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FAQ: Nav Lights
Where to look if the nav lights come on dimly with the cabin light,
tips on troubleshooting.
Subj: [C34] nav lights and switch
My nav lights are on all the time, but on weakly, whenever the cabin
12v electricity switch is on. The nav lights come on much more
brightly when I turn on the actual nav light switch. I've looked behind
the panel, and there doesn't seem to be any cross-over short. Anybody else
have this problem? Any suggestions for a non-electrician to trace down
this problem?
Loyal Hibbs "Calliope" loyalhibbs@aol.com
Can we help this sailor??
Subj: Re: [C34] nav lights and switch
From: Dosgoats@aol.com
Try:
1. Bad switch itself on nav light circuit, or bad lighting switch.
2. Some other cross connect; on our boat the lights to the
instruments are cross wired into the running lights, so when the running
lights come on (via the running lights switch) the instrument backlighting
comes on, neat idea, probably done everywhere elsewhere, but requires good
wiring and understanding of both panel and instrument wiring requirements
3. Leaking ground somewhere - try checking the wiring to and from
with a digital meter for continuity
4. Check the voltage at the running lights when they burn
"weakly" and trace the wiring - could be something like the
"other side of the coin" from David Aucella's recent answer to
"no cabin lights" on a newly posted FAQ - could be that
somewhere along the parallel route that the lighting ground wire takes all
around the boat (like, 100 feet!!) there's a connection that shouldn't be
there. Look for the blue triple connectors that "make" the
branch circuits. There could be one there that's improperly connected to
your nav lights. As Dave suggested, look up under the nav station storage
compartment for the first of many of these big blue meanies.
Stu Jackson #224 Aquavite San Francisco
Subj: Re: [C34] nav lights and switch
From: ronphylhill@erols.com (James R. Hill)
The battery positives of the running and cabin lights are touching each
other somewhere. The simplest and most obvious is to check the back of the
main electrical panel for touching spade connectors (Every production year
C34 electrical panel is a little different and in 1988 production Catalina
stopped using fuses and went to circuit breakers). I'd attempt to trace
both the cabin and the running light positive wires as far as I could. I
wouldn't waste many, many hours or contact an electrician. What I would do
is go ahead and rewire the bow and the stern running lights with marine
grade #16 gauge wire pair and use the old positive wire as a tracer to
pull the new wire through. That way you know that you've got the most
important circuit rewired properly. If you have a problem with the cabin
lights, at least you've only got one circuit to chase down.
Ron, Apache #788
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