Battery switch smoking on all setting and more

[boatsnbeats]

I am having some battery issues on my 1988 2860 Cruisers Rogue. I have 3 batteries on board and twin merc 5.7 liters with Alpha 1 drives. Last year all batteries were new and I removed them for the winter. Before installing them I gave them a charge. When I put them back in this spring and hooked everything up there was no issue until I turned the port selector switch to all. After a few seconds I swa smoke coming from the engine compartment. After turning both switches off I tracked it back to the port switch. Ithad burned most of the electrical tape off of the wiring on one of the lugs. If I put the switch on 1or 2 there was no problem. My first thought is that one of the wires on the batteries is on the wrong lug but I am pretty sure but not positive that I have that right. I was able to run all of the cabin lights radio etc while I did some work on shore for spring and started both engines using battery 1. We launched the boat and had it out a few yikes so far. I have a DC only fridge and turned it on and connected to shore power. Unfortunately I forgot to flip the converter switch and ran battery 3 down. After turning the converter on and waiting a couple of days I came back and checked and I have no juice in battery 3 and found that #2 will not start either engine. Battery 1 will crank the port engine which was the smoking switch and have found that the starboard switch will not crank on either 1or2. I am not even getting any needles to move on the gages so I don't think it is a starter. I first thought that the port switch might be bad so planned to replace it but the fact that the starboard switch won't allow battery 1 to crank the engine which I know is a charged battery has me thoroughly confused. I am pretty sure that my charger is working because it is humming and the red light is on next to the fuse as it always was. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[wire2]

Re: Battery switch smoking on all setting and more

....My first thought is that one of the wires on the batteries is on the wrong lug but I am pretty sure but not positive that I have that right. ....

Your description says that you probably have 1 battery connected wrong.
Are all 3 batteries identical? i e, are pos and neg in the same orientation on all?
Manufacturers interchange them left to right, model to model, there's no standard.

Follow the positive cables from your switches to all 3 batteries, be sure that all go to pos only. I'll guess that you're using the threaded studs, not the tapered lead posts? Pos lead posts are bigger than neg. If you use them, makes it more obvious that you've mixed them up

When switched to all (after you verify the batteries are connected correctly) use a dc voltmeter or a test light and measure between the posts of 1 switch at a time, there should be zero volts for all combinations. If you show some volts (12 or less) the switch is defective.

 

[seabob4]

Re: Battery switch smoking on all setting and more

The smoke indicates you have a ground cable on a positive post such that, when you turn the port switch to all, you are now contacting a pos and neg cable.

Like wire said, go back through your battery cabling, making doubly sure + is to + and - is to -. That can be a VERY dangerous situation if + is to -...

 

[boatsnbeats]

Re: Battery switch smoking on all setting and more

Thank you both for your replies. Logically that does make sense and was my first thought. I will be rechecking all of the cabling. It seemed that most of them would only reach one post or the other. Unfortunately none of them are labeled and they are not all obvious but I guess the important thing is that all cables going to the switches should be positive.

 

[seabob4]

Re: Battery switch smoking on all setting and more

Boats,
Keep this in mind. A switch is simply an interruption in a path of electrical flow. It doesn't need a ground to work. The only time you'll see a ground on a switch if it has an indicator light. The light needs the ground, not the switch.

Think of 12VDC as a circle. Path from the power source to the appliance (12V+), and a path back to the source (12V-). You can even put a switch in the ground side and it will work the same...simply an interruption in a path of electrical flow...