dash switch/button issues
Printed From: CorrectCraftFan.com
Category: Repairs and Maintenance
Forum Name: Boat Maintenance
Forum Discription: Discuss maintenance of your Correct Craft
URL: http://www.CorrectCraftFan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=33578
Printed Date: November-17-2024 at 4:56pm
Topic: dash switch/button issues
Posted By: jtryon
Subject: dash switch/button issues
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 2:48pm
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this is on an '88 supra sunsport, but i believe that older nautiques have the same dash switches and CCFan is where i get all my info! i've been looking to replace my stock dash switches/buttons as they are temperamental quite often, to where some of them won't stay depressed until i push them about 20 times. with that in mind, i was out the other night and was running my new ronix 3700gph ballast pump (20amps) and flipped on my bilge pump at the same time. this may have been a coincidence, but the main ignition switch/button popped to the off position within a couple seconds. turning the other accessories off and several button pushes later, i was able to start the boat back up without issue, but every time i would try to use that pump or the other front sumo pump, it would work for a bit then i'd lose power again. a few times it would take 30-40 tries to get that button to pop into the on position again. i'm not certain whether this is the switch or if something's wired incorrectly, causing the 15A dash switch/buttons to pop frequently. does anyone else have this issue? this only happened once last season that i remember, where the main ignition switch popped to the off position, so i'm not sure if it's just needing replacement or if it's triggered by something. my initial thought is to replace them all with toggle switches, so that i don't have this issue anymore. however, do i need to put a 15A fuse inline to the toggle switch to match what the factory put in? the stock switch replacements are ~$22 on skidim which is WAY too expensive to replace all 8 or so. if i don't use a fuse at all inline with the new switches, will i potentially have a different failure point in the wiring system? i have to re-do some of the stereo wiring to begin with, because the PO had wired some things through a relay which, when having no amps in place to use the inline remote wire, causes the depth finder that's on that same relay to not power on. or can i just install new toggle switches everywhere without issue? the other dash switch that constantly pops to 'off' is the cigarette adapter, whether i have something plugged into it or not. really annoying...i'd like to take care of this once and for all! thanks in advance... |
Replies:
Posted By: mark c
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 3:59pm
| Your runing to much current thru the main ignition switch circuit and the switch (which is also a circuit breaker) is overheating and needs to cool down before it can be reset. Whats the current draw on your ballast pump? whatever it is plus your normal running equipment current is popping the main circuit breaker. You should probably wire that pump thru its own dedicated circuit breaker and use a relay connected to your dash switch to switch it on and off. |
Posted By: Bri892001
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 4:43pm
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I agree with Mark. Running a dedicated power feed for your heavy draw items is the way to go. As far as getting away from the breakers in general, yes, you'd have to put fuses in line if you switched to regular toggle switches. Without the fuses, you'd wind up melting wire and insulation when you draw too much. Which, could potentially cause a fire but would definitely be a helluva mess. |
Posted By: jtryon
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 4:45pm
| the ballast pump specs say it draws 20 amps. assuming all of the dash switches are 15 amp like skidim's site shows, i'll have to install a new cigarette adapter directly off of the battery to avoid this? i also ran the sumo super pump off this and it was tripping the cigarette adapter breaker, and that's happened in the past with an older 800gph pump. i can't imagine this is the first time this has come up with those breakers--how are people getting around it? what happens if i take the breaker out and put a toggle switch, with or without a fuse tied in? |
Posted By: jtryon
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 4:48pm
| thanks for the replies guys. any issue if i go up to say a 30A fused toggle switch? i still have the stock 60-ish amp alternator, but it was still charging over 12v in each of these instances. |
Posted By: Bri892001
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 5:12pm
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The week link in the chain isn't your alternator, or the circuit breakers. It's really the gauge (thickness) of the dash wiring; it's the wiring's skinniness that's really the problem. Those breakers do vary in amperage by intended use. But, you don't want to just switch to a higher amperage breaker without beefing up the wiring behind it. If you switch to a 30A fused toggle switch, and the underlying wiring can only handle 15Amps, you could wind up melting some wiring. Doing a dedicated feed (fused of course but you can go to higher amperage fuse) of heavier gauge wiring, to your cigarette lighter, directly from the battery might be a good idea. |
Posted By: jtryon
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 5:18pm
| great idea, i'll have to check if the cigarette adapter will take a larger gauge wire spliced directly. i probably need to run about an 8 gauge wire for that 15' run to the battery in order to run with a 30A fuse, right? |
Posted By: Bri892001
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 5:30pm
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That's a good question. Not totally sure, but when in doubt go thicker. I've seen Pete post this chart before: 
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Posted By: jtryon
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 5:32pm
| great chart, thanks! thanks to all for the info. |
Posted By: Dreaming
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 5:33pm
amps and volts are related to one another, but are not the same thing... your alternator should be charging at approximately 14.4 volts while the engine is running. something else I am noticing in your posts is that you are not talking about wire sizes at all, and the red flag goes up for me when you start talking about replacing breakers or drawing too much current without looking at your wire size. It may be that you just haven't talked about it, so if you already understand how this works, please forgive me  Breakers do wear out, so if the breaker is cold, and does not catch when pushed, you might just try a new one (correctly sized) prior to rewiring a fused toggle switch system. also, if you do go to the fused toggle, you'll need to start carrying fuses on board with you, they're not resettable 
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jtryon wrote:Posted By: Bri892001
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 5:33pm
| No problem. Hope that helps. |
Posted By: Dreaming
Date Posted: May-14-2014 at 5:34pm
look at that.... I must be a slow typer  |
Posted By: mark c
Date Posted: May-15-2014 at 12:33pm
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The problem your having is that if your boat is wired like the CC's of the day all of the electrical loads on the boat go tru that main ignition breaker, which in turn feeds all those other smaller breakers for the blower, bilge pumps, running lights etc. Since its probably a 20 amp breaker and you just added 20 amps of load when you turn that pump on theres nothing left for all of the other electrica equipment on the boat. You will be hard pressed to find a toggle switch that will accept an 8 gauge wire that is small enough to mount on your dash. You will be much better off running a hot lead from the starter solenoid terminal (where the battery cable attaches) thru a 20A fuse, or breaker, to a relay mounted near the engine, and then to your ballast pump. Bring the ground back to the engine block, or straight to the negative battery terminal. Then run a control switch off your dash with 16 gauge marine wire that will energize the relay to turn the pump on, and deenergize it to turn it off. That way all heavy load current is on one circuit and all your running thru the dash switch is enough current to pick the relay (probably way less than a 10th of an amp) and your existing dash breakers can handle that extra current easily. all you need is a marine version of the cube relays that populate the fuse panels of every modern car made today, maybe 5 feet of red 12 gauge, and 5 feet of black 12 gauge wire and maybe a total of 20 feet of 16 gauge wire. Make sure its marine wire. |
Posted By: jtryon
Date Posted: May-16-2014 at 3:57pm
| i stopped today and bought a 12v socket which i will install outside the battery box, and run just the pumps off this. however, it's only rated for 15A as well according to the package, and i can't find any of these sockets for a 12v system that have a higher amperage rating. there's no wiring on it, just clips, so i was just going to wire the short 2' run with higher gauge cable and put a 20A fuse inline; is this going to cause the thing to melt though?? |
Posted By: Bri892001
Date Posted: May-16-2014 at 4:10pm
I would think you'd be ok. You'll be close to your power source and also running heavy gauge wire, so you shouldn't be building up much heat. I'd just keep a close eye on it the first couple times you use it. |
Posted By: jtryon
Date Posted: May-19-2014 at 11:05am
| Just wanted to report back--wired up the $8 socket from Cabela's on Saturday with 10-gauge wire, 2' runs to the battery and it worked perfectly. Going to wire another the same way so that I can run both pumps at the same time. I think I'll leave the dash socket for running cell phone chargers and such. Thanks to all for the info! |
Posted By: Bri892001
Date Posted: May-19-2014 at 11:09am
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Glad it worked out
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Posted By: MI-nick
Date Posted: May-19-2014 at 3:18pm
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you could also put alligator clips on your pump (cut off the 12V plug, 1 clip on pos, 1 clip on neg) and clip it directly to your battery. ------------- As far as I can tell, I'm not quite sure... |