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Rewiring Recommendations


gnarlydog

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Hey all - unsurprisingly managed to mess up all my wiring when I attempted to rewire my trolling motor under the console. Trolling motor works great, but somehow managed to mess up everything else (bilge, lights, trim tabs, etc). I was planning a complete rewire in the future, but thanks to my shoddy work, the future is now.

Anyone have any recommendations for people and/or businesses that do good work in the Miami area? Also, what can I expect to pay for a complete rewire of a 2000 Hewes Bonefisher 16?

 

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On 5/4/2019 at 6:16 PM, gnarlydog said:

Hey all - unsurprisingly managed to mess up all my wiring when I attempted to rewire my trolling motor under the console. Trolling motor works great, but somehow managed to mess up everything else (bilge, lights, trim tabs, etc). I was planning a complete rewire in the future, but thanks to my shoddy work, the future is now.

Anyone have any recommendations for people and/or businesses that do good work in the Miami area? Also, what can I expect to pay for a complete rewire of a 2000 Hewes Bonefisher 16?

 

 Cal Bob at Inshore Marine in Pompano...last I heard about $100 a foot on re-wiring....but, I could be way way off...it's a huge amount of labor...I'll be doing mine next year when I change out my fuel tank......Bob will do a very good job.

 

As a thought, depending on your skills and time.....

Why not just do a re-wire yourself.....it's a great project and you'll learn your skiff.....

Once you get the power from the House Battery to the main BUS....it's just crimp and connect for the most part....

But, it's not fun in the tight places.........

DC

 

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Thanks for the recommendation. Spoke to Bob and if I decide to go the rewire route, I'll definitely go through him. Very knowledgeable and straightforward about pricing. Definitely a pro's pro. But man is it expensive. I've spoken to a few different shops and the quotes are all in the same ballpark. 

I'm going to try to troubleshoot the electrical problems this weekend. Hoping some smaller repairs can correct the issue and at least postpone the compete rewire for a bit.

I'm not the handiest person out there, but I'll continue to research a DYI rewire project to see if it's something I think I can handle. I thought rewiring the trolling motor under the console would be simple, but it was one unexpected issue after another and look how that turned out lol. 

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On 5/4/2019 at 6:16 PM, gnarlydog said:

Hey all - unsurprisingly managed to mess up all my wiring when I attempted to rewire my trolling motor under the console. Trolling motor works great, but somehow managed to mess up everything else (bilge, lights, trim tabs, etc). I was planning a complete rewire in the future, but thanks to my shoddy work, the future is now.

Anyone have any recommendations for people and/or businesses that do good work in the Miami area? Also, what can I expect to pay for a complete rewire of a 2000 Hewes Bonefisher 16?

 

Just a shot in the dark here...but it’s kinda hard to mess up unless maybe you yanked something ya shouldn’t lol. Anyways I would say trace your ground from switch panel to block to battery. Those panels have fused hot but looped grounds in a lot of cases and it could be one of your spade connectors was pulled off accidentally. Just a thought but certainly worth a look perhaps. 

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11 hours ago, triplec said:

Just a shot in the dark here...but it’s kinda hard to mess up unless maybe you yanked something ya shouldn’t lol. Anyways I would say trace your ground from switch panel to block to battery. Those panels have fused hot but looped grounds in a lot of cases and it could be one of your spade connectors was pulled off accidentally. Just a thought but certainly worth a look perhaps. 

Todd’s prob spot on since your saying nothing is working.  

Before you drop that much on a rewire, make sure you realize they used good wire and there’s likey nothing wrong with it, the connectors are the weak link. Buy yourself a good test light, multi meter and set of crimpers and few cases of beer. Unscrew the panel and gently pull it out so you can work on it from top. Pull the connectors one by one, clean the contacts and put some corrosion block and put em back on one by one.  Make sure they are good and tight pinching them a little if needed. If they are bad, replace em.  Go through and replace all your butt connectors with good shrink wrap ones. Wire tie everything up good and neat. 

I’ve done this on all my MBC boats in your age range and it’s been all that was needed to get things back to where it neeed to be. Bonus is you know your boat well and can fix things when something goes wrong on water.  

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Thanks for the advice guys. I'm going to take a good look this weekend to try to figure it out. I briefly looked at it yesterday and have a better overall understanding of the wiring after doing research. It seems like there are 20+ wires that are connected to nothing. Perhaps they were ran to wire future accessories? I'll post some pictures over the weekend.

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Managed to figure out and correct the wiring for the trim tabs, nav lights and bilge, which was nice. But I continue to have an issue with the motor. It will occasionally trim up/down initially (briefly) then cut out. And it won't crank up at all. Any ideas what could be causing that? Also took some pics of the wiring setup.

IMG_20190511_123447801.jpg

IMG_20190511_123531861.jpg

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In your bottom picture showing battery isolation switch and fuel filter, red wire with black fuse holder butt splicing to a brown wire, appears shows corrosion in this connection in the butt splice, I would inspect this and re-terminate the connection not sure what it's powering,  If it were me I would clean the compartment and neutralize the electrolyte build up ( Battery Acid) in the compartment with baking soda or a good battery cleaner, if you use baking soda the compartment must be wet first this will. Next the large black wire just forward of the fuel filter same picture is that wire a data cable or VHF Radio? If VHF radio I have seen RF ( Radio Frequency) bleed over making strange things occur like trim tabs momentary activation when VHF radio was keyed if it's a data cable no issues( Looks like a Garmin label on this lead but cant make it out).  Once clean inspect and see if you notice any of the green type corrosion in any of the connections if you do use a good grade electrical cleaner and moister dispersant type spray after cleaning. She looks like during her life it's had a couple of bad battery's venting pretty hard. Hope it helps. 

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Cleaned up the battery area, changed the battery switch, and changed the connection on the power cable running from the engine to the switch. I'm up and running! Everything seems to be back to normal. Couldn't have done it without you guys, thanks for all the advice!

George - that coiled up black cable is from an old thru-hull Garmin transducer. 

Probably keep the wiring as is for now and try to tackle a complete rewiring project in the fall.

 

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