MKII Electrical troubleshooting

[Jscottcombs]

Hello All,

I am a new 34 MKII owner and looking for advice.  I've searched the forums and haven't found answers, but perhaps I overlooked some other threads since I haven't quite mastered the search function yet. 

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has run into this situation.  I recently had an electric head installed which required a 10A circuit breaker switch be installed in the aux one space in my DC panel.  I also had the VHF antennae on the mast replaced since it had been damaged.  I went for an overnight cruise last week and while moored up, found that my Anchor Light, Steaming light, deck light and 12V outlet are all not working.  They were working a couple weeks ago at the survey prior to said "improvements".

I checked all the connections behind the panel and nothing is obviously disconnected or fried.  I am not sure what else to check.  It seems it would be related to the breaker installation, but I'm not sure how that would effect the 12 volt outlet.  It's a confusing situation, and there may be more than one cause.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I troubleshoot and learn.

Thanks to all of you.

Scott
Hull 1781

[Jon W]

The anchor, steaming, and deck lights should be on separate breakers. Are they all in the same row/buss on the main distribution panel? If so, are there other breakers in that row and does whatever they control work? Where does the 12v outlet positive wire terminate?

[Jscottcombs]

Thanks Jon,

I looked at that and the Anchor Light and Deck light are on the same Bus (same as the newly installed toilet) but the steaming light is on the other bus, which leads me to think when the VHF antennae was changed the mast wiring somehow got messed up.  But the antennae is on top of the mast, and shouldn't really be connected to the electrical system in my opinion.  (Maybe I'm wrong).  And why would the 12v outlet not be working, (May be a completely unrelated issue).  I'm going to have an electrical guy replace the batteries, and I can have him help troubleshoot the issue, but I just want to learn as much as I can about the system.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[KWKloeber]

Scott

Since all three are out, I'd first suspect the common neutral for the mast. Make sure you don't have a forgotten neutral connection at the neutral terminal block/buss.

Start checking for power with your multi meter or 12v test light.
Start at the load (bulb) side of the switches for each. If there's power there obviously you have wiring issues. If not then start looking for buss issues.

Don't ignore your neutrals.

[Jon W]

Presuming you have a typical fixed antenna, the VHF should only be a coax cable from the antenna on the mast to either your radio or a VHF/AIS splitter depending on your setup. The antenna shouldn't connect to the 12vdc electrical wiring. If everything worked before it sounds like a wire didn't get reconnected or was reconnected incorrectly. Happened to me. I thought I connected everything to match a photo I had taken and I didn't. In my limited experience wiring errors are easy to make.

[Ron Hill]

Scott : As said by many - "No power to a antenna is necessary"!!!  I'd look at the connection from the mast (anchor, steaming & deck) light connections, especially the ground!!

A few thoughts

[Jon W]

I think you meant to direct your comment to Scott.

[Jim Hardesty]

I also had the VHF antennae on the mast replaced since it had been damaged.

Did the mast get un-stepped to change the antenna?  If your boat is wired like Shamrock, the plugs at the mast base may not have been connected or were damaged. After everything else checks out.  May want to check with the person that did the work.
Jim

[tonywright]

Found same thing a few years ago on mine. All the lights on the mast stopped working at the same time. I had to unstep the mast to uncover the cause.  I discovered that the factory had spliced the ground wires for all mast lights (anchor, deck light, steaming) into one long braid, soldered the braid and wrapped it in electrical tape. This rather stiff and brittle wire braid (might have been about 6 inches long?) had broken while inside the mast.

I decided to rewire, giving the anchor light fresh dedicated marine wiring. Also ran new separate wiring from the panel to new connectors.  I replaced the single trailer-hitch style connector with two mil-spec connectors that are waterproof, and have caps to reduce corrosion when they are disconnected over winter. Problem fixed.  I use the same type of connector for the masthead instruments.

Not necessarily your problem, but worth checking if nothing else seems to be wrong.