Nav lights and possible short

[exodus]

Hi all, thanks for all the help with my earlier question about the whining sound in reverse! I have now moved on to my next problem I inherited after recently buying this 2003 wakesetter vlx but I have a question about normal behavior first...

My boat has the standard nav light setup with green/red on top of the nose, and the rear white light on the long pole at the back of the boat. I also have a pair of docking lights on the front.

There are 3 switches on the dash. The switch farthest left of the steering wheel operates nav and docking lights. When the switch is down it turns on only the rear white light. When the switch is up it turns on the rear white light (on the pole,) the red/green nav lights, and the docking lights. The next switch to the right operates the dash and interior lighting. In the down position just the dash lights come on and in the up position dash lights plus interior lights are lit. The next switch operates the tower lights.

My question is, when the first switch is down, shouldn't it turn on both the front green/red nav light as well as the rear white light on the pole? Why must I have docking lights on in order to get the green/red nav light? I'm wondering of someone has been fishing around in the wiring on this boat and goofed it up a bit.

Now the problem. the first problem is that whenever I turn the nav lights switch up to get the front green/red nav light on so I can be legal, after a short period, electrical power to all lights except tower lights is terminated for a short period. As long as I don't put the nav light switch in the up position all is well, but shortly after turning the front nav and docking lights on, all interior and nav lighting goes dark for 3 to 7 seconds and then they all come back on for 5 seconds or so and on and off, and so on. The intervals are not regular and the problem shows up even with the boat completely stationary on the trailer.

Also, whenever tower lights are turned on, the perfect pass system resets. At least that is how it operated when I bought it. Is that normal? After my trip to lake powell however, anytime you turn on the tower lights, the perfect pass system keeps resetting constantly and I can hear a flasher or relay clicking up under the dash as though it were a blinker in a car. Every time it clicks, perfect pass beeps and resets. Turn tower lights off and problem goes away. Weird eh?

[RTS]

Pushing the far left switch down should give you just your white rear light (anchor light). The white light should be above the highest point on the boat The switch should be labeled ANC (anchor). That single white light is what needs to be lit if you were to be sitting stationary (anchored) in the water at night.

On mine, pushing that switch up give me the white light and the front red/green (navigation) lights. These are the lights you need to display at night if you are moving (navigating).

I don't have docking lights, but it would seem to me they should be on their own circuit...maybe a prior owner installed them after purchase and didn't buy a switch? Maybe someone with factory installed/wired docking lights could help you out as to whether the factory usually provided a separate switch (and perhaps bigger fuse) for the docking lights.

[wienrdog]

You'll have to get into the wiring & figure some of it out...

The docking lights should be separate. It's typically illegal to run on the lake with the docking/tower lights on - it does very little good for you & will destroy other boaters night vision.

It also depends on the draw of the docking lights - could be overheating a loose connection somewhere & causing it to disconnect/connect giving you your flickering lights.

The tower lights & PP could be an overall current thing - or overall draw on circuit with PP. You'll need to see what the voltage is to PP - when the tower lights are on. PP doesn't like low power situations. Give the guys at PP a call or e-mail. Their customer service is great & they'll typically get your issue worked out pretty quickly.