Ac Outlet Help

[hellosailor]

ed-
in theory you can clean off the wire and reconnect it. Steel wool or a bit of fine sandpaper, maybe a shot of tuner cleaner aka "electrical contact cleaner" in the big crc-brand can from the auto parts store.

in practice...if there is corrosion on that wire, is there corrosion on the other wire in that breaker as well? Is there corrosion you can reach to clean, or is it inaccessible? look around and make sure that you "just" need to clean that wire, or maybe clean or replace more wire and the breaker itself it that looks like a better solution.

on land you could just grab another foot of wire, use a wirenut to add it on, and get yourself some more room. Wirenuts are discourage in marine use though, and replacing the whole piece of wire is better. (Personally I'd expect that a wirenut, with some silicon grease in it and a nice overwrap of tape, would be perfectly good but the pros assure me it will cause the world to end.)

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

on land you could just grab another foot of wire, use a wirenut to add it on, and get yourself some more room. Wirenuts are discourage in marine use though, and replacing the whole piece of wire is better. (Personally I'd expect that a wirenut, with some silicon grease in it and a nice overwrap of tape, would be perfectly good but the pros assure me it will cause the world to end.)

Digression - Inspectors in my neck of the woods wouldn't pass an electrical job if there was a wire-nutted splice in the breaker box. Also, if lengthening a wire is necessary for a repair, then there wasn't enough slack wire left when the panel was originally wired.

To Mr Bulmer's issue - if the corrosion was limited to just the bared area, and the wire end isn't damaged/burnt/missing strands, then yes it's sufficient to clean it up, reattach, and make sure it's tightened firmly; loose connections fail sooner. If you need to splice on some wire, do so, using the same gauge wire and the right-sized butt-connector, crimped properly.

Wire nuts are a no on boats mainly because they were designed for solid, not stranded wire. The "grab" of a wire nut on multi-stranded wire is iffy, and there will be broken strands as the twist tightens up. I'd wire-nut an emergency repair, but never anything permanent.

[edbulmer]

How'd you know my uncle's name is Bob?
Anyway that worked. It was just corrosion on bare at the connection and it cleaned up nicely. I'm now able to watch TV without an extension chord running through the boat. Hey I'm happy as a Bikini on Kim Kardashian.

[Stu Jackson]

Glad to hear it worked for you.

Now, go out and BUY and READ Nigel Calder's Boatowners manual for Mechanical and Electrical Systems for any other book about AC wiring on boats.

You (and we) will sleep sounder knowing you're safer.

[edbulmer]

Yeah, love Nigel Calder.