[C320-list] Electric panel: Cabin lights triggering circuit breaker

[Scott Thompson]

It does look like there are two cabin light switches on that panel, one 
on the upper left in the usual location, and the other sharing the 
breaker with the fridge. Possibly the panel has been rewired in such a 
way to cause an overload, perhaps only when the fridge is working hard 
in hot weather. What is the history?

I notice that the fridge is on in the photo. Does the breaker trip even 
with the fridge turned off and all of the individual lights turned off 
at the fixture? If not then the problem might be with an individual 
bulb, which you can isolate by turning them on and off one at a time 
until the breaker trips. If the problem occurs only with the fridge 
turned on in addition to some lights then there is probably an overload 
situation caused by creative wiring or a failing fridge. Or you might 
have a bad breaker. Assuming the fridge is OK, you can test for that by 
turning on only the fridge.

If the breaker is OK but trips when you energize the lighting circuit 
even though everything else on the circuit is off AND all of the 
individual lights are turned off then you have a short circuit in the 
wiring itself, which is potentially dangerous, and can be very hard to 
track down. Since I haven't ever had to do it myself, and since the 
wiring in your boat is probably different from mine due to differences 
in vintage, I will defer to others about making specific suggestions for 
tracking it down. However I would start by thinking about whether any 
recent changes to the boat could have caused a pinched or nicked wire, 
or chafe in a wire.


On 6/17/2013 5:42 PM, Colin Evans wrote:
> I was under the impression that on ALL Catalinas the cabin light breaker is
> always top left.  It looks like an additional circuit has been added to one
> of the AUX locations.
>
> *************************
> Regards
> Colin Evans
> Watermark
> 2000 C320 # 774
> Lake Macquarie, Australia
>   
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com
> [mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Kevin
> Sent: Tuesday, 18 June 2013 5:52 AM
> To: C320-List at Catalina320.com
> Subject: [C320-list] Electric panel: Cabin lights triggering circuit breaker
>
> Greetings,
>
> You could fit my knowledge of electrical matters in a thimble. I'm hoping
> this is a simple matter that one of you smarter-than-me folks will
> recognize.
>
> On my '95 C320 the circuit breaker flips immediately when I flip the switch
> for the main cabin lights on the panel (the ones that run around the cabin
> over the shelves). This turns off the fridge, too, as they seem to be on the
> same circuit. See this photo: http://kevjot.com/boat/c320_panel.jpg
>
> Any thoughts on what I need to do?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Kevin
> S/V Cecilia Ann, #211
> Deale, MD
> http://kevjot.com/boat/
>
>