# Rewiring my old Tracker



## bigsack (Mar 14, 2011)

Late last year my '80 model bass tracker's wireing gave up the ghost.  no lights, tach, none of the switches on console work.  i need to rewire the entire boat, fun i know.  i was thinking about what i need and have a couple questions.  

1) does a breaker/fuse protect the wiring or the load?

2) has anybody ever used breakers instead of fuses?  i like the idea of being able to reset while on the water, and not having to keep extra fuses.

ive seen these:

http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d62.html

http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d28.html

3) i have a couple things i'd like to have two switches for(bow and console) whats the best way to wire them up?

4) what the best way to wire up a bilge pump with two switches, and a float switch so i can have it: off, float activated, and on?

im sure i'll have more later.  but this will get me started in my research


----------



## Dead Eye Eddy (Mar 15, 2011)

Don't know how to answer your questions, but I'd like to offer you 2 pieces of advice.  First, strip everything and start completely over.  I have an 82 model Bass Attacker (have been told it was the first year Tracker before they changed the name).  One of the old wires in the harness was not being used for anything, so I wire nutted and taped it off years ago.  About 3 or 4 years ago, I was coming home from the lake and saw smoke in my rearview mirror.  I stopped my truck and trailer in the middle of an intersection, ran back, and grabbed the fire extinguisher.  I burned my hand because the fire was so close to the fire extinguisher, but I was able to put out the fire before it spread 2 feet to the 2 6 gallon gas tanks and the 3 batteries.  Best I can tell, that unused wire shorted out and ignited the carpet under the console.  I could have lost my boat and truck both if not for the fire extinguisher under the console.  My second piece of advice is to put a quick disconnect on all of your batteries.  The only thing I keep wired up to my batteries now is the on board charger.  Everything else gets connected/disconnected at the lake before/after launching/loading every trip.  With no current leaving the battery, there is zero chance of an electrical fire while towing and very little chance during storage (unless the OBC shorts out).


----------



## Chief31794 (Mar 15, 2011)

> Late last year my '80 model bass tracker's wireing gave up the ghost. no lights, tach, none of the switches on console work. i need to rewire the entire boat, fun i know. i was thinking about what i need and have a couple questions.
> 
> 1) does a breaker/fuse protect the wiring or the load?
> 
> ...



No expert but I've done lots of wiring and electricity: A couple of quick answers:

on wiring two switches it depends on how you want them to operate but I assume you want to be able to turn on the item from either end, in that case you would wire them in parallel so that either or both being on would close the circuit and operate the object and both would have to be off to turn off the item.

On breakers vise fuses, breakers are acceptable as long as they are the correct rating by amps and voltage.  I haven't been in it in a while but I seem to remember someone selling "auto reseting" breakers, that would open the circuit to protect in case of too higher amp draw and then when the ampere draw was stopped or brought back into tolerance then the breaker would reset after a short while (worked on thermo coupling as I recall).  If you use standard breakers then you'll have to mount a breaker panel somewhere so that you can access it easily to reset the breakers (same with a fuse panel).  In line fuses in boats aren't the optimum in that many times the best place to route them is sealed up in the hull behind a wall or panel, definitely not optimum.  rule of thumb, if you seal one behind a panel it will probably be the one that blows the most often.  Hope this helps a little.

Last thing, the fuse should be on the positive side of the circuit, it protects the entire circuit, but only in that if a component shorts out the fuse or breaker will open to prevent high amp draw, which would create heat and then Fire.  

Ken


----------



## rayjay (Mar 16, 2011)

Draw a complete wiring diagram before you get started.


----------

