hotjava66

Couple of questions that may save me a lot of time chasing down connections. Some background info on what I am trying to do: my boat is a twin engine, with a battery on each engine. I am adding house batteries and trying to move all non-engine loads over to them. I got a couple new batteries, and 2 charging relays, started pulling some stuff apart and planning layout. My first question is can a perko switch go bad? Upon checking their function and pulling them off to see how they are wired, I found that they are wired correctly per the instructions. Wierd thing is that with the switch for engine 1 in off position I still have current at both key switches, is this normal? With switch 1 on and switch 2 off I only have power to key 1.

Next question, does the alternator charge the batteries through the starter lead? Looks that way to me. I that is the case I think I can run the power to the house bank through the charging relays off of the starter lead on the perko switch, does this sound OK or should I run it off the battery lead at the perko. I could run cable from battery to battery but my perko switches are right where I am putting the house batteries and would save a lot of time.

Final question, there are probably 4-5 hot leads coming off each engine battery now. Assuming they are for trim pumps, bilge pumps, what else? One lead must power the accesory switches at the dash and the cabin lights, will have to track that down. Should I leave trim/bilge on the engine batt. or move to house array.

Thanks for any input, I have done a some AC and automotive wiring but the boat setup seems different to me.

Griff

It really depends on how they were wired. There are a couple ways to do it. This is the way I do it.

Run each cable from the starter too position 1 on the switch for each engines battery. Then run a battery cable from position 1 on each switch to position 2 on the other switch.

I would leave the trim pumps and K plane pumps connected to your main engine batteries. The house batteries should really only be used for stuff like the stereo and cabin power.

hotjava66

As they are wired now they each have 3 terminals, 1,2,C. Each C is hooked to its respective starter, 1's are tied to starboard battery and 2's are tied to port battery. This may sound stupid, but since the switch really only interrupts the current from the battery to the starter/solenoid, how does shutting off the switches shut off everything else? Are the loads tied on to the seleniod? Doesnt seem that way given all the other leads tied on to the batteries. I would think only the key switches would be tied to the soleniod.

My goal is as you stated above, to have the stereo, cabin lights and accessories on the house batteries. Maybe it would be easiest just to track down the leads for what I want to change over.

Griff

Shutting off the switches shuts everything else(almost) off because most of the suff is wired off of the engine and not directly off the batteries.
You will have to trace what you want for the house batteries. Chances are your cabin has a main power wire going there and the same with the stereo.