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Electrical Fire/smoke from bad wiring?


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So I was using my ballast pumps this past weekend and started smelling some acrid electrical smoke. I took a peek under the dash, and found a bunch of wires burnt/melted, but not on the switches that I was operating.

The illumination wire (top right wire as you are looking at the back of the switch itself) on my bilge pump switch and blower were both melted. The mystery that I don't have any clue how to solve is how activating one switch on the left side can cause a separate switch on the right side of the steering wheel to burn up. The illumination wires that are overheating have two black wires that feed into them... I'm guessing that this has to do with it. FYI I used 25 amp thermal circuit breakers for the ballast system, and 12 gage wire and the pumps are Johnson Ultra Ballast pumps. The burning occured during the first activation of the pumps this past weekend (i.e., first run of the day- not multiple cycles that would cause overheating), and for the past 3 weekends that we used them there was no smoke/melting noticed. I DID, however, install a new battery since the old one had some issues but dont think this is the root cause.

Has anyone come across anything like this before? I'm anything BUT an electrical guru, but I do suppose if there's one place to have a fire, it's on a boat surrounded by water!

Cheers,

Ryan

Edited by nitram
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So I was using my ballast pumps this past weekend and started smelling some acrid electrical smoke. I took a peek under the dash, and found a bunch of wires burnt/melted, but not on the switches that I was operating.

The illumination wire (top right wire as you are looking at the back of the switch itself) on my bilge pump switch and blower were both melted. The mystery that I don't have any clue how to solve is how activating one switch on the left side can cause a separate switch on the right side of the steering wheel to burn up. The illumination wires that are overheating have two black wires that feed into them... I'm guessing that this has to do with it. FYI I used 25 amp thermal circuit breakers for the ballast system, and 12 gage wire and the pumps are Johnson Ultra Ballast pumps. The burning occured during the first activation of the pumps this past weekend (i.e., first run of the day- not multiple cycles that would cause overheating), and for the past 3 weekends that we used them there was no smoke/melting noticed. I DID, however, install a new battery since the old one had some issues but dont think this is the root cause.

Has anyone come across anything like this before? I'm anything BUT an electrical guru, but I do suppose if there's one place to have a fire, it's on a boat surrounded by water!

Cheers,

Ryan

sounds like the power hit the ground a fried it

that wire is the gnd to the switch

of course the fried wires will need to be replaced

check the wire looking for any spots where the insulation has been rubbed off or removed

you can add some heat shrink to protect around the connector

also check the switch make sure it did not arc between terminals

Edited by my malibu
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