12 Volt System Many loose connections

[amxr39]

I’ve had my stern thruster stop working on a few occasions. I follow Ross Lukeman, a Victron expert, on YouTube and he recently listed typical causes of intermittent problems. First on the list was loose or improper connections. So, I decided I would start checking all the “big wires” in the mechanical room. Being as I didn’t have 12 volts at the red wire on the stern thruster when referencing the black wire, but read 12 volts referencing the bond wire at the rudder, I assumed I had a black negative wire with a bad connection. There are two bus bars below the shunt that most of the negative wires terminate to. After removing the protective covers, I had several loose connections. Not a little loose, but 1-2 full turns loose. This scared the heck out of me. Some connections were very tight. So I can’t blame this on vibrations loosening them.
Next I checked most of the red 12volt connections and again found several loose connections. I found several loose connections on many of the smaller feeder buses too.
I’ve had various intermittent warning messages from my Cerbo and had an instance where my engine didn’t crank over. Hopefully these problems will be fixed too.
I recommend other Helmsman owners to check all connections in the engine room, mechanical room and lazarette.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. a. Very good advice and not just for Helmsman owners. EVERY boater. Just a reminder to also check all of your 12v GROUND wires/connections. Everybody remembers the +12v but some forget the -12v.

 

[amxr39]

Greetings,
Mr. a. Very good advice and not just for Helmsman owners. EVERY boater. Just a reminder to also check all of your 12v GROUND wires/connections. Everybody remembers the +12v but some forget the -12v.

Very true. My main problem was a negative wire that was loose on the bus. In fact most of the loose wire I found were black negative wires. But had some loose 12 volt too.