wireing in bilge?

[Navman]

In the bilge of my E-38 I have this connection plate/ buss bar for what I assume is mostly low voltage wiring. Everything about this set up is inheritantly wrong on so many levels. Does anyone else have a set up like this? What was the person thinking when they decided to put all of these electrical connections in an eternally wet area subject to water? If anyone else has had an install like this, did they correct it and if so how? Curious minds want to know

 

[Christian Williams]

No, I don't think anybody else has a setup like that.

Probably it's bilge pumps and float switches and maybe transducers?

I'd just move the wiring to a new bus bar somewhere convenient--and well above high tide.

 

[Loren Beach]

Rusty Electrons

They almost resemble the small diameter wires that we have for the masthead 12 volt wiring and the wind transducer, but there are a lot more of 'em in the picture. The other side of the terminal block does not seem to show anything connected to them.
Our masthead wiring comes out of the spar just above the headliner, in any case.

Can you access the other side of the entry point for them, into the bilge?
ID them and pull them out...

Aside from knowing what historical device(s) were connected to them, there is the scary mind-set of whoever thought a bilge was a suitable place for *any* sort of open wiring connection.
Check them one by one with your multimeter and see if ANY of them are hot when any/all breakers are switched on.

Have you found other installation oddities in your boat from a P.O. ??


Gotta say, I've never before seen anything like that.

Good luck!

ps: I sent this thread over to a marine electrician that I know. With many years of experience, even he is puzzled... and he comments:

"I have seen worse in some older power boats, never in a sailboat that I can remember though. It does appear to be a terminal block vs a power block, with only one side of the circuit connected. My guess would be some old instrumentation that has been removed. I'd be surprised if there were any power going to it, the corrosion alone would probably start a fire. "

 

[Joliba]

Wow! I think Maine Sail has a collection of bad boat wiring photos on his website. I've never seen anything quite like this, though. It's a project, but I agree with others that eliminating obsolete connections and moving the remaining connections somewhere dry would be a great improvement. Good Luck!

 

[supersailor]

This looks like a dead harness. There should be wires connected to the top portion of the terminal strip. In fact there are the remnants of a couple of them. I don't see any connector strips on the bottom part either. In my rebuild on Terra Nova, I removed boxes full of dead wiring.

Try removing several of them from the terminal strip and see if everything is still working. My bet is it is. You should be able to trace these wires. I managed to do many that I thought impossible.

It appears that the bilge has had prolonged periods of high water. That's the only way that that strip could have ended up looking like that. Anything in the bilge like this should have shrink fit terminals and tons of dielectric grease smeared on everything. Ericson did put strips like this in the bilge for the mast lights.

 

[Joliba]

Actually, looking closely, Bob Morrison is correct. You can probably just cut out and throw away the whole mess. It appears to be a terminal strip with all dead end wires.

 

[KWay]

Cable to Term Strip

Don; To me it looks like it (The Cable that is ) belongs to a Radar Unit....... Not sure but it sure does looks like a Furuno Cable.
The single gray coaxial wire is a sure sign that it is the cable coming from the Radome.
So did somebody remove a Radome and just cut the cable? If that is the case most likely the cable run will end at the Mast if not in the mast.
Just remove it and forget about it.
Kent

 

[toddster]

I think those wires are much larger gauge than those in a Furuno cable. Second guess would be an Atomic 4 control panel harness. But the gauges aren't all quite right... As far as I can see.

Dunno... maybe if the radar cable came down inside a keel-stepped mast and didn't reach any farther than that? Then they needed to cobble up something to go the rest of the way to the set...

 

[Navman]

wiring in the bilge

There was a radar previously and it was mast mounted. Also had GPS Chart plotter but both were removed due to obsolescence by a P.O. the backing/ mounting plate looks as if it had a snap on cover to go over the connections.The white wire going across the bilge is the antenna wire. I will take all of your advise and begin to remove 3 or 4 at a time and make sure all of the wires are in fact dead . The boat did have high water at some previous point in time as is evidenced by a water line on the teak furniture about 1" above the sole. Otherwise the bilge stays dry except for rain water running down the mast. As always, thanks for all of the great advise! Will be down at the boat next weekend and will begin the process. Its on the hard now waiting for winter to end.