Marinette Boat Forum

The P.O. was "upgrading" the DC wiring and Im not quite sure if this is correct. There is a new fuse block on the back of the helm behind the medicine cabinet which I believe is supposed to be there but there is also another new fuse block mounted on the right of the helm that has a rocker panel wired off of and the fresh water pump wired to with a GREEN wire. Everything ive read says that green is ground or common. There are several wires connected to the house battery which im assuming are the fuse panels. I think the only thing that should be wired to the battery is the bilge pump. What I am wondering is should all the wires connected to the battery actually be to a fuse panel in the engine bay instead because as of right now there is none. Also , the battery test switch has 2 wires just hanging unconnected. Does anywhere know where These should be connected. Sorry for all the info I just have a lot to figure out and want to do it right the first time. Thanks, Mike

Can you post some photos?

ill have to take some next weekend when I go up. i will post them asap.

Green should go up to the bow area for the dc powered water pump that sounds correct to me as i just got done re wiring most of the dc on the old man's boat on these boats dc ground should be solid white

On my 1975 37', the only green is in the AC ground circuit, and all my DC grounds are white. Mine is pretty original, near as I can tell.

My 72 is set up like railrunner04 said. About a 8 or 10 gauge green, red and black with white grounds all run to my bow right by the water tank. Green is potable water, red is forward bilge pump and black is an accessory wire on mine. This is all very fresh in my mind as I just completed a complete DC rewire (except for the harness just discussed and the cabin top harness as they were still in good unmolested condition).

As far as the wires connected to the batteries, that is my biggest complaint while working on boats. The only wires that should ever be connected to your batteries are your main ground and positive cable. Anything that branches off should do so at a distribution block, battery switch or fuse/breaker panel. Having multiple wires and cables connecting to a battery post is the biggest cause of loose or corroded connections.

Green is suppose to be your AC safety ground. DO NOT CONFUSE GREEN AND COMMON. IN A WATERCRAFT OR RV YOU MUST ISOLATE YOUR WHITE COMMON FROM THE GREEN SAFETY GROUND! THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!!! House wiring binds common to ground. In boats and RV's this is not the case! ABYC required all DC grounds to be Black not white.

safe harbors,

dave

barkleydave wrote:Green is suppose to be your AC safety ground. DO NOT CONFUSE GREEN AND COMMON. IN A WATERCRAFT OR RV YOU MUST ISOLATE YOUR WHITE COMMON FROM THE GREEN SAFETY GROUND! THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!!! House wiring binds common to ground. In boats and RV's this is not the case! ABYC required all DC grounds to be Black not white.

safe harbors,

dave

This may hold true for the 80s vintage marinettes however the the early to mid 70s boats were wired by non conformist anarchists as far as dc power goes. As for ac shore power don't even get me started i think most of the early 70s didn't have shore power so yeah imagine you're most dimwitted distant cousin with wire strippers and some spare time

Most of the boats that I work on built into the late 1970s still used white as DC negative and AC neutral. Green is usually bonding and ground, but I have seen green for many other circuits as well. My '72 uses dark green for water, light green for blowers and dark green for shore power ground. All factory.

All good points however if that is the case.... IT NEEDS TO BE REWORKED. "Safety First"


safe harbors,
dave