anchor light wiring question

[seabreez]

Originally Posted by boeing1

is this just a anchor light, the only ones I have installed only have two wires a pos and a grd, what does the installation instructions say that came with the light

Try the wires on a battery... One is for the forward steaming light, the other will be a ground and the extra is for a 135 degrees light... combined with the forward steaming light provides an anchor light. My boat is wired this way. It all depends on how it is wired. Never use parts of your metal on a boat for a return to ground. If you are a man you will read the instructions after you have tried everything... oupps! just kidding!

[TrentePieds]

Tat:

You bought a NEW light. It will have a schematic either on a dinky piece of paper within the carton the fitting came in, or printed on the carton itself. If you see neither, then let us know the make and model number of the light (also given on the package) so we can give you a more definitive answer.

Since you are fairly new to this game, it's time to begin to collect the basic tools if you don't already have them: For this job, make up a coupla test leads of fairly skinny wire like 18 gauge. Attach alligator clips to each end. Now, using a car battery, you can just clip onto the wires emerging from your new light fixture and see what happens. You cannot hurt anything doing that. If the new fixture is fitted with LED lights, they won't light if you get the polarity bass-ackwards. It's likely that the wires from the fixture are different colours. If there are two wires of one colour and one of another, then the odd man out is likely to be the one that needs connecting to the NEGATIVE terminal on the battery. The other two must be taken to the switches in you switch panel, but that is what the wires that are already in the mast are there for. As others have said: DON'T use the mast itself as part of any electrical circuit!

If you feel like blowing thirty bux then buy a "multi-meter". One of them is an invaluable tool for all kinds of electrical work not just on the boat, but ashore as well. It you are at the top of the mast, the multimeter will tell you which is the positive and which is the negative of the two wires that are in the mast. If the mast is down, the meter will tell you how to connect at the mast step.

TP