fuse panel Bentley Pontoon??

[edwarab]

I just got the ability to use a 2005 Bentley pontoon boat if I could make a few minor repairs to lights and clean it up. Have handled replacing the nav lights, but can not seem to get the headlights on the boat to work. From what the owner says they worked last september before he pulled it out.

The boat only has two switches for lights on the steering panel. One controls the nav and anchor lights and the other seems to control the floor lights on the boat and I believe should turn on the headlights. I get nothing when I switch it either way out of the headlights.

There are reset buttons beside the switches and i have tried pressing both of these. Can anyone point me in the direction of where the fuse panel is on these boats. I am guessing it is under the steering wheel and switches. So can anyone tell me how to get inside the casing to get to the panel?

Or if anyone has any other suggestions on how to get these headlights working i would appreciate any info anyone can give me. Thank you.

 

[PondTunes]

Re: fuse panel Bentley Pontoon??

Welcome to Iboats Ed,

If you're going to do much electrical troubleshooting a good digital multimeter would be a great investment. You can use it for much more than just checking voltage, once you get to the fuse panel you can use the ohm's setting or continuity to verify that a fuse is actually good.. (lots of times they can look good but actually be faulty) If you have any meter at all or even a circuit tester it will help.

That being said, there should be a main feed coming up from the battery to the helm, many of these have access doors and they can be up under the dash. It would be very strange for someone to manufacture a boat where you couldn't easily access the fuse panel. Many times the switch panel itself will have twist in style fuses and in some cases pop up circuit breakers. They are normally round and twist off exposing the fuse.

There SHOULD be a fuse panel some where at the helm near the switch box, check inside storage cubby's in the helm some have tilt out drawer/glove box thing that can be easily removed for fuse replacement.

Check every fuse and every connection including the ones actually at the headlights for corrosion and loose connections. Things in a boat vibrate loose and wires corrode often!

You can set the meter to continuity or ohms to verify the fuses are good, when using ohms be careful not to touch the leads with your fingers otherwise it will read the resistance of your body! It won't hurt but could make a bad fuse test good.

If all your fuses are good start looking at the switches, verify they are putting out 12v when in the on position and again no loose or corroded connections.

If you still haven't found it you may need to get under the boat and trace the wires from the headlights back to the panel looking for severed wires, faulty splices etc.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: fuse panel Bentley Pontoon??

Bentley does not have a fuse panel under the dash. All the wiring is directly to the switches, which as you know have inline circuit breakers. You are correct that the switch that operates the interior lights also operates the docking lights when flipped the other direction. I would bet that the switch is defective on the docking light side or it's simply a loose or disconnected wire on the switch, since you are getting power to the interior lights using the same breaker. Just remove the screws from the switch panel and pull it out as an assembly. You will then be able to see the back of the switch easily. Look for a bad connection or the wire may have even come loose and fallen off.

 

[PondTunes]

Re: fuse panel Bentley Pontoon??

thx for the correction rick wasn't aware bentley's only had circuit breakers. But as rick said pull out the switch, check for the obvious loose connectors and if you have a meter that can read ohms disconnect the switch and measure across the terminals, when in the off position the meter should read infinity. When you flip the switch to the on position it should read close to zero.