Electric panel

[crieders]

A few items do not work. So I removed the panal. The fuses look ok, where their are fuses.
I suppose the problem is not breakers, since other connectons are fine.
I checked in the back of the panal with a tester and as I said, some connections had power and others do not.
I sprayed some wd40 on a few of the connections. I read the 12 volt Bible.
Any other suggestions?

[Ron Hill]

Cliff : From what you say, you are going to have to check each "item" that doesn't work individually with a multi-meter.

You are going to have to start at the switch, checking the switch itself - down the wiring to what ever the "item" is.  Be especially vigilant of the grounds. 
You might also want to make a long jumper wire (from the switch) and make sure the "item" does infact work! 

A few thoughts.

[Stu Jackson]

Cliff, it would helpful for us, to help you, to be more specific.

What doesn't work?

Have you traced the wiring?  When we first bought our boat from the PO (12 years, 1986 boat, in 1998) I spent a good few days tracing the wiring and understanding what was there and how it worked.  If you haven't changed your OEM wiring, there should be two wires on the C post of the 1-2-B switch.  One goes to the starter (and brings power back from the alternator), the other should go to your electrical panel.  That's just the first part.

After that, there should be power TO the panel positive bus, which is labeled on the back of the panel.  Find out how the wire from the C post of the 1-2-B switch goes to your panel.

Since only SOME of the circuits don't work, it would be either of two things:  bad fuses or bad switches, since you most likely don't have breakers 'cuz if you did you wouldn't have mentioned fuses.

If it was my boat, I'd first remove the fuses, and clean the ends.  How?  WD40 is NOT the answer.  I'd use some emery cloth or a fine sandpaper and then clean the ends of each fuse, or simply replace them.

If that doesn't work, then find out if the switches are working.

Only other thing I can think of is that there is something downstream that is bad.  So, going back to the top of this reply, what is it that's not working?  Many times lights don't, but that's because, as Ron has said so many, many times, the blue OEM butt connectors are pretty lame.

Please, let us know.

[Ron Hill]

Cliff : As Stu said your explanation is somewhat sketchy - to say the least.

If you ever need to squirt something on a connection use Radio Shack's "Turner Cleaner" (lub & contact cleaner) not WD40.  A thought