Electrical Problem

[wakeatx]

Hey Guys, looking for advice. I've been having trouble getting my tower lights to work all spring. I'll get them working when the boat's on the trailer and then go out and next thing I know they won't work.

I also noticed today we were out and tried to get the soccer game on the radio. When we were sitting still in the water with the engine off we were picking up the prop noise from other boats around us. Then when I turned on the engine we were hearing the motor through the tower speakers so loud you couldn't hear the game.

So I'm thinking the tower lights and speakers are related and I probably have a ground issue. Does that sound right?

Any ideas on where to look first to fix it?

[talltigeguy]

Hey Guys, looking for advice. I've been having trouble getting my tower lights to work all spring. I'll get them working when the boat's on the trailer and then go out and next thing I know they won't work.

I also noticed today we were out and tried to get the soccer game on the radio. When we were sitting still in the water with the engine off we were picking up the prop noise from other boats around us. Then when I turned on the engine we were hearing the motor through the tower speakers so loud you couldn't hear the game.

So I'm thinking the tower lights and speakers are related and I probably have a ground issue. Does that sound right?

Any ideas on where to look first to fix it?

I think you are correct. Start at the batteries. Then make sure the connection to the engine block is solid.

[wakeatx]

Will do. Thanks.

[wakeatx]

You know I was thinking... I added a second battery over the winter. I must have screwed something up when I did that.

[wakeatx]

Ok so I went back and looked at the diagram that came with the Perko switch and unfortunately what my wife's been saying for years is right. I'm an idiot.

The diagram shows a wire coming from the negative on battery 1 and battery 2 and going to ground. I just went from negative to negative without going to ground.

So here's another dumb question... do I need a special wire that has both negative (black)wire and a green wire in it? Suggestions?

[chpthril]

Ok so I went back and looked at the diagram that came with the Perko switch and unfortunately what my wife's been saying for years is right. I'm an idiot.

The diagram shows a wire coming from the negative on battery 1 and battery 2 and going to ground. I just went from negative to negative without going to ground.

So here's another dumb question... do I need a special wire that has both negative (black)wire and a green wire in it? Suggestions?

Ok, so your boat already had a functioning battery system in the boat, and you added a switch, correct? That battery, lets call it #1 since is was the original, was already connected to the engine block, so the ground circuit was completed. When you added the new battery, #2, all you needed to do was run that battery's NEG to ground. That can be accomplished by either running directly to the engine block or by paralleling the NEG's of both batteries, which it sounds like what you did.

[wakeatx]

Ok, so the logic I used when I added the perko holds then. Hey Chp, any tips on where to look first?

One thing I did was move all the wires from the crank battery to my 2nd/radio battery. Would that mess things up? I wanted the only thing drawing off the crank battery to be the starter...