Intermittent Electrical Issues
 

Hello,

I have a 1996 shabah and i've been having some interesting electical problems. My navigation lights have been in/out for most of the year, and it appears as thought for the past week or so they are out. The problem shifted to the blower switch, which is now no longer working. Two of four righthand switches (accessory 1 / accessory 2) are working, gauges (fuel, speed, tac., temp, volts) all work, but the bilge and courtesy light switches and horn are all not working. If I flick them on and off periodically while out for a ride, they may come on. Any suggestions? I've tried looking for anything obvious on each of the switches, did some connector cleaning/ tightening to no avail. Oh, the speakers are also not working since picking it up this summer (radio turns on, but no sound or static)...

Thank you,
Adam

Re: Intermittent Electrical Issues
 

Intermittent electrical issues are nearly always a result of a poor ground or poor connections at the fuse block. Try removing each of your fuses & cleaning up the contact points. I'd suggest disconnecting the positive wire at the battery first....

Re: Intermittent Electrical Issues
 

Alright, so i did a full fuse check (visual + continuity) - found that the stereo fuse (2A) was blown (small wins, ha) ... cleaned all connectors at the fuse box, but still no navigation (and dash backlights) lights, blower, courtesy lights and bilge ... the navigation lights seemed to have went first, is there a ground there that could be tripping out everything downstream? (depth finder, other accessory and windsheld wipers all working (including switch backlights) ...

Re: Intermittent Electrical Issues
 

On my 98 Jubilee I have both a fuse block that's buried behind the radio and also resetable circuit breakers. I did have corrosion on most of my fuses so I cleaned up all the terminals and also went through all my switches and also cleaned up the terminals on them. I would make sure first you have all the wires connected on your battery (sounds dumb I know). I've had a small gauge wire I forgot to connect once because it was kind of hidden from when I removed the batteries from winter and most my accessories weren't working. If you have circuit breakers make sure you have power going in and out of them same with your switches. Next check your ground terminal block(s) - I have one behind the radio as well as a positive terminal block to make sure all the connections are good and there is power there. 12v stuff is pretty simple. Get a test light and start checking stuff until you track it down, good luck!

Dan

Re: Intermittent Electrical Issues
 

Yep, what S&S said. I've had one of the small ground wires come off my battery and not notice it too. After spending time checking fuses etc i finally pulled the battery to get at that small grounding block behind it and that's when i realized what was causing my issues... :rolleyes:

Re: Intermittent Electrical Issues
 

Cleaned all connectors on the behind the battery ground bus, a couple of grounds (negatives) on the battery itself are pretty bad (bad crimp, bad connectors) ... will be replacing them tomorrow and checking every single connector/ switch tomorrow ... the mystery remains ... i'll keep everyone posted ... wish me luck, ha!