Shunt Removal

[Squanderbucks]

I have a 50+ year old powerboat that originally had twin gas engines but has been repowered a couple of times by different people. Needless to say there is a fair amount of wiring that was left in place but unused by each installer.
There are portions of the original wiring harnesses that would be difficult to fully remove and I'm ok with that but I want to tidy things up a bit.
Specifically there are two shunts that I would like to remove that still have (+) power to them. There are no gauges attached to them. I installed a new shunt in the master positive line with a blue Seas Shunt Shifter with a digital gauge in it so the others are not needed.

Can I just remove the two old ones and connect the two ends of the wires together from the shunt posts on each shunt? This would eliminate the large old style pieces.

[mikedefieslife]

Don't shunts go on the negative side usually?

[Squanderbucks]

Yes normally. But they can be used in the positive side if a Shunt Shifter is used to "reverse" the polarity for your gauges.

This boat was setup with so much wiring for the twin gas engines that was never traced out fully and redundant of obsolete stuff removed that when I began using the boat all new was put in in many cases with their own circuits. Now I would like to begin the removal or at least tidying up a lot of the old stuff.

I did get rid of the old 120 volt screw in fuse systems and replaced with circuit breakers and the glass fuses for the DC system and put in a real DC panel with CBreakers for anything 5 AMPS and over and new fuse boxes with ATC fuses for the small stuff but there is still a lot to do.

When I put a meter on first one post of the shunt and and a ground I get a 12 volt reading and then test the other I get the same. So I figure it is (+). The wires are red as well.

[captstu]

If they are shunts, they can be safely removed by hooking them to a power post or, if the wiring permits, just taking out one wire and toeing the other to the battery. Usually there is no fuse on the negative lead.

[Colin A]

Originally Posted by captstu

If they are shunts, they can be safely removed by hooking them to a power post or, if the wiring permits, just taking out one wire and toeing the other to the battery. Usually there is no fuse on the negative lead.

I agree a power post would be best. Technically a shunt induces a tiny resistance in the system so getting rid of them (especially if corrosion has started) is a reasonable thought.

[Squanderbucks]

Thanks. Done. Each removed and wires tidied up and two Blue Seas posts were used to join each into neat pairs. While I was at it i removed some other obsolete and non-functional wires that went nowhere.

After owning this boat since 1992 and doing extensive mods there is a little I would do differently now than I did 20-25 years ago when I was at he beginning of my learning curve. But all in all the "old girl" is in pretty good shape. I added a flying bridge with aluminum radar arch, remade all the engine hatches, repowered several times with used diesels, l built three new fuel tanks, replaced the A/C and added a second, replaced the genset, refrigerator, freezer, electric head, windlass, changed electronics a couple of times, upsized the running gear, added second 30 AMP wiring circuit, canvas a couple of times, painted it with Awlgrip - and I'm sure I have left a few things out. Not all at once but little by little over the past 30 years. It has been a work in progress but I have managed to stage it out so that I have been able to use it for trips to the Bahamas on a fairly regular basis a little better than every other year.

The wiring is the one thing that I would handle differently if this project were just being started today.