Corrosion in Wiring- 2012 R27

[CaspersCruiser]

I’ve had my 2012 R27 almost a year. I’ve discovered what I can only describe as a manufacturing error. Please don’t take this as a jab at Fluid Motion. On a few occasions, I’ve contacted them with questions about my used boat that was not purchased from them and they’ve always been accessible, responsive and a pleasure to deal with in every way.

I haven’t discussed this particular issue with Fluid Motion because there’s really nothing they can do about it. I am posting this as a heads-up for folks with boats of my vintage that may experience failed electrical equipment.

First a little background. Under the stern cockpit seat, I replaced the wooden platform on which the propane locker rested because a failed adhesive bond had allowed it to drop onto the holding tank. In the process of that modification I encountered wires to the propane locker solenoid valve that were incompletely butt-spliced.

The butt splices were good quality with heat shrink insulators, but the insulators on only one side of the butt splices had the heat shrink activated. The insulators on the other side of the butt splices were left completely open. That allowed corrosion to develop on the wires at the crimp joint on the open side. The wires had not yet broken, but they weren’t far from it. I cut out the old butt splices and installed new ones and heat shrunk both ends.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve dealt with this problem. My boat was delivered last April with an inoperative washdown pump. In the troubleshooting process, I found one of the failure points was a wire that had corroded and broken at an open insulator of a heat shrink butt splice.

What appears to be in play here is that during the manufacturing process, wire bundles are pre-made and installed with butt splices open on one end to facilitate later installation of electrical equipment. Then further in the manufacturing process, as electrical equipment is installed, the wiring for it is crimped into the open butt splices in the pre-made wire bundles, but the insulators are not heat shrunk. Hopefully this lapse in manufacturing process has been corrected in later boats, but I feel fairly certain there are other wires in this condition on my boat. It’s just a matter of time before they corrode and break. I’m going to try to hunt them down and repair them before they do.

Bottom line: If you experience failed electrical equipment in and around the stern cockpit seat area, start your troubleshooting by looking for broken wires at butt splices with open insulators.

 

[Brian B]

I found the same conditions on my 2010 25SC. On my boat there were also connections forward of the battery charger that were not heat shrunk which caused the failure of the bilge pump.

 

[knotflying]

Same here. There are probably hundreds of connections on the boat and for the most part connections are good, but it seems that some of them missed were in critical spots. I understand that they have dedicated personnel to increase quality control and hopefully instances like this will be avoided in the future.

 

[dclagett]

Thanks for the posting. I have not come across any problems like this on my 2014 RT25SC and I have been looking around the boat learning it’s sustems etc. It may have been just in the 2012 time frame. However this will be put on my check list as I work on and inspect systems.

 

[ALICE J]

Not a fault of Garmin but of time, sun light, and bashing to windward in salty seas. Two of my Garmin cables became corroded causing loss of the radar, and the gps; the gps antenna cable just as the wire comes out of the plug developed the green fuzz. Loss of the gps made the display unit useless for navigation. A backup hand held unit saves the day. Silicone grease might have saved the radar, but not the gps, however maybe some silicon self fusing tape wrapped around the plug and wire may have mitigated that issue, but too tight of a turn in the wire pulled the wire cover out of the plug.

 

[BB marine]

When I moved my Batteries from Port side to Starboard side I found several connections that were not heat shrunk. I had to remove much of the wiring to rerun battery cables. I made a point to inspect and shrink any connectors that were not done by the factory. Our 26 Cutwater is a 2016 and so far fresh water boat so no corrosion yet. The wire harnesses and wiring is very well done. The QC in assembly at the factory is a bit weak. Hopefully what knotflying stated will take place for future owners.

 

[CaspersCruiser]

In another thread, I described a shift cable problem. During the fix, I got a good look down under the panel upon which the shifter is mounted. The space has lots of open-insulator butt splices.

 

[Crewdog]

Thanks for the tip; saved buying a new pump for no reason.

In addition to a corroded pump switch/fuse assembly and corroded connectors, I discovered that the rectangular mounting hole for the switch assembly was not squared off, and consequently did not allow clearance for fuseholder nut to clear.

I’m pretty sure this allowed a little water to seep thru.

A couple minutes with a rasp made enough room for fuseholder nut to clear.

I think I’ll also dab a little sealant around switchplate housing to add a little protection.