Navigation Lights shorting out leading to field sobriety test...

[efrickle]

Hey everyone, I have a 2006 24Ve and it has recently started popping the breaker for the navigation lights. Sometimes the lights stay on for a few minutes, other times it pops immediately. I thought I had the issue fixed but last night after enjoying a beautiful sunset on the lake, I had no nav lights on the way back to the marina. Of course....the cops found the only dumb-@$$ on the lake without lights and I got to do some fun coordination exercises on the officer's boat while my wife and friends sat by and had a great show. I passed, as I had not been drinking but DAMN, some of those tests are tricky!....Back to the real issue....I thought it may be that the wires up to the tower light had gotten pinched in the tower and was causing the problem. I took the light bulb out of the tower light and tried again but the breaker still pops. Am I correct in my logic that if there was a short in the tower, removing the bulb would eliminate that connection and narrow it down to somewhere else in the circuit? I have checked the back of the switches and today I am going to remove the red and green lights to check for corrosion but after that I am out of ideas. Would love some advice on how to better hunt down the short. Thanks so much!

[nhunt]

No way! That happened to my buddy and I last year... the bow ballast would pull the nav light wires out, and that's what got us when we pulled into the marina. We were super respectful and fortunately they let us go with a warning, despite the borderline sobriety test!!!

[Dandy]

If there happens to be a positive (hot) wire/connection that is making direct contact with the tower it would be a "short to ground" which would quickly blow the fuse. You may need to trace your hot wire from the switch all the way through the tower to see if there may possible be a place where the wire has worn through the insulation or has a pinch point which could allow the positive current to make direct contact with any steel or ground wire/connection.

[efrickle]

If there happens to be a positive (hot) wire/connection that is making direct contact with the tower it would be a "short to ground" which would quickly blow the fuse. You may need to trace your hot wire from the switch all the way through the tower to see if there may possible be a place where the wire has worn through the insulation or has a pinch point which could allow the positive current to make direct contact with any steel or ground wire/connection.

Well...you sir are correct! I thought I had checked thourogly but when I took the tower down, the positive wire to the light was mangled. It was making contact with the tower. Glad that it was this easy! Thanks for the help! If anyone needs tips on passing the sobriety tests, let me know

[chpthril]

Connect your volt meter POS lead to the tower and the NEG lead to a known ground BUS. watch the meter and reset the breaker. You just may see 12V before the breaker trips. if so, then the harness is pinched or chaffed by the tower through both the lights POS and NEG.

If not voltage, next disconnect the light assembly. It could have fallen apart in side at the socket. Its shorted, even though the bulb is out.

[efrickle]

Connect your volt meter POS lead to the tower and the NEG lead to a known ground BUS. watch the meter and reset the breaker. You just may see 12V before the breaker trips. if so, then the harness is pinched or chaffed by the tower through both the lights POS and NEG.

If not voltage, next disconnect the light assembly. It could have fallen apart in side at the socket. Its shorted, even though the bulb is out.

Thanks Chpthril! That makes total sense and it was a pinched wire! Super easy fix for once in my life