i am also doing working on pulling out all my old electrical cabling.
some resources and tips;
https://www.pysystems.ca/
Jeff Cote and Pacific Yacht systems is one of the best resources you can get. he explains things in a way that's easy to understand. there is tons of resources on his site, and he has a very active youtube channel. watch his videos on what NOT to do, and make sure you dont do that.
https://marinehowto.com/
used to be called
compass marine or P-base. also a tone of resources. read his articles on connectors and what not to do's
https://shop.pkys.com/
a good resource for
parts. they have a lot of
Victron components that you can necessarily get elsewhere easily. they are also a blue seas distributer. Defender is also a good place to get stuff but i generally get my
Victron stuff here.
Victron website
has a good ebook on marine/rv electrical systems and a forum that is very helpful figuring stuff out.
Nasa Standard 8739.4A - Workmanship Standard for crimping, interconnecting
cables, harnesses and wiring. this is for aircraft and aerospace however as far as electrical connectors and wiring there isn't much of a difference between aerospace and
marine wiring. vibrations and movement,
hull flexing, heat and cold,
danger of fire oat at sea isn't much different to fire while flying or in space ect. If you follow these standards you are ahead of the
game. Jeff Cote and Marinehow-to.com, ABYC standards have a lot in common with what is called for in this document. i couldn't attach the file to this as its too big. last revision is 2016 i believe.
ABYC E11 AC and DC ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS ON
BOATS. remember that this is a minimum standard for boat wiring. they are recommendations, you don't have to follow them but your
insurance company and
surveyor will probably not make your life happy if you don't. you can always exceed these standards however with the
price of marine
gear there needs to be a balance. I tend to over do it on Safety,
Navigation or "Function" items. the ABYC standards don't update as fast as technology does. as an example I will use a toroidal isolation transformer from Bridgeport magnetics or victron without an issue however they don't comply with the
current ABYC standards as they don't have a grounded shield between coils. there are similar items that don't fit the standards which will be changed in a future revisions. i mention this because you can also run afoul of a
surveyor that rigidly follows the standards which could hinder you. be aware that when you look for this document online there are older versions out there, so make sure you get the latest copy you can.
TIPs;
label all wiring and in multiple places along its length. its worth the time and
money to invent in one of those shrink tube label makers. put clear shrink over it if you can. at least the two end labels. this is the biggest thing to help you not lose your mind while troubleshooting down the road. label the ends, and put a label in areas or junctions that it passes that are easy to get to. label on both sides of any terminal block.
use good connectors. DO NOT USE
cheap auto connectors!!! get amphenol or TE connectors, you can buy in bulk at several places. avoid west marine at all cost. i don't mind Ancor products, but they have a high markup on them, and west marine is 3 time's the
price anywhere else. Amphenol or TE and other industrial connectors are used in aircraft and aerospace and have a consistent quality that is expected to meet specific standards. anytime you dont plan your system and go to west marine to grab a part it just ends up making your
budget unnecessarily skyrocket. i think we all have this issue when we need something to
work now, and I've been
learning patience and making myself wait 3 days for
parts to come in.
Wiring - Ancor used to be the only
game in town for marine tinned fine stranded wire. there has been more and more manufacturers bringing tinned marine wire into their product catalogs. I like Pacer wire as its reasonably priced and you can get the thicker
cables in more colors than red and black. i was having trouble finding green 6 guage for bonding and grounds when i stumbled onto them. things like inverters need a ground cable that is as thick as your
power cable, so its nice to be able to have access to those colors in large gauge cable sizes. they also have striped color wires for primary wire, which helps with your schematics and identifying wires. a sea of red and black works when they're labeled but those labels fade, wires get repurposed ect... note you don't need tinned wire as per ABYC recommendation's, HOWEVER I have seen over the years the differences between and its 100% worth your time and
money to get the tinned. our Patrol boats use the cheapest bidder as usual for
government stuff.
cheap auto wire and auto connectors. we mainly troubleshoot electrical gremlins. I have seen how fast
water can wick up wire and corrode it. my boat is almost 30 and the wire is stranded but its thick strands and inflexible, more like house wiring. its untinned so the
corrosion has crept along its length quite a distance. it may take a little while but if you try to just get by with untinned you will regret it someday, probably with a
bilge pump.
refrain from "just making it work". its hard i know. take the time, do it right and order the correct parts. that includes routing the cables, fusing them, labeling them. 99% of the time you don't need that stuff. but that 1% gets you when you aren't ready for it or cant afford it, or not there ect. the more work you spend on doing things right means you can make
repairs and get back on the
water quicker, or your boat doesn't burn down ect. if you do "just make it work, ill do it right later" just make sure you know that that seldom works, that can will always just keep getting kicked down the road and you just end up with a spaghettis mess of wires and poor connections ready to burn your boat down. easier to force yourself to do it right in the first place, even if that screws up your summer plans a bit.
pay attention to grounds! for marine electrical the DC ground and AC ground are kept separate however both are connected to the engine block. there are some issues here and i recommend looking into an isolation transformer (victron/bridgeport magnetics/Charles) or a
galvanic isolator. size grounds correctly, things like inverters need a ground cable that is as thick as your
power cable. so 4/0 power cable, needs a 4/0 ground. if you don't wire your grounds correctly you can shock a swimmer that is by your boat or eat up your zink's fast.
the importance of fuses and circuit breakers. fuses and circuit breaks protect the wire downstream of it. it doesn't protect the wire before it. i.e. if a wire breaks before a fuse and shorts out there is no fuse to pop and you probably have a fire. your batteries should have a fuse within 7" of the battery terminal. this isn't easy to accomplish sometimes. do your best. There are fuses that go on the battery terminal. likewise keep the wires connecting to a terminal to a minimum 2-3 is the
rule i believe (follow Jeff Cote's recommendations in this regard). preference should be cable from battery to fuse, and fuse to Busbar, and connect to the busbar what you want to connect to the battery. easier is to use the bus bars that are integrated with fuses so every connection to it is fused. if that makes your battery cable a little longer than 7" so be it, but remember what the purpose of having a fuse so close to the battery is.
invest in good electrical tools. don't buy the cheap crimpers from home depot. even some of the Ancor tools are not worth it. marinehowto.com has good information on tooling, especially the battery cable terminals. he cuts through the connector after a crimp so you can see how well the crimp is. the tools he recommends almost cold forge the copper.
Hope this helps