Wiring cleanup

[Kirk Gibson]

Recently I bought 2 new batteries and when I was installing them I once again was reminded of how the factory must have been in a big hurry on the day my boat was wired.
Don't get me wrong, everything works ok, it's just that the whole thing in the battery compartment (or area) looks like a big plate of spaghetti! I have been meaning to clean it up since I bought the boat but now I am going to actually do it...lol
I am going to put a separate neg. bus terminal so the five leads that are presently "piggy backed" onto the battery posts have a neat place to go and mount the main cb and other fused leads that are just hanging.
Has anbody seen a fuse holder like these in the pics? They have a hole mounted on the individual covers but do they just hang on a hook or are the covers bolted to a panel? I am going to add a lexan panel in the area on the right side to bolt these items and also reroute and reloom all these conductors. This thing is a mess. See pics.

[Kirk Gibson]

fuse holder

here is the pic of the fuse holders ...a little fuzzy

[pstephens46]

Those are typical in-line fuses. Usually screwed down somewhere for easy access. Is there a fuse block somewhere? For radio, gps etc? Or all these in-line? Where is the batteries located? Console I assume?

[Kirk Gibson]

Yes

Yes there are two other fuse panels and cbs at each switch on the console. The area shown in in the back just forward of the starboard engine (there is an area like this on each side but the port area isn't crammed up with batteries and all this wiring. I think I will just bolt the covers to the lexan panel I plan on and go from there. You would think for the kind of money spent on the boat it would have been a little neater.

[pstephens46]

Lexan as in clear lexan? I would us a piece of white starboard.
Looks like a good bit of excess wire that may not be needed. I would cut it and install good high quality connectors.

I am also trying to view this on a phone so I may be missing something.

Are you the original owner?

[Kirk Gibson]

Yeah starboard

Yes I checked my shop and not a single piece of starboard. The lexan is 1/4" thick so it should be ok.

[Kirk Gibson]

yes

Yes original owner...just took me a while to get to this.

[Kirk Gibson]

excess wire

yes lots of excess wire, I will comb it all out and adjust soldering each ring terminal. I will try and remember to post after pics.

[DennisG01]

Holy spaghetti is right! ***. Did you buy the boat new? I'm not asking because I want to bash your choice of boat - I'm just curious what brand (if it did, indeed, come that way from the factory)? But, yeah, that would bug the heck out of me, too. Any reason you're choosing Lexan over Starboard (HDPE)? Can you screw into lexan as easily as SB? You're definitely on the right track to create a negative buss bar - that's absolutely silly that someone ran all those connections right to the battery.

I bought an old Grady and the (many) previous owners had all done their share to create something similar to what you have there. It was absolutely confusing trying to figure everything out. I started using blue painters tape on each wire as I figure it out. The tape made it easy to label. Wire loom, zip ties and electrical tape will be your new best friends for a while!

It probably goes without saying, but be sure to label the grounds vs pos BEFORE completely removing them from the posts (or at least as you do it). It's too easy to misplace one and put it on the wrong terminal... then have to try and figure out why you're having weird electrical problems.

[TownsendsFJR1300]

And have a pack or two of plastic zip ties!

Most of those cables can be "rolled" into a fairly tight circle, zip tied and set in it's place.

Should you want to get really neat, they have the zip ties with the eyelet for a screw. You can, after looping, screw the loops to a gunnel(obviously not drilling too deep).

I spent a day FIXING all the wiring spaghetti the yammy dealership did on the re-power.. Absolutely horrible...

Seems no one (working) gives a crap about their work anymore, work fast, make money...

[pstephens46]

Fuse blocks work well for all the extra crap that gets installed post factory. Stereos, gps, VHF etc. Nice neat place for the fuse and + and - Switch panel is another thing altogether. All those jumpers make my head hurt.

[Kirk Gibson]

2011 Seafox 256 CC

Seafox brand and so far this is my only complaint ...the boat otherwise is awesome.

[Kirk Gibson]

Most cleaned up

Well I was able to clean some of it up. Now only thing is large battery cables & engine harness cables & throttle cables ...easy stuff to trace. Added a negative battery bus and a place to hang the CB & fuses. At least now it will be easy for me to trace something out if necessary.

[pstephens46]

Big improvement.

[panasonic]

Yes a big improvement is right...

How much fiberglass you stick in your arms/legs in there at that? lol