Awhile back I was on my way home at night and in the middle of charleston harbor, my lights suddenly went out…bow, stern and gauge backlights. Long story short I was unable to find a burned out fuse so I put off dealing with it until the other night because my knowledge of electricity doesn’t go much further than that.
A couple of friends and I were striper fishing Murray the other evening and decided to try to get the lights working while we trolled around. Tried replacing the fuse in the fuse panel, even though it looked fine. This did nothing. I cut the zip ties bundling all the wiring under the console and followed the wires from the light switch as far as I could see and never saw another fuse anywhere. Also, all the connections we saw we checked visually and made sure they were snug. We even tried pulling the wires off the back of the switch and directly connecting them. None of this did anything but get my blood pressure up.
So I guess before I pay someone to fix this, does anyone have any other ideas to try? My boat is a 04 sea hunt 186 triton if this helps. I’m thinking there is a fuse somewhere I don’t know about, but maybe this is just wishful thinking.
Could be a bad switch. I have the same model as you and had to replace the switch for the bilge pump for a very similar situation.
Just seems odd that they all went out at once. Should only be one fuse on the panel that runs the lights…just behind your steering wheel. There is also an inline fuse just after your battery in that back hatch, but if that were blown you should not have ANY accessory power.
If the switch has an indicator light it has a ground wire attached and an internal switch failure will blow the fuse. If no indicator there is no ground available to the switch and should not blow a fuse. If you remember where I live you can bring it by and we’ll get it sorted out. If you still have my phone number give me a call - or shoot me a PM.
No indicator light, but don’t think it’s the switch because my friend pulled off all the wires going to the switch and directly connected them to each other. We assumed if we bypassed the switch and the lights came on that the switch would indeed have been the problem. Unfortunately this did nothing. I must say that my 2 friends who fished with me the other week won’t hear the end of this soon…They are both former army signal officers. I figured they would have gotten to the bottom of it quickly, but didn’t happen. Maybe it was the bud light.
Chris V, thanks for the reply. This maybe a stupid question, but where do I check the ground? I’m pretty sure the ground wire goes to the switch on one end, but have no idea where the other end goes. As far as the main power supply, if that wire has good connections all around then I guess the problem could lie in the bowels of my boat in the form of a corroded wire or something? Again, thanks for the help so far chris and everybody. Always appreciate your knowledge on cf.com
Usually in 12 volt boat systems, the ground is run directly to the light. The positive lines are run through the switches an then to the light.
Be sure to pull the bulb to check it out, and its connection/contacts in the socket itself.
Next, a simple 12 volt probe w/ an indicator light will help you find where the connections have failed.
Start at the battery and/or the switch, just to be sure you have good connections from the battery connectors and power out of the switch, then work towards to light checking every connection or break in the line.
You should find your problem in short order.
Awhile back I was on my way home at night and in the middle of charleston harbor, my lights suddenly went out…bow, stern and gauge backlights. Long story short I was unable to find a burned out fuse so I put off dealing with it until the other night because my knowledge of electricity doesn’t go much further than that.
A couple of friends and I were striper fishing Murray the other evening and decided to try to get the lights working while we trolled around. Tried replacing the fuse in the fuse panel, even though it looked fine. This did nothing. I cut the zip ties bundling all the wiring under the console and followed the wires from the light switch as far as I could see and never saw another fuse anywhere. Also, all the connections we saw we checked visually and made sure they were snug. We even tried pulling the wires off the back of the switch and directly connecting them. None of this did anything but get my blood pressure up.
So I guess before I pay someone to fix this, does anyone have any other ideas to try? My boat is a 04 sea hunt 186 triton if this helps. I’m thinking there is a fuse somewhere I don’t know about, but maybe this is just wishful thinking.
Sea Hunt Triton 186
Yamaha F115
creekrat186,
You’ve been given lots of suggestions, some good, some likely to lead you down the wrong path. Telling you it’s “this or that” isn’t much help if you don’t know what “this or that” looks like or where to find it.
Since you admit that you don’t know a lot about electricity, I suggest thsat you take the boat to a shop and have it repaired before you or your friends make matters worse.
For someone who knows hat he is doing, this is probably a fifteen minute repair. You’ll pay the shop’s hourly or minimum rate, your boat will be f
