no power to blower

Hi guys

my blower isn't working, it's not getting any power. Fuse is fine, i checked at the switch and there was no power there at all.

Why does the switch have so many wires going into it instead of just two?


is there an inline fuse somewhere?

i guess i'm going to have to get underneath and hook through that damned mess of wires, where should be my first places to look if no power is getting to switch? everything else is working fine

thanks

Leo

Re: no power to blower

First, check for a good ground. Most boat electrical problem can be traced to a bad ground.
Next, run a pair of temporary wires directly from the battery (+ and -) to test the blower with a known power source. If the blower runs normally then you need to check the switch using the same power source.
As far as your existing wiring- if you can't figure out why there's no power, run a new 12 volt positve wire (with inline fuse) and hook it up in place of the old one. Remember to tape off the end of the abandoned lead.

Re: no power to blower

No need to rewire anything until you figure out what's wrong. You didn't say how many wires are on the switch. Knowing that will help but I suspect you have a lighted switch. The hot wire INTO the switch comes from either an inline fuse or the fuse panel. Check for power there. If you have power at the fuse, check for power at the INPUT to the switch. If it's present there, but not on the OUTPUT side of the switch, the switch is bad. If you have power there but not at the motor, either the connections are bad or the wire is bad. Now you rewire. A lighted switch must have a ground for the light and the switch will have a ground symbol adjacent to that terminal. The switch will have three terminals. The secret to electrical troubleshooting is to start at one end of the circuit or the other. If you start at the source, follow the juice until you lose it. If you start at the load, work backward until you find juice. There is another school of thought that says start in the middle and work either way. Problem is, knowing where the middle is is sometimes hard to determine.

Re: no power to blower

Thanks guys


first thing that came to mind after looking at the mess of wires under the console was that running new wires would probably be easier hehe


the switch has at least 5 wires. (going from memory as boat is at friends house) and is lighted.

it has a fuse panel, and is labelled, i checked the main input to the fuse panel and that was fine, also seeing as other instruments were fine i discarded a problem there, but maybe it is because i don't think i had power at the blower fuse terminal, but i tested one of the other terminals and that had no power either so i assumed that would only read power if the circuit was connected.

I'll recheck the fuse panel, i'm also going to take my meter because at the time i only had a low voltage fused screwdriver to test for power.

Re: no power to blower

If you don't have power at the head end of the circuit, rewiring is not a solution. You need to find out why you don't have power at the fuse(s). Fix that and then continue to work toward the switch, then the pump. There are five terminals because the switch is very likely labeled "manual", "off", "auto" meaning the bilge pump has a float switch that turns the pump on only when it senses water in the bilge. In other words, in the auto mode the pump won't run unless it has water to pump out. The pump should run continuously in the manual mode.

Re: no power to blower

Keep in mind that a connection that looks good may not be good at all. A friend was having problems with his NAV lights. They would go on and off for no apparent reason. He pulled on wires, checked connection, ohm everything in sight, no joy. I asked him first thing if he had checked the fuses. He insisted he had. He had an older fuse panel with festoon type glass fuses. The spring terminals holding the fuses looked fine, no obvious corrosion.
Out of habit I reached to remove the fuse and when my hand just touched the fuse the NAV lights flickered. (truthfully, I got lucky) After a quick cleaning of the terminals and the fuse the lights burned steady. He has not had a problem since. The connection "looked" fine but looks can be deceiving. Check all of them close.

Re: no power to blower

drewpster hit on the probable cause. Bayonet style fuse holders often corrode between the fuse and the holder itself. The connection looks good but, in reality, is not. Pull the fuse and emery cloth the holder. Now check for power. If the holder has lost tension, you could either replace the fuse panel or simply bypass it and put an in-line fuse holder into the circuit. You may have numerous wires on the back of the switch because it daisy-chains for other circuits. As was suggested, hook up a temporary power line with an alligator clip end and see if that works your blower or any of the other circuits attached. make sure you put an in-line fuse into the temporary power line just in case you connect it to something that shouldn't have power connected to it, such as a ground wire. Good luck and let us know what you find. Hy