isolate them. Connect each independently and the bad one will blow the fuse again. If I were a betting man I would say it is more probable that the issue is the searchlight rather than the anchor light.

 

[Todd Francis]

I thought I would update this thread about the blown fuse problem. It turns out that turning the running light switch on causes the fuse to blow. We found no short in the mast. There is a spade connection on the running light switch that has two grey wires going to it. We pulled the slip on connector off of the switch and cut the slip on connector off off the wires separating the two wires. One of the wires is a dead short and is the problem blowing the fuse. The other wire lights up the green and red light on the side of the roof on the boat. The anchor light is good too and comes off of the same switch from a different spade connection. I have not yet traced down the wire that is shorted. It heads off into a big bundle of wires. We are going to try to trace it with a toner and see what we can find. I have a suspicion it might go to the compass light on the deck. The schematic shows it could be two or three things but is not detailed enough to show which two wires are connected together with a slip on connector at the switch. I will report when we find it.

 

[Todd Francis]

I am happy to say that I can wrap this thread up. My problem was the wiring to the compass. Two of the very small wires going into the compass crossed and shorted. The weird thing is that the sheath on the copper wires looked to be in good shape but the ground wire and the hot wire were stuck together indicating heat. I have no idea how that happened. I put a inline fuse on the hot wires to the compass. The little wires were not protected before. They are connected to a larger wire that has a 30 amp fuse. I put a 2 amp fuse to the compass and probably could have gotten away with a 1 amp. Things are good now and the boat is ready for boating season.

 

[Katmat]

Thanks for the update. Wish more people would do this.

 

[zekeandboone]

Glad it's fixed, Todd!!!